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OT: Jeopardy

Waquoit

Waquoit

Mr. Positive
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So are we all watching Jeopardy yet? This guy James is not just winning, he's obliterating the competition. He's knows everything and has the gamble. Before, the 1-day record was $77,000. He's broken $100K four times already. Some days lately Jeopardy has had the highest rating of any TV show at any time of day. The best thing is that he's an actual professional sports gambler. He gives sports gamblers a good name. But he could hurt the industry, maybe. He's giving the mooks a good look at what they're up against.
 
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Waquoit said:
So are we all watching Jeopardy yet? This guy James is not just winning, he's obliterating the competition. He's knows everything and has the gamble. Before, the 1-day record was $77,000. He's broken $100K four times already. Some days lately Jeopardy has had the highest rating of any TV show at any time of day. The best thing is that he's an actual professional sports gambler. He gives sports gamblers a good name. But he could hurt the industry, maybe. He's giving the mooks a good look at what they're up against.

ADD: I tried a couple of time to put OT in front, but it would disappear when the thread was posted. Don't know why it would.
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Use the drop down menu and select the prefix.
 
He is super quick with his recall. His opponents are intimidated even before the game starts.
I don't see how he'll ever be beaten.
 
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Each evening when I tune in and see his two opponents smiling nervously, I can only think of them as lambs about to be slaughtered.
 
Been watching him since his first night. Incredible. I don't see how he will lose. I saw Ken Jennings interviewed about him a couple weeks ago and he said that the guy is taking it to a whole other level by not only winning, but but trying to maximize his money on almost every turn. That never even occurred to Jennings.

The only drawback for me is that the games are not even competitive any more; I feel sorry for the other two contestants as their faces grow longer when their fate becomes inevitable.
 
More impressive than the money he’s accumulating is the fact that he seems to know just about every answer. He just blitzes through the first board and generally has the game in hand by then, it’s ridiculous.
 
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8893 said:
Been watching him since his first night. Incredible. I don't see how he will lose. I saw Ken Jennings interviewed about him a couple weeks ago and he said that the guy is taking it to a whole other level by not only winning, but but trying to maximize his money on almost every turn. That never even occurred to Jennings.

The only drawback for me is that the games are not even competitive any more; I feel sorry for the other two contestants as their faces grow longer when their fate becomes inevitable.
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He is magnificent. He's not unbeatable, but he sure knows how to optimize his expected value -- a true gambler's mentality. Most other champions played to win the game. He plays to make bank.

But the thing is, he doesn't do it recklessly. He'll go all-in on Daily Doubles during the first round, knowing that if he screws that up, he can make it back. In the second round, his DD betting is more measured -- usually he'll limit his bets to maintain a runaway advantage.

His brilliance is in knowing that by taking a chance at running up a big tally early, he gives himself a chance at safely going for an enormous total at the end.

I disagree on your last point. Watching him work is like watching the 1992 Dream Team or a vintage UConn women's team -- I don't care that the game isn't competitive, it's just fun to watch.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
I disagree on your last point. Watching him work is like watching the 1992 Dream Team or a vintage UConn women's team -- I don't care that the game isn't competitive, it's just fun to watch.
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Yeah, I go back and forth on that. It is impressive as hell to watch; it just really makes the other contestants irrelevant by the second round.
 
Only way this guy will lose is if he incorrectly answers all the daily doubles after going all in and someone else methodically stays in his shadow until his overconfidence does him in. Highly unlikely because this guy is a machine. He makes Cliff Clavin look like a dunce.
 
It feels like someone will have to beat him at his game. Skipping around categories and finding and delivering on daily doubles. Or....he has to get tripped up on daily doubles or final jeopardy. Amazing what the guy knows.

Hard to imagine it happening.
 
Obligatory UConn Jeopardy story:

A guy in my dorm and I got back to dorm @ 4 and Jeopardy was on. We watched it only to learn later that the same show would be replayed at 7pm. Jeopardy was a big deal in the dorm and everyone would gather in the lounge to watch. Having already seen it, we'd run through the questions with apparent ease, sometimes taking turns, sometimes answering together. People would ask how do you know this stuff and our response would be something like "oh they asked easy questions today" so that we could see the look on their faces. It was all the funnier because there were two of us doing it. I think people thought we were Jeopardy savants. It was entertaining while it lasted.
 
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ShakyTheMohel said:
It feels like someone will have to beat him at his game. Skipping around categories and finding and delivering on daily doubles. Or....he has to get tripped up on daily doubles or final jeopardy. Amazing what the guy knows.

