Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

I honestly can't figure out if that look of his is arrogant-smugface or bad-social-skillsface.

he's def not cool is the problem

videobombing trebek's signoff today was n/l though can't front

COLBY IS MISUNDERSTOOD

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

just watched several clips, dude's hilarious. can totally believe he's a good teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgSgg0mfi3A

I loved Colby. His eyebrows have been the highlight of the last couple of weeks.

Has anyone noticed that nearly all of the women on Jeopardy in the last couple weeks (since I started watching again after like 20 years) are incredibly buxom? What is that? Don't know if this has anything to do with the rumor I heard that AT has been known to make the moves on female contestants!

no i havent noticed that

didn't mean anything by it, just noticing after watching two weeks straight. also, people seem to win much more than when i last watched!

rumor has it that alex trebek is retiring just so that he can spend even MORE of his time hitting on women

i was p mad that no 1 could pull gore vidal for that final a few days ago

http://www.businessinsider.com/jeopardys-controversial-new-champion-is-using-game-theory-to-win-big-2014-2

controversy!!

Dumb article and controversy. Tons of people have used the category bouncing strategy before, dating back at least to Chuck Forrest in the 80's, I have no idea why this is just news now. I do agree that it makes the show worse to watch.

‏@arthur_affect
Chuck Forrest pioneered my jump-around-like-a-lunatic strategy on @Jeopardy -- in 1985, when I was one year old #ForrestBounce

There's tons of recent examples too. This is not uncommon at all.

He's a bad boy who can't live by the rules

Am I misremembering or didn't Ken Jennings do this as well?

Yes, he did.

still pretty awesome imo

The recent guy who really gamed the system in a cool way (and also bounced around categories hunting for DDs) was Roger Craig: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/20/142569472/how-one-man-played-moneyball-with-jeopardy

*I remove a card from my hand and place it face down on the table. I slowly slide the card forward. In one quick and fluid movement, I flip the card over. It is the Race card.*

In all seriousness, he does represent a sort of convergence of several nerd stereotypes - the nerd, the Asian nerd, the antisocial nerd, the nerd who doesn't care about social mores because he is ultra-'rational', who only does something if he ends up 'better off' than his previous position, who moves upwards on the Coase curve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TT0TH7NV2Q

So I just watched an episode and I don't get it - he's gone for business casual, okay - he is well-spoken (I think the bio mentions that he does voiceovers or is a voiceover editor?) - he doesn't seem any more aggressive than many other players who have appeared on the show

I mean as far as I know almost every Jeopardy strategy article advocates this kind of thing so I'm not sure what the story is. Roger Craig's methods were a lot more radical in my opinion, certainly not cheating but overall not dissimilar from the dude who taped every episode of Press Your Luck to find the on-board patterns that would allow him to "go infinite"

Well............ it's probably because he's Asian

I gather it's "playing to tie" that's the interesting game theory part.

Explained here: http://youtu.be/hRfXzrTDY-Y

lol, would love to hear more of this game theory = antiasian racism hypothesis

and it's totally dissimilar from press yr luck guy who simply cheated

yeah I hadn't heard of the "playing to tie" thing before and I guess I don't really understand it

memorizing the board patterns isn't cheating! if it was they wouldn't have paid him.

lol, would love to hear more of this game theory = antiasian racism hypothesis

― balls, Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:43 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

My tongue was half in my cheek (and look who I was responding to) but

As others have pointed out he's not the first Jeopardy pro-gamer to use game theory in playing

After he's gone viral about half the stories on the first page of a google search are about his 'game theory' techniques, the other half just call him the 'Jeopardy Villain'

Oh & looks like this guy went to Swarthmore. Of course

Seems to me that at least half the story here, if not more, is that he is causing the good-natured folks who watch Jeopardy to become upset and it's not their fault. He is at least a social deviant if not worse and the root of his illness must be rooted out and excised

suspect there have been people who have applied game theory to non-academic settings and come off as assholes before. maybe google 'wall street' and 'villain'.

yeah I hadn't heard of the "playing to tie" thing before and I guess I don't really understand it

i haven't watched the video that jmm posted above because i'm at work, but i thought that he wagered an amount in the final round that would allow another (weaker) contestant to tie him so that they would both move on to the next game. in the clip i watched, the other player who he allowed to tie him was way behind him in $ before the final round. if that meant that she was clearly the weaker contestant, then he would have an interest in bringing her along to the next game because that would effectively reduce his true competition. it would just be him, the clearly weaker player that he strung along, and a third contestant.

suspect there have been people who have applied game theory to non-academic settings and come off as assholes before. maybe google 'wall street' and 'villain'.

