The Jeopardy thread [was James Holzhauer][contains spoilers]

One thing I don’t get is why he’s so conservative in his DD betting in the DJ round. He’s often in a position where he could bet 15,000 or more and still have more than twice as much as the next player if he lost; this is how Holzhauer achieved his astronomical totals. But Matt doesn’t seem to want to risk it, and usually bets only 5,000 or 6,000.

He has had a couple big losses when betting big, so maybe he’s gunshy, but considering his batting average, it seems like he’s leaving a lot of money on the table.

I’m enjoying his run. I like him more than Holzhauer, even though Holzhauer was definitely more exciting to watch because of those huge bets.

At this point, I think he’s going for number of wins rather than dollars.

I think he’s averaging better than Ken Jennings so if he does manage to keep winning, he’ll end up with a higher total.

My math may be wrong, but I believe as of today, Matt is exactly halfway to Ken Jennings’ consecutive wins.

I’m beginning to believe Matt could reach Ken’s record. There’s extra motivation because Ken will be hosting in Nov.

Beating your hero’s record is cool. Doing it while Ken’s at the podium would be awesome. It would also get great tv ratings.

I’m trying not to get excited until we see what happens in the next two weeks

I’m so glad Claire managed to finish in second place. I felt sorry for her as she repeatedly tried to ring in and failed each time.

I also thought the answer was Harry Potter. At first glance that list really seemed to fit. 1984 never even crossed my mind.

So much of the game is rhythm, confidence, fighting through pressure. He keeps doing things the same way because it keeps him in the right mindset. It keeps his groove going. In terms of winning money the best strategy is to win the game and come back the next day, and he’s got a system that’s worked for 38 games.

Many years ago I had a job at a convenience store late at night and there were long periods with nothing to do. I decided to kill time I would memorize all the answers to Trivial Pursuit. At that time there was just one edition, now there are many. Memorizing all of those could help a contestant.

very bad final question. If I had not read a book about the revolution a couple of months ago would have had no clue, and there was nothing in the clue so that you could figure it out, unless you spoke French.

Being able to speak French obviously wouldn’t have helped, since the name was derived from Greek. You could only know it if, as you indicate, you know something about history.

Technically, I got it from reading comic books.

Comic books can be a great source of information (seriously)! I learned a lot from reading Sgt Rock, Uncle Scrooge, and Little Dot (to name but a few) when I was a kid.

Last night’s Final Jeopardy was insanely easy and one guy somehow blew it.

Yes, I think his wagers make sense. If he has $19,000 and the 2nd place contestant has $3000… well, he could risk $13,000 and even if he got it wrong, still have double the 2nd place contestant’s score. But if the other guy gets the next Daily Double, bets it all, and gets it right, suddenly it’s a tie game. It’s better to make sure he doesn’t give up his runaway status.

And I can’t even understand how he came up with that answer. Sometimes people get the wrong answer, but you can at least tell how they came up with it. The only thing I can think of was that he just drew a complete blank for some reason.

Many years ago, I was playing Trivial Pursuit with a bunch of co-workers. After the game was over, I started going through the cards idly, just to see how many answers I already knew. (Most of them, it turned out.)

One of my colleagues saw what I was doing and was aghast. “You’re reading the cards?!?” he asked.

“Of course I’m reading the cards,” I replied. The whole point of the game is to know the information on them. Whether I remember it is another matter.

Anyway, it’s all general knowledge, so there’s nothing specific to the game that might give me an advantage over the other players. I could learn the same things by reading at a library.

(I also found some answers that I knew to be inaccurate.)

Well, if she had, and he had said “John Adams,” that’s the other’s name too.

LUCILLE Ball! Say her name!

Or he could have gone with, “LOOOOOSEEEEE!”

Side note: I just learned Lucie Arnaz is 70. That makes me feel old.