# The Jeopardy thread \[was James Holzhauer\]\[contains spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [April 17, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696 "2019-04-17T21:53:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 29
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/561 "2019-06-04T16:18:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I don’t think James threw it, but his FJ bet still surprises me. I would think his best approach would be to assume he gets FJ right and - crossing his fingers - that Emma gets it wrong. Bet everything, or almost everything, why not? I’ve read the posts upthread but don’t get why he would be at all concerned about the third-place guy. No, that’s definitely not the right strategy if you want to maximize the chance that you come back. Emma has to bet enough to cover them both getting it right, because both of them getting it right is by far the most likely outcome. But if she gets it right, he doesn’t come back at all, so he bets so that if she gets it wrong, he wins regardless of his answer. People had dumb conspiracy theories about Ken Jennings throwing his final game too. He’s always said that it’s an extremely silly idea: If you had a fun job on TV that paid $150k a week, would you quit? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/562 "2019-06-04T16:18:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I don’t think James threw it, but his FJ bet still surprises me. I would think his best approach would be to assume he gets FJ right and - crossing his fingers - that Emma gets it wrong. Bet everything, or almost everything, why not? I’ve read the posts upthread but don’t get why he would be at all concerned about the third-place guy. You’re forgetting the possibility that he and Emma both get it wrong and third-place guy gets it right. If everyone bets logically, James wins. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/563 "2019-06-04T16:26:35Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Yes but IIRC James later took the lead back, and then Emma finally took the lead back again and maintained that lead going into FJ. It was exciting, even watching it a 2nd time last night and knowing how it ends. You are correct…James came back and took a thousand dollar lead, which lasted for a few questions, until Emma herself came back and retook the lead, and then found the second DD. After she correctly answered the second DD, her lead, while not insurmountable, was enough that James couldn’t come back, especially against two good players. I still contend, however, that if James had found the first DD (or perhaps even the second), he has the lead going into FJ and wins the game. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/564 "2019-06-04T16:44:24Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I still contend, however, that if James had found the first DD (or perhaps even the second), he has the lead going into FJ and wins the game. Oh, yes, the deciding factor was definitely the fact that Emma found both Daily Doubles. Had James gotten either of them, he could have had the lead going into Final. He might not have had a runaway, but he would have had the lead, which would have ensured him a win as things shook out. Emma seems to have prepped for the game just as much as James did. She watched the show obsessively for years, practiced ringing in using a ball point pen as a signalling device, kept a tally of her correct and incorrect answers, kept track of where Daily Doubles tend to fall–all those geeky things that the big-time Jeopardy champs seem to do. If you listened to her interview, you know that she even wrote her master’s thesis on trivia questions. If anyone was going to beat James, it was going to be someone like her. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/565 "2019-06-04T16:46:56Z")
FYI, Emma wrote a [paper in grad school](https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:38790152-cc19-491c-b2ed-4551ce777232) on “Predicting the Difficulty of Trivia Questions Using Text Features” based on Jeopardy! questions. So if anyone was ready to beat him, it was certainly her. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/566 "2019-06-04T17:03:47Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > ITSM that the real difference in last night’s game was that James didn’t answer nearly as many clues as he usually did. And that inevitably reduced his chances of finding a DD. This is correct. In this game, he answered 25 correct to Emma’s 21. Normally, he answers somewhere in the mid 30s questions correctly, sometimes even lower 40s. His close call (vs Nate) has similar numbers to this loss. James answered 26 correct, and Nate answered 24 correct (more than Emma, and almost as many as James.) There was another tight one earlier on (Game 18), where he hit 28 correct, and Adam had 20. Actually, looking back to his second game, he only got 22 right on that one (to Satish’s 18 and Marshall’s 15), but finished miles ahead of the competition because of his betting strategy. Also, in game 6 he only got 25 right (and 2 wrong). So he has had a few vulnerable games in there where he hasn’t answered his usual 35 or so questions. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/567 "2019-06-04T17:21:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > This is correct. In this game, he answered 25 correct to Emma’s 21. Normally, he answers somewhere in the mid 30s questions correctly, sometimes even lower 40s. > > His close call (vs Nate) has similar numbers to this loss. James answered 26 correct, and Nate answered 24 correct (more than Emma, and almost as many as James.) There was another tight one earlier on (Game 18), where he hit 28 correct, and Adam had 20. > > Actually, looking back to his second game, he only got 22 right on that one (to Satish’s 18 and Marshall’s 15), but finished miles ahead of the competition because of his betting strategy. Also, in game 6 he only got 25 right (and 2 wrong). > > So he has had a few vulnerable games in there where he hasn’t answered his usual 35 or so questions. Thanks for looking those numbers up for us. I knew they had to be out there somewhere, I just didn’t have the time to find them. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/568 "2019-06-04T17:25:08Z")