Hard to imagine it happening.
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It's going to take 3 things all happening in the same game:
1) Opponents get lucky and find the Daily Doubles before he does, negating his quick-hit advantage; or, he gets multiple Daily Doubles wrong
2) A few categories in the second round are out of his wheelhouse, so he can't methodically build a big lead and goes into Final Jeopardy without a runaway advantage
3) He gets Final wrong, and an opponent gets it right

Any one of those is plausible, all 3 in the same game is unlikely.

If I'm handicapping this, I'd say he wins +/- 24.5 games (at 14 right now), and +/-1.95MM (at around 1.1MM right now). I'd put his odds of beating Ken Jennings's regular season earnings record (around 2.4MM) at -200 right now, but that could come down very rapidly.
 
What categories are out of his wheelhouse? I've not seen any weaknesses yet.

I think he could probably beat the super IBM machine that beat all the humans.
 
Yeah. My wife and I dvr jeopardy every night and watch it while eating a later dinner. We re way behind tho. Still on early March episodes. Jeopardy and betting sports- two of my favorite things. Lol.
 
borninansonia said:
What categories are out of his wheelhouse? I've not seen any weaknesses yet.

I think he could probably beat the super IBM machine that beat all the humans.
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There is so much stuff he knows that he shouldn’t know given his age that it blows my mind. Both the stuff he should be too young to know and the stuff he should be too old to know, like current teen pop stuff. I would be less surprised to learn that he is a robot.
 
For someone to beat him at his own game they would have to know what the game is in the first place, so to speak. His opponents have no idea who this guy even is when they step to the pedestal. Sure they know this guy is on a streak but they don't necessarily know what strategies he is implementing. These episodes are filmed months in advance so they don't have the ability to watch this guy on tv like we all do. They have no idea that if this guy gets a daily double he's going to bet the house and by then the game is already over...
 
8893 said:
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Cliff was robbed. I know for a fact that none of those guys were ever in his kitchen!

On a separate note, one of the smartest guys I graduated HS with went to Columbia, then became a pro gambler. He was making a ton of money plus all the ridiculous perks from the casinos that fought for his business. Then he got too smart and started pulling one over on the casinos. He was fine until a trusted contact got in trouble for something else and rolled over on him so he spent some time locked up. Surprisingly, the casinos started begging him to come back the minute he got out. I think true professional gamblers are typically smart, and it makes sense that this guy can quickly calculate his best jeopardy "bets" to make the most money without risking a win.
 
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UConn Esq said:
These episodes are filmed months in advance so they don't have the ability to watch this guy on tv like we all do. They have no idea that if this guy gets a daily double he's going to bet the house and by then the game is already over...
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The upcoiming contestants are in the audience, so they can see what is happening. They are randomly chosen to play a game. I believe they actually film 5 1/2 shows per day. You can already see the change with other players starting at the high $$ clues...rather than going down the column
 
NJHusky said:
The upcoiming contestants are in the audience, so they can see what is happening. They are randomly chosen to play a game. I believe they actually film 5 1/2 shows per day. You can already see the change with other players starting at the high $$ clues...rather than going down the column
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That doesn't help the first two that are picked to play that week. It may not help the next two either depending on how the game played out. It wouldn't have helped the champion he took down. Etc..
 
UConn Esq said:
That doesn't help the first two that are picked to play that week. It may not help the next two either depending on how the game played out. It wouldn't have helped the champion he took down. Etc..
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The contestants are all shuttled together...you don't think they talk to people that played yesterday? would you fly in the morning of your taping? I would show up 2-3 days early and just attend as an average Joe...Plus, you can see the changes in the wagering..
 
NJHusky said:
The contestants are all shuttled together...you don't think they talk to people that played yesterday?
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I don't know the answer to this, just like you don't know the answer to this.
 
ShakyTheMohel said:
It feels like someone will have to beat him at his game. Skipping around categories and finding and delivering on daily doubles. Amazing what the guy knows.
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Beyond being extremely intelligent with a broad, diverse knowledge base, disarming competitors by skipping around categories in search for Daily Doubles, and betting big #s early, what’s the possibility the professional gambler’s quantitatively analyzed years of Jeopardy’s episodes in creating his winning strategies?
 
CL82 said:
Obligatory UConn Jeopardy story:

A guy in my dorm and I got back to dorm @ 4 and Jeopardy was on and the same show would be replayed at 7pm and everyone would gather in the lounge to watch. Having already seen it, we'd run through the questions with apparent ease, sometimes taking turns, sometimes answering together. I think people thought we were Jeopardy savants. It was entertaining while it lasted.
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I'm glad to see that no matter which generation, UCONN students are serious about their academics. :rolleyes:
 
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