Anybody else still watching Jeopardy? There is an interesting champion on right now. His name is Matt Amodio, and he is announced as a "PhD student from New Haven, CT," which makes me think that he is probably getting his PhD at Yale.

On his first visit he was on the far right and up against a 3- or 4-time champion who was one of those fast-talking, fast-reacting guys who was very obviously extremely smart. You know how some people just exude intelligence, to the point that after you've heard them say half a sentence you already know they are really smart? He was one of those guys.

Matt, by contrast, came off as actually kind of dull. He speaks quite slowly and has the kind of voice you might use if you were to imitate what a dumb person sounds like. He clicks in and says "What's" and then, most of the time, there is a pause of varying lengths before he says his answer, which is usually correct. He uses "what's" as his first word regardless of the topic or the answer. So, for example, he would say "What's.....Edison?" rather than "Who is Edison?" like most contestants. He just clicks, says "what's" and then sits there, then comes up with the answer. If he doesn't get an immediate "Correct" or "that's right" he pauses again and then finishes the answer. For example, "What's...(pause)..Charles...(long pause)...the second?" And then he's always right.

He has a strategy that is somewhat similar to what Holzhauer used to use, but slightly different. He starts with the $1000 questions and then moves up, looking to find the Daily Double. If he finds it, he always goes all in, and almost always doubles his money. Very early in the game it is not uncommon for him to have $6K to maybe $14K while the other contestants have maybe $800 or $1200.

In Double Jeopardy, his approach differs from Holzhauer; he starts at the bottom again and tries to get both Daily Doubles, but when he gets them he either bets $2K (if it is a category about which he feels a little weak) or $4K (if he feels strong in that category). He NEVER goes all in. It seems to me that his strategy in Double Jeopardy is to find the Daily Doubles so the opponents can't have them, and then to bet only a little, so as to maintain his towering lead.

When it comes to Final Jeopardy, though, he almost always bets BIG. He won't bet over an amount that would cause him to lose the game if he missed the question, but he will bet as much as possible. In this way, he has amassed some pretty high daily totals, on the order of $30-45K each. After, I think, 8 days of winning he is now well over $300K, and in my opinion stands a very good chance of becoming the next person on Jeopardy to win more than half a million.

He is exceptionally strong in geography and history, but he doesn't really have any glaring weakness. I'm pretty sure that when it's a category he knows, he rings in on every question and then figures out the answer later, rather than waiting to see if he knows the answer before ringing in. It gives him the appearance of being mentally slow, but it's just a strategy to get to the buzzer first.

Anyway, I find watching this guy somehow even more entertaining than watching Holzhauer was. Is anybody else following this? If so, I'm interested in your opinion and your predictions about how far he can go. If you are not watching, and you have any interest in Jeopardy at all, you might want to tune in.