I wished that he had beat Ken’s winnings total. Sorry to see him go, he was nice to look at! She is nice looking too but I like men! 🙂 Wonder if Jeopardy will like more million dollar winners…if she is that good. I think sometimes the double jeopardy spots are in place when they want them to be. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/569 "2019-06-04T17:37:44Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > … > > What will be interesting to see is whether James’s approach to the game will start to become more common. Emma basically adopted his strategy: go for the big value clues first, accumulate as much money as possible as quickly as possible, and bet big if you find a Daily Double. I’m curious to see whether that will become the norm for contestants. It’ll be really interesting to see if that becomes standard practice, but I don’t think it’ll be successful for many players. James (and, as we discovered, Emma) have a fairly uncommon set of skills: extraordinarily smart, very quick with the buzzer, and no hesitation about betting big on Double Jeopardy questions (their intelligence gives them the confidence to do so). Some players have one of those skills, a few have two, but very few have all three of them. If Emma continues that practice (_no spoilers for today’s episode, please_), I could see her having a good long run as well. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/570 "2019-06-04T18:17:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I was looking at it the other way around: imagine that you’re Holzhauer, and you’re right on the brink of breaking a trivia record set by Ken Jennings, and you hear that, _oh, hey, we found a librarian who earned a graduate degree in Jeopardy._ > > (And I don’t get the relevance of saying his “final wager was not anything near what he normally wagered.” He normally went into the final with a lead — and he could wager so that he’d win even if everyone got it right, and so he did. This time, he _couldn’t_ do that; he went in _without_ the lead; regardless of how he wagered, he was already going to lose unless his opponent screwed up.) But he didn’t even bet enough to pass her if she bet zero. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/571 "2019-06-04T18:30:43Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > But he didn’t even bet enough to pass her if she bet zero. Which would’ve been incredibly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/572 "2019-06-04T18:51:52Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Oh, yes, the deciding factor was definitely the fact that Emma found both Daily Doubles. Had James gotten either of them, he could have had the lead going into Final. He might not have had a runaway, but he would have had the lead, which would have ensured him a win as things shook out. And before that, another contributing factor to JH’s loss was that in the first round, he found the DD on the very first (IIRC) square, instead of later as he usually did to extend his already-sizable lead. As it was, he had $2,000 at the start of the game and the DD was gone from that round. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/573 "2019-06-04T19:10:09Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think Alex suggested that we’d see James challenging Ken Jennings at some point, so perhaps a three-way tournament among them and Brad Rutter would be interesting. Oh, hell yes. I would shell out some coin to see that trio matched up. James is the young gun with the flashy numbers, but I still wanna see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/574 "2019-06-04T19:24:47Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > And before that, another contributing factor to JH’s loss was that in the first round, he found the DD on the very first (IIRC) square, instead of later as he usually did to extend his already-sizable lead. As it was, he had $2,000 at the start of the game and the DD was gone from that round. He had $0, could only bet $1000, so after the $1000 daily double, he only had $1000, just like a regular $1000 clue. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/575 "2019-06-04T19:29:35Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > But he didn’t even bet enough to pass her if she bet zero. If you’ve watched many episodes of Jeopardy, you know that the ‘standard’ bet for the money leader entering FJ is to bet enough to cover the amount that is twice the current total of the second-place contestant. And, indeed, that’s what Emma bet. And James surmised that she would bet that amount. So he bet small, hoping that she would bet big and miss, and thus he would win the game. Had he bet all of his bank in FJ, and missed the question, he would have forfeited any chance of winning the game. His bet at least gave him an opportunity for the win. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/576 "2019-06-04T19:48:20Z")
Incidentally, this matter of “but what if the other players bet _this_ way” can be carried many layers deep. One of the reasons why Watson’s bets looked so peculiar was that it was able to carry the reasoning to enough levels that it converged, something that no human ever does. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/577 "2019-06-04T20:09:51Z")
Sounds like that clip leaker [is going to be very, very, very fired](https://deadline.com/2019/06/jeopardy-leak-james-holzhauer-producer-vows-very-appropriate-action-1202626656/#comments). ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/578 "2019-06-04T21:05:04Z")
I only caught Final Jeopardy today, but defending champ Emma had an insurmountable lead. I was surprised that she and the third-place contestant both missed the question. Emma lives to fight another day. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/579 "2019-06-04T22:04:46Z")
Thanks, I was just about to ask if anyone had a spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/580 "2019-06-04T22:35:59Z")
I honestly don’t think James deliberately threw the game, but in recent episodes, there was something about him that made me think he was getting bored with the whole thing. Or maybe I was projecting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696.md?page=28) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696.md?page=30)