kahuna

Just got done watching today's episode of Jeopardy on YouTube. WTF Matt, what's the deal with these $2000 - $6000 Double Jeopardy Bids.
Even his final Jeopardy bids are small. These guy needs to grow a bigger pair of balls.

movieguru

He plays more conservatively like Ken Jennings. He'll be in the $6k on the first daily double when it will propel him to a good lead over his closest competitor. If he has a comfortable lead when the second daily double comes up, he doesn't want to risk so much that it jeopardize his more than 2x total of his competitor. Jeff Holzhauer took a lot more risks because he wanted to get really high totals every game. But those risks don't always pay off and he lost after 34 games. The way Matt is playing, he has more of a chance at the longevity that Ken Jennings had during his tenure.

whotony

Not me. I only tune in whenever they have someone like this going on a long run.

One thing I would love to see is some old grandpa go on a decently longish run.

General Zod

Yeah I hate when the game is practically over at the first commercial break. Happened again tonight. No real excitement there.

JackoOnHisBacko

I pretty much watch Jeopardy every day. I like when someone is dominating, rather than having a new champion every couple days.
I assume the show-runners and advertisers like it too. It must make more people tune in, than tune out. If it didn't, they wouldn't have gotten rid of the 5-day win limit.

Red Dog

Absolutely. I really like the dominant player runs. Amodio will lose eventually - just builds up the drama.

And even with that, part of the fun is simply just trying to answer the questions yourself.

I'm less interested when there isn't a champ on a multi-game run.

Unfortunately, I assume it will leak out when he loses and will be hard to avoid even if you aren't really on social media. I remember that happening with Jennings (even before social media) and Holzhauer. Though maybe w/o a studio audience, that might not happen this time.

kahuna

Anyone watch today's episode?

movieguru

Just watched it an hour ago!! It took two of them to take him down. He was off on his game today. he missed some easy ones: Venom, bushel, and a few others that would have had him closer to the others and more control of the board as he missed all the daily doubles. The girl was kinda cute. she reminded me a bit of Shannen Doherty.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, Jeez, how does anyone under thirty not get Venom?

And it's so weird when you have three smart people who miss can't answer easy questions like the bushel one.

Also can't believe he muffed the Final Jeopardy question, either. It's one of those questions that, even if you don't know the answer to, they gave enough clues (Alps and Danube) so that someone with a basic grasp of WWII history and European geography could parse out.

movieguru

I had no idea on this one. My guess would have been Hungary. It seemed like an easy one that matt would have known. That one guy came on strong right out of the gate and then the girl started getting strong toward the end of the first round. It was like the two played as a team against him. He couldn't seem to get to the buzzer the quickest on the ones that he likely knew, so he kept trying to get in quickly on as many as he could and then tried guessing at them, which led to his downfall.

JackoOnHisBacko

Good run. He'll be interesting to watch in the Tournament of Champions.

movieguru

I guess we we'll never know how he'd stack against Ken Jennings since it's likely Ken can't play anymore.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I think that now that Ken is part of the staff, he can't play anymore.

Wonder if that would preclude them doing some kind of charity Jeopardy event with Ken, James, and Matt. Just make it an exhibition match, and then donate some money to a charity.

Red Dog

Yep. It was the perfect storm - off his game and 2 good opponents.

I definitely had it narrowed down to Austria and Czechoslovakia since I knew both of those were annexed. Went with Austria simply because of the Alps part.

wishbone

When I read annexation I thought Austria (Anschluss) but I did not know about the regions and sectors part so I second-guessed myself. Great run by Matt! And now back to proper grammar for Jeopardy answers.

Paff

Austria was my guess, because of the Danube.

I'm really surprised Matt missed that, as geography seems to be his forte. He would get questions about African countries right all the time. But even if he had gotten Austria on FJ, he still would have lost because the other two bet the bank. Interestingly though, had they gotten it wrong too, Matt would have won because the other two would be left with $1 and $0.

It was a good run, and I have to confess I've probably watched more Jeopardy the last few weeks than I usually do because of it, so props there. But I'll also contend that last night's game was the most interesting to watch in more than a month, regardless of the winner. Three very closely matched contestants is always more riveting than one person dominating the game.

kahuna

Final Jeopardy! 10/11/21 Plus Exclusive Overheard On Set Clip | JEOPARDY!

You Tube

Paff

Last night's game, the first without Matt, illustrated why I prefer the "traditional" way of going though a category vertically; in the "Who Directed It" category, all the answers were women. Would have been less interesting had it been revealed via the hopscotch method that Matt used.

whotony

You can still see that all the answers are woman while skipping around the board. It doesn’t change the answers.

Red Dog

Seriously. So what if all of the answers were women.

Matt certainly didn't invent the 'hopscotch' method. It's basic common-sense strategy to hunt for the DDs and they are usually in the bottom 3/5 of the board and never 2 in the same category in DJ.

The guy/champ who ran that category is an actor so not much surprise he tried to just clean it up all at once.

Paff

No, of course Matt didn't invent it, never said he did. And I fully understand it's the more effective way to play the game, I've mentioned that several times. I'm just saying that in some boards, there's a "theme" or connection running through all the answers in a certain category, and that while that theme is indeed present no matter how one attacks the board, by going vertically it's much more apparent.

And the hopscotch method can backfire, as some of the quirkier categories are more easily understood when you start with the easier clues and work your way to the harder ones. There have been several times I've seen a contestant start with the largest dollar amount in a category, and not been able to answer because he/she did not understand the way the answers reflected the category. I mean, something like "The American Revolution" will be a straightforward category, but ones that rely on puns, palindromes, anagrams, or other kinds of word play are not always apparent.

Maybe I feel this way because I'm a fan of the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, which as everyone knows gets progressively more difficult as the week goes on.

Red Dog

I get that for the weird quirky categories but regardless, you should still hunt for the DDs no matter what. Better to pick it and miss it than someone else getting it. There is no reason to start at the top of the board when you have control - certainly not in DJ.

This is like basic BJ strategy. Yeah, hitting that 16 sucks against a dealer-10. But you do it - over and over.

Not sure what the NY Times X-word has to do with it. I am aware it gets harder as the week goes on but you're not in a competition doing that. And just because one question is 2000 and another is 1600 doesn't necessarily mean the 2000 is harder than the 1600 - it really comes down to each person's knowledge base. That same thing can happen with your X-word puzzles.

JackoOnHisBacko

If you want to win, and dominate, you have to control the board, and the daily doubles. Maybe it frustrates some viewers, but if I was a contestant, I would be looking to control the board and maximize my winnings. Until they make a rule that says you can only pick the lowest value clue still available in any category, it is a bad strategy to not hunt for the daily doubles.

Josh-da-man

General Custard.

I doubt they would have taken that if he got the other half of the question right.

movieguru

The guy that beat Matt has got a little run going himself. He's already won five games and couldn't be caught in Final Jeopardy for most of the games.