Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

That's an expensive birthday shout out! Ken Jennings only spent $400 to make his hoe joke.

finally got to watch this guy as it aired. one, holy shit this guy is good. two, I'm pretty impressed by how well the show gives the illusion that it's current - there was the Earth Day category, Trebek opening the show with "unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about this guy James...", and James making the M in his name into a Las Vegas Golden Knights logo (the Knights are about to play a playoff Game 7), all in an episode which probably taped two months ago

NYT interview with current Jeopardy dynamo James Holzhauer.

won by $18 today!!

that was intense

absolutely...not ready for this dude to lose yet.

hes good enough to run off a huge streak but it just takes one bad answer at the wrong time

The week after next begins the round of tournaments that ends the season. What happens if he is still champion at the end of this? Is he eligible for the Tournament of Champions, or does he have to wait til next season?

xp yeah he always goes all in on daily doubles. I've watched about 5 games and he never missed one though. crazy.

on the first one, yeah, but in Double Jeopardy he often bets a large, seemingly random amount, though there might be some symbolism there. yesterday he bet "10117" as tribute (I'm assuming) to the victims of the Vegas shooting. he does "11914" (his daughter's birthday) a lot.

fun stat about last night's game

According to Saunders on The Jeopardy Fan, Levin’s $53,999 is the highest-ever regular-play, nonwinning score in the history of the show, and is the 21st-highest final score of all time. Holzhauer’s $54,017 is 20th.

he always goes all in on daily double

i love how everything he does is informed by his day job as a sports gambler, rather than by jeopardy itself. from his nytimes interview:

The fact that I win and lose money all the time helps desensitize me, so I can write down $60,000 as the Final Jeopardy wager and not be trembling at the thought of losing that money. And thinking: “This isn’t a trivia question. It’s a coin flip that’s going to land heads for me a lot more often than it’s going to land tails, so I’m going to bet as much as I can on heads.”

that's absolutely true, so long as that $60,000 won't lose him the game. I'm not really sure how to calculate risk/reward with a player like this...what's the expected value of him winning the game? what's the over/under on how many future games he's likely to win?

That's really sad for Levin.

Last Friday's ep was really interesting, as he didn't land on any of the daily doubles. Luckily for him, his opponents weren't great players and he still ran away with it.

James’ applause when Adam bet his full stake and won mid-game was thrilling last night. Like “now that’s a real play. Nice to have a challenger in the ring. Aand back to shark mode.”

Half of his winning strategy imo is just to get the next question asked as soon as possible, any second wasted while the game’s in play is a second he’s not increasing his stake. His little moments of relief or exhalation or joy at the score announcements underscore how deliberate his control during play is.

xp dang I missed Friday, that woulda been fun to see

That's really sad for Levin.

I mean, it's a cool record to hold, but it must suck to have $53,999 on the board and walk away with $2000.

That's really sad for Levin.

I mean, it's a cool record to hold, but it must suck to have $53,999 on the board and walk away with $2000.

Yeah, I felt bad for him watching that drop to $2000 after putting up such a good fight with James.

that's absolutely true, so long as that $60,000 won't lose him the game

from the same interview: "The funny thing is, my strategy actually minimizes the risk of me losing a game. There’s times in a football game where a team goes for a big TD pass. If you don’t take a risk like that, you’re not going to win. Really, the big risk is never trying anything that looks like a big gamble."

Most level-headed quiz show participant ever?

Half of his winning strategy imo is just to get the next question asked as soon as possible, any second wasted while the game’s in play is a second he’s not increasing his stake. His little moments of relief or exhalation or joy at the score announcements underscore how deliberate his control during play is.

yeah it's funny when Trebek tries to make some quip and James interrupts him "CHINA SIXTEEN"

he seems like a nice dude though

I can't decide if he'd be cool or insufferable to kiw. leaning toward cool. kinda reminds me of Underrated Aerosmith Bootlegs who I bet would kick ass on Jeopardy

Ha! I think he totally would, yeah.

just occurred to me that he probably bet enough to win by $18 if Levin went all-in and won because it was his 18th game

what a dork

He won $96,000 tonight. For Final Jeopardy, one of the contestants didn’t know the answer and wrote, “What is...congratulations to James.”

aw, spoilers :(

(airs here in three hours)

damn yeah i wont see this til later tonight. gonna remove bookmark and check the day after i guess

D'oh, shit, sorry about the spoilers. I rarely get to watch it in real time, so my excitement got the better of me.

I still think about this video daily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g3--WYH8SY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lLNc6Qpjwc

i love this:

Why no one has leaked ‘Jeopardy!’ spoilers about James Holzhauer’s incredible winning streak

I was thinking yesterday about the gap between filming and airing and how many people he beat before any of his episodes aired.

Imagine finally make it onto jeopardy and are standing at the podium for the first time only to hear Johnny Gilbert announce that the defending champion has won 5+ games and hundreds of thousands of dollars and realizing how fucked you are.

Query 2 Casino or Jaymc (or anyone else here who's been on): Do they let you watch the other tapings on 'your day'?

when I played high school football, we made it to the championship game one year - we kinda sucked but squeaked out a few close games on fluke plays. getting to play in that game was a dream come true...until it actually started. I was the starting right guard and lined up against a guy who had 3 inches and 50 pounds on me. He looked like a bodybuilder. I proceeded to get my ass kicked on every single play, at some point just holding him on every snap (I was so outmatched the ref only called it once), probably gave up 5 sacks, and we lost by 40. I imagine that's exactly what facing this guy is like.

I proceeded to get my ass kicked on every single play, at some point just holding him on every snap (I was so outmatched the ref only called it once), probably gave up 5 sacks, and we lost by 40. I imagine that's exactly what facing this guy is like.

Sounds like it, based on this:

https://deadspin.com/what-its-like-to-get-crushed-by-jeopardy-god-james-hol-1834482418

“I had been stressing a lot about how I would do and if I would win, and suddenly the choice was taken away from me,” said Lorelle Anderson, clobbered in Holzhauer’s 10th game. “I felt relieved.”

No links to the baseball analytics angle yet?

eg

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/effectively-wild-episode-1371-what-is-sabermetrics/

hah I saw the articles about "James Holzhauer's future in MLB" and I was like, I guess you could hide him in right field

Query 2 Casino or Jaymc (or anyone else here who's been on): Do they let you watch the other tapings on 'your day'?

Yes. They will tape a week of shows in one day, so at the beginning of the day there will be 11 contestants (the defending champ and two challengers for each day) and usually an alternate or two in the green room. Everyone will know right away what they're up against. Then they will draw lots to see who's on "Monday", "Tuesday," etc. Before and after your taping you can sit in the audience and watch along with friends, family, and tour groups full of kids and old people.

do they introduce James at the top of the show as "a professional gambler"? cuz that seems to be his primary job.

They introduce him as a “professional sports gambler”

Not a major spoiler, but that poor 3rd contestant today...

Also: Thanks von kelson!

*coughs*

Oh golly.

EVERYBODY WATCH TODAY!

game show spoilers

Spoilers...or Misdirection?

from multiple parties?