Jeopardy watch....

[Skydog]

I've never heard of it before but it looks delicious.

Same. Never heard of it but would be happy to have it for breakfast tomorrow.

[Indoor66]

Blitzkrieg tonight, largest one-day total he has had.

Inexplicably, nobody knew what a Scotch egg was? Baffling.

I never heard of it. Why baffling? It is something you know or don't know.

[rsvman]

I never heard of it. Why baffling? It is something you know or don't know.

I guess I just thought that Scotch egg was a fairly well known thing. Certainly would've expected any three random contestants on a show like Jeopardy to know about it, much less the second most successful player of all time.

Maybe I'm just really smart.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Same. Never heard of it but would be happy to have it for breakfast tomorrow.

It's delicious.

[Neals384]

I guess I just thought that Scotch egg was a fairly well known thing. Certainly would've expected any three random contestants on a show like Jeopardy to know about it, much less the second most successful player of all time.

Maybe I'm just really smart.

Some of us just live very sheltered lives.

[brevity]

I guess I just thought that Scotch egg was a fairly well known thing. Certainly would've expected any three random contestants on a show like Jeopardy to know about it, much less the second most successful player of all time.

Here's what may have happened. From the October 4 episode, the clue was This ovoid appetizer with a nationality in its name is enclosed in sausage & breadcrumbs and one contestant, Elizabeth, rang in with an answer so wrong ("What are Rocky Mountain oysters?") that the other two contestants didn't know what to think.

Because Matt seems to steamroll almost everybody, it's tempting for some viewers to think he's not getting the strongest opponents. While I don't agree with that argument, this was definitely an episode that hurts my position. Elizabeth's incorrect response above took her to -$1,000. The other contestant, Mike, also worked his way into an early negative score of -$1,600 because he twice failed to pay attention to the category. Both moved to positive scores and showed mild signs of life, but never stood in the way of Matt playing his game.

It's time to talk a little about how Matt plays his game. Most contestants -- and probably most viewers -- feel compelled to respond when they immediately have a solution for the clue, and hesitate if they don't. Matt acts the same when he immediately knows a response, but part of his game is to cut down on the hesitation. I'm sure most of you have noticed Matt's literal approach of "Shoot first, ask questions later" -- he buzzes in quickly even without a fully formed response, then takes the few seconds after the standard "What's" to come up with a solution. That seems to work for him; he rarely draws a complete blank, giving a response that is almost always reasonable and usually correct. Opponents can sometimes buzz in quicker on clues they know immediately and he doesn't, but they don't do it often enough to have a chance at victory. I'm starting to wonder if an opponent has to play like him to beat him.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Here's what may have happened. From the October 4 episode, the clue was This ovoid appetizer with a nationality in its name is enclosed in sausage & breadcrumbs and one contestant, Elizabeth, rang in with an answer so wrong ("What are Rocky Mountain oysters?") that the other two contestants didn't know what to think.

Because Matt seems to steamroll almost everybody, it's tempting for some viewers to think he's not getting the strongest opponents. While I don't agree with that argument, this was definitely an episode that hurts my position. Elizabeth's incorrect response above took her to -$1,000. The other contestant, Mike, also worked his way into an early negative score of -$1,600 because he twice failed to pay attention to the category. Both moved to positive scores and showed mild signs of life, but never stood in the way of Matt playing his game.

It's time to talk a little about how Matt plays his game. Most contestants -- and probably most viewers -- feel compelled to respond when they immediately have a solution for the clue, and hesitate if they don't. Matt acts the same when he immediately knows a response, but part of his game is to cut down on the hesitation. I'm sure most of you have noticed Matt's literal approach of "Shoot first, ask questions later" -- he buzzes in quickly even without a fully formed response, then takes the few seconds after the standard "What's" to come up with a solution. That seems to work for him; he rarely draws a complete blank, giving a response that is almost always reasonable and usually correct. Opponents can sometimes buzz in quicker on clues they know immediately and he doesn't, but they don't do it often enough to have a chance at victory. I'm starting to wonder if an opponent has to play like him to beat him.

I was on my middle school and HS quiz bowl teams. A guy who was on the HS team 4-5 years ahead of me was a finalist on the Jeopardy! teen tournament. We would ask the team advisor about him and she said that in addition to knowing a lot of answers, he guessed really well, meaning that he knew enough to make smart guesses even if he wasn't sure of the answer. I think that is the case with Matt (and Ken, James, etc.) - he knows a lot of answers, but he also makes really good, plausible guesses even if he isn't sure of the answer. So he can ring in confidently and also bet big on daily doubles.