― balls, Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:55 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Everybody loves Leo DiCaprio, though. What a loveable asshole

Anyway I am rolling back my antiAsian theory after reading that Fox News is on his side http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/04/jeopardy-contestant-arthur-chu-defends-controversial-strategy/

the press your luck guy "cheated" the same way card counters "cheat", iirc

re: the tying strategy - it's not something you could exploit every game, but he clearly seized on the opportunity to improve his chances for the next game. pretty smart, i'd say!

btw, lol at a the large segment of the internet's reaction to this guy that's like "he's not doing anything great, everyone knows this stuff". yeah, clearly if any of US were on jeopardy we'd be busting out the game theory moves left and right

My impression is that if he's allowing someone to tie him then that person may be a threat to beat him though I was missing that he likely had a huge lead when this happened. Sending a message of "I want you to appear on the next show because I think you're below average" does seem rather villainous even if it is brilliant.

http://i.imgur.com/zSHQHdZ.png

Who are these people. I recognize Pierce Brosnan but none of the others

those ppl always look alike to me

so how many episodes has he won so far, 3 or is it 4 now? it seems like a lot of press coverage even if it's his playing style that's getting the attention, are winning streaks of more than a couple days that rare?

I think it's up to 5? And they're doing a Tournie so he's not back until the end of Feb

Also pure game theory disregards the mental states of the contestants

http://thefinalwager.co/2014/01/29/final-jeopardy-january-29-2014/

The first is based strictly on game theory. The whole point of Jeopardy! (see my Rule #0) is to come back the next day; you have a higher chance of doing so if you withhold that extra dollar.

Whether you’re playing a proven challenger or a random player from the pool in your next game is irrelevant. Thinking about your next game is like looking down the field for the end zone before you’ve caught the ball. You need to BE in that next game for it to matter!

yeah, clearly if any of US were on jeopardy we'd be busting out the game theory moves left and right

I remember a category in Double Jeopardy "also a chess piece" which was super easy, considering there are only 6 pieces and five of them were answers, I mean I got them all and I'm pretty stupid. Last clue of the category was a daily double and I was sure the contestant would wager everything, there's only 2 possible answers barring some sort of odd curveball that they almost never do. Alas he/she (can't remember who it was) only wagered $2000 and it was another really easy one, but I was really bothered because really "how do you not wager it all there". I mean I would think most people at home were thinking the same thing but actually being on the show (especially given its fast pace) is probably something else entirely. I mean NFL coaches are constantly terrible at 4th down/punting decisions even though they're clearly smart enough to understand basic game theory stuff. I guess I just don't get it.

ok this graph explains it pretty well

http://thefinalwager.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-Final-Wager-Guide-to-Game-Theory-dominance-Slide-11-1024x576.png

doesn't seem to me that it's about trying to get a weaker player in the next game - more that if the trailing player bets enough to cover if you go for a double up + $1 of his score and fail then they win, if you don't bet the extra dollar then you tie. I imagine the show pays both contestants in that case and thus the producers are probably not too happy about this.

the press your luck guy "cheated" the same way card counters "cheat", iirc

i don't really think this is cheating unless you're using external aids. anything that boils down to "using your brain to think about different things than most players" isn't cheating imo

yeah I hadn't heard of the "playing to tie" thing before and I guess I don't really understand it

i would assume its because you're goal is not strictly to 'win' but to maximize the amount of money you get. whether or not another player comes back tomorrow as well is irrelevant to you so risking an extra dollar to be the 'sole winner' is unnecessary and probably riskier. i havent thought about it at all but theres also the possibility that, if the other contestants know you are 'betting to tie' you position them for a less optimal wager.

haha i assume one of the five posts in between when i started typing that and managed to finish has explained the exact same thing but better, but i want to attempt looking smart

Anyway balls if you're looking for a serious answer from me, I just think that enough of the non-racial 'factors' for his virality have been knocked down that I can't disqualify his Asian-ness from being a motivating one. At the very least you can't deny that the man fits very, very neatly into the widespread stereotype of the Asian nerd - I mean just look at him. I'm as receptive as anyone to a convincing, non-racial explanation and I probably have more invested in his race being a non-factor than most people who watch the show. Your point about game theory and the head honchos of Wall Street would have been well accepted if I had felt that 'game theory' had even occupied a small part of the mindspace surrounding the financial crisis. I'll offer a non-racial explanation here: maybe there's a perfect storm here of game theory + social media bloom (Twitter not being nearly as influential in 2011 back when, according to posts itt the last major game theory-user played) + nü-focus on stats and alt ways of thinking-about-games bleedover from sabrmetrics and sportsheads. Or maybe it's because he has a fat head and small eyes and wears glasses and presses the clicker a lot. I dunno.