Question: Your wager only applies if you actually answer the question correctly or incorrectly (unless you wager "passing go") right? If you wager, but don't answer, no harm no foul?
Correct-o-mundo!
And if you fail to choose before the clue is revealed, then you can still play for the face value, in this case, 400.
It's a time-saver, based on my experience playing Jeopardy! as a message board game before.
And the other big difference is that if the first one to respond fails to get the correct response, then others can still play, until someone gets it right.
It's a good risk, because the 400 clue is going to be easier than the 500 clue, which I predict no one will get.
