Anybody interested in playing 'unique knowledge Jeopardy'?

[House P]

11/18
TV Dramas by Episode Titles $1000
Historic Castles $1200

0-for-5 on Final Jeopardy clues this week, too.

11/18
Furniture $400
Historic Castles $1200

I only knew one of the FJ clues this week (the one about the leader who fled to the Maldives).

[pfrduke]

Very little on the board in the last TOC match. Like Sam, I missed the first round daily double, but I did manage to scoop up a couple clues in Double Jeopardy:

11-21-22
“P.J.”s - 2000
Films by Tagline - 800

[pfrduke]

Back in the ordinary run of play but still very few triple stumpers on the board - none in the first round (but a missed daily double making money available) and just five in the second. I missed one of the two year stumpers by a year because I overthought it and got too cute; in the vocabulary words category, I thought the $1600 clue was confusingly written - what it was asking didn’t make sense to me until I heard what the correct response was.

11/22
Who Lives In - 2600 (DD)
That Was Quite a Year - 1200
Stories of the South - 1600

[rsvman]

I had a tough go tonight. Loved that they had a medicine category but hated that one of the contestants was a doctor. Thought I might get $2000 on the question about the angel statue on LDS temples, since I am a member, but darned if the champ didn't know the answer right away.
I also got the Final, but the last place person also got it, leaving me with a big, fat goose egg. 😢

[rsvman]

$5800 tonight, almost all of it on a ridiculously easy Daily Double.
I was also surprised that two of the three missed the Final, which wasn't particularly difficult.

[rsvman]

I got $1600 last night. Not great.

I knew quite a few of the high-dollar answers, but the none of them ended up being triple stumpers.

[rsvman]

I might be the last guy still playing, but tonight I did pretty well. I made $2600 in the first round and $3200 in the second round, for a total of $5800 without any of the DDs and without the Final (no stumpers among those four clues).

[cakerace]

Answer: With three straight L’s.

Question: How do you spell “Carolina”?

[brevity]

I might be the last guy still playing...

I'm in it, but falling behind. Last week's results:

11/21
Films By Tagline $800

11/22
Stories of the South $1600
Who Lives In... DD $2600
Vocabulary Words $1600

11/23
Translators $800
Notable African Americans DD $5000

11/24
It's a Thanksgiving Miracle! $800
20th Century Campaign Slogans $1000
Biology $800
Historical Fiction $1200

11/25
Brother/Mother $600, $800
Do the Math $1000
2-Word Book Titles DD $5000
Some of That Jazz $2000

[brevity]

Caught up. This week:

11/28
Of Movies $400

11/29
Cast Upon the Waters $1600

11/30
Declaration of Independence Signers $800
You Can Quote "Me" DD $4000

12/1
Remembering Olivia Newton-John $1000
1, 2 & 3 $1000

12/2
Micro Fish $1200

[rsvman]

Tough game yesterday. Very few stumpers, and they were all over my head. Got a goose egg for only the second time since we started.

[rsvman]

Only $1000 tonight. Made it all on one clue in the first round.

Fair number of 'quad stumpers' tonight (stumped all three players and me, too).

[brevity]

12/5
Entertainment Awards $600

12/6
A Lego $200
Kids' Book Titles in Latin $600
7-Letter "W"ords $2000

12/7
TV Sidekicks $600
Angles Among Us $1200

[rsvman]

For 12/6 all I got was the obvious book titles in Latin. Felt like I left some pretty easy ones on the table, sleepwalking through the episode. Haven't seen last night's yet.

Big surprise to see the superstar beat by a guy who finished the first round in the hole.

[brevity]

12/8
In the Room $1600
Countries from Wordplay Categories DD $3000
Final/Name's the Same $6270

[75Crazie]

I'm guessing you're not the only one that can claim the final answer; I was stunned that none of the contestants got it.

[House P]

12/8
In the Room $1600
Countries from Wordplay Categories DD $3000
Final/Name's the Same $6270

I managed to get 3 clues also.

Patent Models: $600
In the Room: $1600
Countries from Wordplay: $3000

I'm guessing you're not the only one that can claim the final answer; I was stunned that none of the contestants got it.

The Final Jeopardy clue was pretty straightforward ... expect for anyone who, like me, was stuck trying to think of tropical cocktails/islands. Surely, there must be somewhere which makes a Guadalcanal cocktail!

[pcal6vb]

For 12/6 all I got was the obvious book titles in Latin. Felt like I left some pretty easy ones on the table, sleepwalking through the episode. Haven't seen last night's yet.

Big surprise to see the superstar beat by a guy who finished the first round in the hole.

Yeah, and the giant killer went on to lose somewhat quietly the next day. Superchamp Cris lost it by missing his Daily Double in the DJ round ("What is Sodium?") - he dropped a big dollar amount there, and might've had a runaway if he got it right. He would've needed the runaway, as he somewhat surprisingly got the Final Jeopardy wrong. In keeping with the spirit of this thread - I got both his misses right!

I had somewhat of a strategy nitpick of Cris the past week or so. When starting the Jeopardy! round as champ, he immediately hunted for the Daily Double, and often found it on his first few attempts, when all we could wager was a $1,000 or so. This didn't provide him much opportunity to run up the score early. Wouldn't it have behooved him to go for some top row clues first, then hunt for a Daily Double with more $$ in the bank to wager? The only advantage of finding a Daily Double early in the Jeopardy! round is to keep it out of the hands of other players - which seems more like a good strategy for a fresh challenger trying to keep the game relatively even, early, than one for a strong returning player.

[pcal6vb]

12/8:

Monkey Business $600
Countries from Wordplay Categories: $1600 (player bet $3000)
Final: Player bet $6,270

Kind of shocked no one got the Final this episode. Despite the fact that the cocktail referenced in the clue is my favorite, the "WWII venture" part of the clue is what led me to the answer first. What other notable "WWII ventures" are there??? Seems like most of the contestants tried to come up with a name that sounded like an island or battle in the Pacific theater and also sound like a tropical cocktail.

[rsvman]

Yeah, and the giant killer went on to lose somewhat quietly the next day. Superchamp Cris lost it by missing his Daily Double in the DJ round ("What is Sodium?") - he dropped a big dollar amount there, and might've had a runaway if he got it right. He would've needed the runaway, as he somewhat surprisingly got the Final Jeopardy wrong. In keeping with the spirit of this thread - I got both his misses right!

I had somewhat of a strategy nitpick of Cris the past week or so. When starting the Jeopardy! round as champ, he immediately hunted for the Daily Double, and often found it on his first few attempts, when all we could wager was a $1,000 or so. This didn't provide him much opportunity to run up the score early. Wouldn't it have behooved him to go for some top row clues first, then hunt for a Daily Double with more $$ in the bank to wager? The only advantage of finding a Daily Double early in the Jeopardy! round is to keep it out of the hands of other players - which seems more like a good strategy for a fresh challenger trying to keep the game relatively even, early, than one for a strong returning player.

A lot of people hunt it right out of the gate. You don't always find it right away, and in the meantime you could rack up several thousand by pecking away at the $800 and $1000 clues.

This was a strategy often used by Matt Amodio, and it usually worked well for him. The problem with starting at the top, besides the fact that the clues aren't worth much money, is that they are also the easiest clues on the board, which means you could cede control of the board to a competitor much more easily. And that means it becomes much less likely that you will actually find it.

So I guess I don't think of it as a strategy mistake, per se, but rather as a sound strategy that occasionally fails because of the problem you mentioned.