[House P]

It's time to talk a little about how Matt plays his game. Most contestants -- and probably most viewers -- feel compelled to respond when they immediately have a solution for the clue, and hesitate if they don't. Matt acts the same when he immediately knows a response, but part of his game is to cut down on the hesitation. I'm sure most of you have noticed Matt's literal approach of "Shoot first, ask questions later" -- he buzzes in quickly even without a fully formed response, then takes the few seconds after the standard "What's" to come up with a solution. That seems to work for him; he rarely draws a complete blank, giving a response that is almost always reasonable and usually correct. Opponents can sometimes buzz in quicker on clues they know immediately and he doesn't, but they don't do it often enough to have a chance at victory. I'm starting to wonder if an opponent has to play like him to beat him.

As you mention, Matt seems to be prepared to buzz in quickly a) when has a specific answer in mind, and b) when he doesn't have a specific answer in mind but thinks he should be able to come up with the answer in the time allotted. This gives him an advantage vs competitors who may only be willing to buzz in with scenario 'a'.

Because Matt is a very knowledgeable guy, scenario 'b' usually results in a correct answer ... followed by a sly grin knowing that he got away with a bit of a gamble.

This approach also means that Matt ends up missing more questions than James Holtzhauer did. According to this site, Matt has provided more than 2.5x as many incorrect answers (87 to 31) as James did through 33/34 games.

One challenge with playing like Matt is probably figuring out how to quickly distinguish scenario 'b' (buzz in because you can probably come up with the answer) from scenario 'c' (don't buzz in at all because you probably don't know the answer).

[rsvman]

Anthony on tonight's show was very smart. Good player. Hit the DD in the Jeopardy round and didn't go all in but was fairly aggressive, and hit.
In the second round, though, the first of the DD's went to the third place player and the second went to Matt. He bet bigger than I thought he would and hit. Ended up with $50K and another win.

[tbyers11]

Anthony on tonight's show was very smart. Good player. Hit the DD in the Jeopardy round and didn't go all in but was fairly aggressive, and hit.
In the second round, though, the first of the DD's went to the third place player and the second went to Matt. He bet bigger than I thought he would and hit. Ended up with $50K and another win.

Matt's $10000 bet on the second Double Jeopardy DD was one of highest DD bets I recall him making. I think there were 2 factors. He also thought Anthony was a very strong player and wanted to take a big step toward a runaway game. And it appeared that Sonnets was a really strong category for him. Or that might be that it is not a strong category for me and I was impressed with his responses

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Matt's $10000 bet on the second Double Jeopardy DD was one of highest DD bets I recall him making. I think there were 2 factors. He also thought Anthony was a very strong player and wanted to take a big step toward a runaway game. And it appeared that Sonnets was a really strong category for him. Or that might be that it is not a strong category for me and I was impressed with his responses

What's a Sonnet?

[curtis325]

What's a Sonnet?

Well played!

[MChambers]

Someone did the math and if Amodio breaks Jennings’ record of winning games, it will be on Nov. 30, the anniversary of Jennings losing, and Jennings will be the host.

[MChambers]

Matt's $10000 bet on the second Double Jeopardy DD was one of highest DD bets I recall him making. I think there were 2 factors. He also thought Anthony was a very strong player and wanted to take a big step toward a runaway game. And it appeared that Sonnets was a really strong category for him. Or that might be that it is not a strong category for me and I was impressed with his responses

Third factor: it was a $800 clue, so in theory not a hard one. And it must have been easy, because I guessed the answer and I know almost nothing about sonnets.

[CameronDuke]

Entered final Jeopardy with $38,600 and gave an incorrect response losing $22,000.

Squeaked by with $16,600 to remain the winner.

Survive and advance …

[duke74]

Entered final Jeopardy with $38,600 and gave an incorrect response losing $22,000.

Squeaked by with $16,600 to remain the winner.

Survive and advance …

Was a basically easy question. The “heat” wording alone in the clue should have given it away to a scientist.

[brevity]

Entered final Jeopardy with $38,600 and gave an incorrect response losing $22,000.

Was a basically easy question. The “heat” wording alone in the clue should have given it away to a scientist.

The Jeopardy Fan: The category was Historic Calendars and the clue was Following Messidor, this summer month in the 18th-century French Revolutionary calendar had a name meaning “heat gift”

I didn't know this, but I guessed correctly by sticking to the first two and last two words, and ignoring all the words in between. Where's DBR user LegoBatman when you need him?

[House P]

Entered final Jeopardy with $38,600 and gave an incorrect response losing $22,000.

Squeaked by with $16,600 to remain the winner.

Survive and advance …

In addition to beginning every response with "What's ...", another quirk/strategy that Matt (robotically?) employs is to only provide a person's last name in his response. In theory, this eliminates a potential mistake (especially if a first name is hard to pronounce ... "Who is Quinoa Phoenix?"), but I suspect that a player as good as Matt in very unlikely to make such an error.

With that in mind, I am a bit surprised that Miyam didn't ask for further clarification when Matt responded "What's Adams?" to the name-the-president question last night. I'm pretty confident that Matt would have clarified correctly, but I suspect some weaker players - like me - might have been tempted to incorrectly choose "John Quincy". I doubt the judges would let a contestant get away with responding "Who is Bush?" for a question could refer to George W or George HW.

If I was a question writer for Jeopardy, I would be tempted to create an entire category which required Matt to provide both the first and last name of a person. Perhaps something like the following.


Category: Duke Basketball Players


$200: "He threw the pass to Christian Laettner for the final shot of Duke's 1992 NCAA Tournament win vs Kentucky"
$400: "His elbow got up close and personal with Tyler Hansbrough's nose in a 2007 game vs UNC"
$600: "Member of one of Coach K's early recruiting classes received a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke and a degree in Pastoral Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary"
$800: "The younger of two brothers who both played guard for Duke, he committed only 1 turnover playing in a total of 4 career NCAA Tournament games"
$1000: "1st team All-ACC player for Duke transferred from a Big East school after growing up in Jersey City, NJ"








Hint: At least one of these is a trick question.

[House P]

Also, if I was a question-writer for Jeopardy, I would somehow try to squeeze in the following clue at some point during Matt’s run.

Clue: ”2006 Dave Eggers novel based on the life of Valentino Achek Deng, a Sudanese child refugee who immigrated to the US”

​Correct Response: “What is What is the What?”

or as Matt would be forced to say, “What’s What is the What?”

[brevity]

In addition to beginning every response with "What's ...", another quirk/strategy that Matt (robotically?) employs is to only provide a person's last name in his response. In theory, this eliminates a potential mistake (especially if a first name is hard to pronounce ... "Who is Quinoa Phoenix?"), but I suspect that a player as good as Matt in very unlikely to make such an error.

With that in mind, I am a bit surprised that Miyam didn't ask for further clarification when Matt responded "What's Adams?" to the name-the-president question last night.

Lots of players stick with the default of last names only. It doesn't happen a lot, but I've seen enough occasions where a contestant gets it wrong by messing up the first name or otherwise providing too much information.

I didn't think about the Adams ambiguity, but you're right, she should have requested clarification. Just last week Matt answered "Roosevelt" to the clue In 1962 JFK nominated this first lady from an earlier administration for the Nobel Peace Prize and Mayim said "More information, please". (I should point out that it was a Daily Double clue, with $5,000 on the line.)

If I was a question writer for Jeopardy, I would be tempted to create an entire category which required Matt to provide both the first and last name of a person.

That kind of happened on Monday's episode. The first round had a category called Baseball Hall of Famers by Initials with clues like Spectacular southpaw: S.K. Under Alex Trebek, the show would have required first and last names, but Matt said "What's Koufax?" and they let it slide for the steal, like he was R.H. (I say the vague "they" because it's not clear to me how much power Mayim Bialik has here over the judges, so I'm not necessarily blaming her.)

Category: Duke Basketball Players

$200: "He threw the pass to Christian Laettner for the final shot of Duke's 1992 NCAA Tournament win vs Kentucky"
$400: "His elbow got up close and personal with Tyler Hansbrough's nose in a 2007 game vs UNC"
$600: "Member of one of Coach K's early recruiting classes received a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke and a degree in Pastoral Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary"
$800: "The younger of two brothers who both played guard for Duke, he committed only 1 turnover playing in a total of 4 career NCAA Tournament games"
$1000: "1st team All-ACC player for Duke transferred from a Big East school after growing up in Jersey City, NJ"

Hint: At least one of these is a trick question.

Once I caught on to the pattern, these were excellent. $400 is the trick question. Not many people know that Tyler Hansbrough had a habit of sniffing everyone's elbows during a game. (He was confused when a local stoner told him that joints have a distinctive smell.)