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He got $69,033 today. It was another runaway game for him. The other guy had about $9800 and the woman that dressed like the Joker only had $2900 going into Final Jeopardy.

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I honestly think James survived the season. You know someone would've leaked that by now.

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Did anyone post the Planet Money podcast? the transcript is here:
https://www.npr.org/templates/transc...ryId=722198188

Kenny Malone is a relative of James (they share nieces, much to Kenny's chagrin) and the whole podcast is about Jeopardy champions and James's run. It goes into why he does the bottom of the board first, then fishes for the Daily Doubles once he has some money, bets it all, and keeps going, managing his risk. It also goes into how most contestants know the majority of the answers so a lot of it has to do with how you buzz in.

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A lot of it has to do with the psychology of being risk-averse, especially when it comes to losing money. James' training as a professional gambler has him better suited for this style of play. Jennings was on record early that this has long been discussed as a strategy but that few people have the cojones to actually try it.

You've seen the few games where he's been truly challenged weren't because he lacked knowledge. Some other players took the full on risk because they knew it was do that or go home. Levin played lights out and just barely missed. I don't think James would want to play a set of 5 against him.

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Oh, that's definitely how he's racking up the money, with the psychology that having a greater than 50% chance to know the answer on an even bet is incredible odds, especially early on when you can still recover from being wiped out, and how psychologically damaging having a huge lead is to the other contestants. When he isn't able to get that first daily double he can't escalate so quickly even if he wipes out the board, and that makes a huge difference.

Has he ever missed out on all three before (like not even getting them as opposed to answering incorrectly)?

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Middle guy was going strong and then missed the double jeopardy and thats the rub.. you gotta be able to answer them correct like James for this all in strategy to work...

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You'll need a little luck against James on top of aggressively going after the Double Jeopardies, catching him on a night when the categories don't favor him. He was completely shut out of the Shakespeare category the other night.

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Does anyone know if there has ever been an episode where 2 of the 3 contestants have negative $ at Final Jeopardy, and thus only one person is playing at the end?

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Pretty sure Ken Jennings had at least one like that. I know it's happened.

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James can break Jennings' $ record on Monday. $58,485 behind.

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You might want to avoid social media about Jeopardy over the next couple days. Just saying...

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It's already all over the Net. :(

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Guys... it should be crystal clear...

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A ton of spoiler posts were about to fill up this thread even if I hadn't posted, which would have told anyone with a thought that big news had hit.

This is all over other social media and newspapers, anyway. It's virtually impossible keeping pre-recorded content like this secret today unless you live off the grid.

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20 minutes from airing and I haven't seen it anywhere but here. :shrug:

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It's on Deadspin, tweeted by Darren Rovell and a billion other sites. Just because you didn't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

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Endgame ended greatly and sadly. GoT ended.

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Exactly. My wife doesn't really get this move when people make it, but it's usually smart. Most contestants in first place heading into final Jeopardy bet just enough to win. You'll come across the rare exception, but the smart play is to assume first place will bet whatever it takes to win. In this case, first and second were close. So first had to bet big to win. At that point there are 4 possible outcomes based on the final clue: (1) first place answers correct, second place answers correct; (2) first place answers correct, second place answers incorrect; (3) first place answers incorrect, second place answers correct; and (4) first place answers incorrect, second place answers incorrect. In scenarios (1) and (2), first places wins regardless of what second place does. So the second place bet doesn't matter. It only matters in scenarios (3) and (4). If you bet small, it really doesn't matter if you get the question right. You only win if first place gets it wrong. But by betting small, you win in both scenarios (3) and (4). If you bet big, you only win in scenario (3). Where you get it right, but your opponent gets it wrong. That's possible, but I'm guessing not super common. These are smart people, and most likely the clue is such that either both people get it right or both people get it wrong. So, in the end, you're playing the odds. Which is exactly what a sports gambler should do. The only other concern is to stay ahead of third place.

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Ha! We only watch Jeopardy one or two days a week, maximum. But we saw his first and last games.

Now we'll see how his innovations affect future players.

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Honestly other than maybe jumping around the board more, I bet not much changes. You still saw players against James picking top to bottom. Not many will have that cuthroat gambling mentality.

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Something didn't feel right about James' performance. Anyone know what the Vegas odds were for James to win tonight? It would be interesting to see who bet against James in this episode.

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I'm amazed that any betting is allowed on a pre-taped show, considering quite a few people know who's going to win each episode.

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And you felt a need to go into thread where there is the very possibility if being spoiled. Suck it up up cupcake.

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A few thoughts on this game:

• It was the first taping day after Alex announced his condition, which he actually did in the middle of the previous taping day (for those that don't know, they tape all 5 Mon-Fri games in one day). This would explain why James' daughter had a card for him. I wonder if that threw James off his game, having a day to process that
• The fact is that while not as good as usual, James still played a very good game and only lost because of the daily doubles, he still got more correct answers than Emma
• Both of his competitors were good. It was a record number of correct responses as only one clue was not answered correctly (oddly enough a top row clue from the Double Jeopardy round)
• It's kind of crazy to think that even though James' run was so long, it finished filming before any of it aired (this episode was recorded on March 12, his first episode aired April 4)

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Also I love the fact that James has a sense of humor about this. His twitter profile picture right now is a still from Weird Al's I Lost on Jeopardy video :lol:

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^ I saw James' high five to Emma Boettcher on the news this morning. A great run and a lot of fun to watch. I look forward to seeing James again on Tournament of Champions, All-Star Games, etc.

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Apropos of nothing, I think it's great that with all the content out there and all the things that are vying for our time and money, that Jeopardy can still manage to capture the attention of the American populace. I know that James' run only made him a minor celebrity but everyone I talk to seems to not only know about him but have actively made time to try to watch him. I think that's awesome.

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He also tweeted out about inviting Drake to that taping, which was fantastic.

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Gotta give her credit. James didn't lose it; she won it. Great timing on the buzzer to prevent him taking control of the board and finding the DDs. Doubled down on her first DD which put her into a lead and she held on. Answered everything she buzzed in on correctly. This was the recipe for an upset. So weird that it happened the game where he was poised to take the $ record.

And I have no problem with his FJ wager. He knew she was going to wager enough to put her ahead by $1 if he went all in, so no point in doing that. Just stay ahead of the 3rd place guy and hope she gets it wrong. Classic game theory. And rotfl at some of the conspiracy theories going around about him being tired and wanting to go home.

Unfortunately, all the scuttlebutt yesterday with the spoilers made it kind of a letdown. Then again in today's day and age, I'm surprised it stayed a secret this long.

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That's awesome. rotfl

And I loved his tweet re: the conspiracy theory about him throwing it because he wants to go home to be with his daughter: