Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions

[sugarbaker design]

Barack Obama, ISIS, National Weather Service, you've been warned.

 

 

Different station, different time but definitely same sentiment!

[proserpina65]

I agree that I like to see a contestant give a shit about winning. Matt is really damned if he does, damned if he doesn't with some of you guys. If he were too "easy breezy" there'd be folks in here saying it was disrespectful to his fellow competitors that he wasn't taking THEM seriously as adversaries. I have no problem with hating the dude, as long as it's consistent ;)

I dislike watching him because he barks out his answers and then immediately chooses the next clue without waiting for Alex.  To me, it's rude and unnecessary; it bugged the crap out of me when he was initially on, and it still does.  Other people like Matt's intensity, and that's cool.  Different strokes and all.  As long as none of you want Dancing Jennifer or JOSH!!!!!! back, that is.

Edited November 19, 2015 by proserpina65

[Misslindsey]

 

I dislike watching him because he barks out his answers and then immediately chooses the next clue without waiting for Alex.

This is one of the reasons why I love Matt. I like the fast pace that he has. After he lost when he was on previously, I found the other contestants so slow. I am biased though, I loved Matt from the start.

 

I would like a Matt or Alex J. win. I have a feeling since I prefer those two that Kerry will win.

[rhys]

Somehow, grandnephew & grandniece sound like grandma's relative. I always have said great nieces for my brother's grandkids. Maybe they are interchangeable?

[Bastet]

If I like a contestant's personality (or, what comes across as their personality from this unusual situation), it's a bonus.  If I don't, I don't care.  Most of the time, I don't really register it.  The only time a contestant's comportment really bugs me is if I think it's an affectation -- like a reality show participant playing a role, rather than a person just being themselves, whatever that may be.  And, okay, naturally hyper people bug me.  Go audition for The Price is Right and leave me alone.

[alias1]

Somehow, grandnephew & grandniece sound like grandma's relative. I always have said great nieces for my brother's grandkids. Maybe they are interchangeable?

Well you've given the reason why grand nephew is correct.  Your nephew is the son of your brother or sister.  His child is their grandchild, making him your grand nephew.  I don't think great nephew is correct at all, but I know a lot of people say that.

[Pallida]

For those of you who use "grand nephew," do you also use "grand uncle" or "grand aunt?"

I've only heard great uncle/aunt.

[rhys]

For those of you who use "grand nephew," do you also use "grand uncle" or "grand aunt?"

I've only heard great uncle/aunt.

Aha! That's why I use great niece & great nephew. Well done,Pallida!

[ClareWalks]

I dislike watching him because he barks out his answers and then immediately chooses the next clue without waiting for Alex.  To me, it's rude and unnecessary; it bugged the crap out of me when he was initially on, and it still does.  Other people like Matt's intensity, and that's cool.  Different strokes and all.  As long as none of you want Dancing Jennifer or JOSH!!!!!! back, that is.

 

I love the fact that everybody loathes Dancing Jennifer and JOSH! so much. Rarely does the entire internet unite in its love of anything, but this board comes together as one in hating those two. Especially JOSH! Dear, sweet Shakespeare Quotes for $400, especially JOSH.

[Jesse]

Great aunt/grand niece.

 

So help me, if Obama interrupts my Jeopardy, I will send him a strongly worded tweet!

 

This made me laugh so hard! 

[just prin]

Dear Jennifer and Josh: It's past time to speak up and tell me that you luuurrrrvvve animals, especially cats!!!! Because you really need a friend!

 

And with our 3:30 record of break-ins, Chicago, I don't think the odds of getting thru the two days are real good! In fact, I wonder if Alex would mind if I watched the finale with him? Just in case.

[ClareWalks]

I thought it was hilariously meta when, in the Autological Words category for "This men's name means blunt, to the point of rudeness," Matt blurted out "What is Curt?" and then steamrolled Trebek to the next clue. Matt was very polite though and clapped every time Alex got the DD.

 

Alex looks like he's gonna dominate. Wow. ICYMI Alex ended with almost 30K and Matt and Kerry had 3-4K each. 

[ChicagoCita]

I was thinking on the hyperactivity scale, Alex is a 33 (nearly asleep), Kerry is a 45 (controlled), and Matt is a 78 (crazy man!) He was really sticking out compared to the other two, who seemed like they took Thorazine before the show.

 

I'm not a fan of Matt's, but I can't imagine being kept enthralled -- and conscious -- if there were three players as "soothing" (to use my own word) as Alex and Kerry.

 

With that "let's bet it all" wager, Alex showed why he was a successful gambler. Ice water in his veins while the rest of the room was shocked.

[mjc570]

That was a great game.  I liked the categories, and all three contestants were good.  While I do like Matt's intensity and the fact that he claps enthusiastically for the other contestants, I'm still bothered by his rudeness in speaking over Alex T.  Although, it seemed like he wasn't quite as bad tonight.

 

Trebeck's been the host through thousands of games, and should be allowed to enjoy himself.  Kerry didn't flame out, her voice didn't annoy me.  I was really impressed by Alex, though, with his bold bets.  I wondered if he was going to bet anything in FJ so as to increase his total, but I guess it was a good thing that he played it safe.   My guess was the Man in the Iron Mask, also - the fact that two of these excellent contestants came up with that helped me get over all my other wrong answers.  Can't wait for tomorrow - fingers crossed that no natural or other disaster comes up!

[Browncoat]

Alex J, the correct response when Alex T asks you if your wife would be good at Jeopardy! is "Why yes, she'd be great!" NOT, "Well, maybe, if she worked at it."

[dcalley]

I am reading that Judy Blume book right now!

Kerry needs to DD hunt more against these two.

Alex J, the correct response when Alex T asks you if your wife would be good at Jeopardy! is "Why yes, she'd be great!" NOT, "Well, maybe, if she worked at it."

Yeah, that was bad.

Edited November 20, 2015 by dcalley

[just prin]

Poker player came to play today!

[ottoDbusdriver]

Just caught Wednesday's show

 

Matt Jackson's duck face in the intros ... was odd.

 

Seriously ?? They showed a video of Canada Geese and a picture of an Irish setter and asked the contestants to name them.  Make it a little challenging at least, this is the ToC.

 

Catherine and Andrew put up a good fight until Catherine missed that DD and Matt found the 2nd one.  It was such a close game up until that point.

 

 

Onward to tonight's show

 

That was a really awkward discussion with the contestants.  But I was more impressed that Alex had $10K at the first commercial break.

 

Gutsy move on that DD by Alex.  Just wow !!  That forced Kerry and Matt to wager big in FJ  and they both missed, so Alex goes into tomorrow with an approx. $26K lead.

Edited November 20, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[Fex]

Noooooo! I watch Jeopardy on CBS from Boston, and it is pre-empted by football tomorrow. And the scroll at the bottom of the screen tells me it will be played instead on an entirely different channel that I don't get :( Not cool, football.

 

Very exciting game!!!

[mojoween]

That Judy Blume book is awesome and when I was finished I went on the Barnes & Noble app and bought more of her adult books.

Knowing how much Alex had, I think I would have bet nothing. Especially me personally because I knew I would not have a good answer in that category. And Alex has now been wrong in both of his games in FJ.

[NorthstarATL]

I admire Alex's game, but now I am far less invested in tomorrow's. Too much of a lead to be interesting. I had both the Count and Iron Man as guesses and went with the Count. Since Alex didn't make a guess, I have no idea whether I outguessed all three. I did get Proteus, so was rather full of myself. I imagined that someone, even Matt, might have answered "Matt" instead of "Curt" for the name that "bordered on rudeness", which would have been amusing.

[alias1]

I'm really surprised that two of them didn't get The Count of Monte Cristo.  It's the first thing I thought of.  Maybe I can credit Revenge for knowing that. 

 

Alex is a really good player (and knows how to wager) but I can't get over his bored look.,  When he had that DD Blume answer he looked like "I can't believe you asked that in a DD.  I'll just stall and pretend I don't know the answer so it looks like I'm guessing."

[teebax]

That was awesome. I don't know that I've found an episode of Jeopardy more exciting than it was today. I was at the edge of my seat and was way impressed with Alex's wagers. Kudos to Matt for being a good sport. I like when contestants clap for their opponents.

Regardless of the outcome, it's a joy to watch three really bright people answer almost every question on the board. It was even better when I could feel cocky for getting FJ when none of them did. I liked that flower category and the instrument one too. It almost made up for all the answers I didn't know, and there were quite a few.

It's going to be hard to go back to regular games next week.

[CarpeDiem54]

Wow, you go Alex! Very bold wagering. And Kerry's, so far, in second place.

Matt's not used to getting his ass handed to him and became more and more frantic and rude and his barking got louder as the game went on.

I thought it was hilariously meta when, in the Autological Words category for "This men's name means blunt, to the point of rudeness," Matt blurted out "What is Curt?" and then steamrolled Trebek to the next clue.

I screamed out "Matt" for that clue.

I knew the Victoria & Albert Museum. It's a fascinating place.

I guessed The Man in the Iron Mask for FJ.

[Jesse]

I thought it was hilariously meta when, in the Autological Words category for "This men's name means blunt, to the point of rudeness," Matt blurted out "What is Curt?" and then steamrolled Trebek to the next clue. 

Yessss! It made me laugh and clap my hands.

 

With that "let's bet it all" wager, Alex showed why he was a successful gambler. Ice water in his veins while the rest of the room was shocked.

 

But did you see him wipe his hand before shaking with Alex T after the game? Funny that he would still have sweaty hands after a full Final Jeopardy where he didn't even bet anything.

 

Noooooo! I watch Jeopardy on CBS from Boston, and it is pre-empted by football tomorrow. And the scroll at the bottom of the screen tells me it will be played instead on an entirely different channel that I don't get :( Not cool, football.

Oh man -- you don't get 38? That sucks!

[secnarf]

I'm so glad I don't need to worry about Jeopardy being pre-empted :P

 

For FJ, I could not think of the name of the book for the life of me.
Well, first I thought Jean Valjean and realized that they wanted a title character, so then my mind immediately went to "that book I read in high school that is sitting on my bookshelf at home that Bohemian Rhapsody reminds me of" and had a mental image of the cover of it. I just couldn't come up with the name.

Also I'm not entirely sure why I associate Bohemian Rhapsody with that book, but I always always have.

Edited November 20, 2015 by secnarf

[TimetoShine]

Alex J, the correct response when Alex T asks you if your wife would be good at Jeopardy! is "Why yes, she'd be great!" NOT, "Well, maybe, if she worked at it."

Tell me about it. They are going to have a serious conversation when he gets home.

 

This was a great game. Alex J nearly gave me 2 heart attacks though. 

[peeayebee]

I had so many wrong guesses. I'm embarrassed.

 

I said Man in the Iron Mask, too. I need to look up the plots of both books.

[biakbiak]

Given that Alex J. Clearlye practices fir Jeoprady down to figuring out that his toilet paper dispenser to practice working the buzzer, I didn't have a problem with his answer.

[Pallida]

Alex J said on Twitter that his wife wasn't offended.  I don't think there was anything wrong with what he said either.  Some people know a bunch of random facts, some don't.  Some make the connection from clue to answer quickly, some don't.  That doesn't make one person more intelligent than another.  My friend often comments on her husband's PhD-level chemist friends being morons about anything other than chemistry (including basic daily life).  I'm sure they couldn't make it on Jeopardy, and that's ok.  I couldn't either :)    

[ABay]

Count of Monte Crisco was the first thing I thought of. Man in the Iron Mask never occurred to me until the answers were shown. Yay, me!

[Trey]

Count of Monte Crisco was the first thing I thought of. Man in the Iron Mask never occurred to me until the answers were shown. Yay, me!

Me too!

I was trying to pre-call title heroes of French novels and The Count of Monte Cristo was the only one I could come up with.  So it's a good thing that was it:)

 

I was very surprised that Matt didn't do better than he did. Alex is going to be  tough to beat now.

[Jesse]

I was trying to pre-call title heroes of French novels and The Count of Monte Cristo was the only one I could come up with.  So it's a good thing that was it:)

 

I only had the Hunchback of Notre Dame from the category.... and from the clue.

[proserpina65]

With that "let's bet it all" wager, Alex showed why he was a successful gambler. Ice water in his veins while the rest of the room was shocked.

 

There was a palpable "Holy shit!" atmosphere in the studio when he said he was betting it all.  And then to get it at the last minute.  Damn!  It did really look like he was struggling for that answer, too.

 

But hey, I got the FJ.  My first thought was Jean Valjean, even though I knew he wasn't the title character, and he lead me to another Frenchman imprisoned for years and that meant The Count of Monte Cristo.  I'd have bet big on that FJ.

[3 is enough]

Wow.  Matt looked so dejected after FJ.  It is a 2 day final- I don't really understand why he would wager so much instead of going into the second game with a healthy amount.  But that's just me.  I am rooting for Alex anyhow, so I am happy with the outcome.

[proserpina65]

Wow.  Matt looked so dejected after FJ.  It is a 2 day final- I don't really understand why he would wager so much instead of going into the second game with a healthy amount.  But that's just me.  I am rooting for Alex anyhow, so I am happy with the outcome.

I wonder, after Alex's huge DD bet, if Matt didn't feel like he had to bet big to stand a chance.  Maybe he figures Alex is likely to do the same kind of betting tonight.

[Chicken Wing]

There was a palpable "Holy shit!" atmosphere in the studio when he said he was betting it all.  And then to get it at the last minute.  Damn!  It did really look like he was struggling for that answer, too.

 

I actually said "Holy fuck" under my breath when he actually got it at the last second.

 

 

 

Wow.  Matt looked so dejected after FJ.  It is a 2 day final- I don't really understand why he would wager so much instead of going into the second game with a healthy amount.

 

I agree. I see what his mindset was, but I think it would have been smarter to bet nothing and ensure a nice total to add to whatever he makes in the final round. If he bets a lot now and he got it right, yay, then he adds an even bigger number to Friday's total, but if he gets it wrong and reduces his carryover to a small amount then he has virtually no chance of winning the tournament since he would have to assume that Alex J. would bet little/nothing here. There was too much to lose in getting it wrong and not enough to gain if he'd gotten it right, since to stand a chance of winning the tournament he would have still had to pull off a big total in Friday's show just the same as if he'd bet nothing in FJ here.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Chicken Wing

[Roaster]

Do you really think that was an unwise FJ wager that Matt made?  I think it was the right move.

 

If he had bet $0 he would be trailing Alex by $15,000 at this point.  His chances would be slim going into day 2.  He bet $11,600 and if he had won, he would have been only $3400 behind Alex, which is easy to make up on the second day.  (Of course, he didn't know what Alex's wager would be or how hard the question would be for either of them.)

 

The last two weeks have shown us that: if you want to succeed against the good opponents you're facing in TOC, you probably have to take some chances.  And that's true even if you are as knowledgeable and as fast as Alex J.  Alex took two big risks on his Daily Doubles (the second one especially was a huge gamble), and he got lucky and it paid off.  Matt wasn't so lucky.

 

In Monday's semi-final contestant John kept guessing when he was in the hole.  Some people here criticized him for it, but I think John was playing rationally.  You can't win more money if you don't ring in, and sometimes it's worth ringing in even if you aren't 100% confident you'll be right.  It was a risk for John, but his opponents were good enough to be in the TOC, so playing it safe was less desirable than it would be in normal Jeopardy.

[Chicken Wing]

If he had bet $0 he would be trailing Alex by $15,000 at this point.  His chances would be slim going into day 2.  He bet $11,600 and if he had won, he would have been only $3400 behind Alex, which is easy to make up on the second day.  (Of course, he didn't know what Alex's wager would be or how hard the question would be for either of them.)

 

If he'd bet nothing and stayed $15,000 behind Alex, his chances would be slim but not improbable, depending entirely on how he performs on Friday's show. We've seen how Matt performs - usually his games end up the way Alex's did, so he could hope that he could pull off the same kind of gameplay on Friday. Obviously his chances are much better if he bets a good amount and gets it right, and goes into the final round only a little behind Alex, but if he gets it wrong he's too far behind to have any hope of catching up to his total, no matter what he does on Friday, even if he performs at his usual Matt level. So, what's the better choice? Play it safe with an option that gives you a medium chance of success, or try for a shot at the best chance of success at the risk of ending up with zero chance of success? Prisoner's dilemma would say the smart choice would be to pick the first option, although people would realistically gamble with the second option. Even though it wasn't "strategy smart" of him, I was not at all surprised that Matt made a large bet. In fact, I was actually expecting to see that he'd bet it all. Or maybe I was just hoping that, just so Johnny could introduce him with "...who won nothing in yesterday's game" and Matt could make a funny face.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Chicken Wing

[ClareWalks]

At least we have finally solved the age-old question of "who is faster on the buzzer, Alex or Matt?" I don't see anything wrong with Matt's FJ bet. I remember being very surprised Matt didn't get the right answer, so he probably figured he knew the category well enough. 

[ChicagoCita]

I forgot to say, I thought what Kerry was wearing was beautiful, and I noticed she has highlights in her hair. Since I'm a Kerry fan, I wanted to go on record, since so many people have been not complimentary of her appearance. I thought she looked great.

[Snow Apple]

For FJ, I thought of The Man in the Iron Mask first and thought "nah, too obvious" and went with the Count. I wonder if that happened to any of them but they did the good old "always go with your first instinct" thing.

[Jesse]

I forgot to say, I thought what Kerry was wearing was beautiful, and I noticed she has highlights in her hair. Since I'm a Kerry fan, I wanted to go on record, since so many people have been not complimentary of her appearance. I thought she looked great.

Agreed -- she looked great.

[backgroundnoise]

Another easy category in the TOC was the "Lesser heard Shakespeare quotes"  which sounds like it could be challenging.  But then they give the character making the quote and have to name the play:  Mercutio, Prospero and Regan (forget the other two).  Too easy.

[secnarf]

There was a palpable "Holy shit!" atmosphere in the studio when he said he was betting it all.  And then to get it at the last minute.  Damn!  It did really look like he was struggling for that answer, too.

 

But hey, I got the FJ.  My first thought was Jean Valjean, even though I knew he wasn't the title character, and he lead me to another Frenchman imprisoned for years and that meant The Count of Monte Cristo.  I'd have bet big on that FJ.

I had the same thoughts on FJ!

But I've noticed that Alex nearly always looks like he's struggling for the answer on DDs, and then ends up seeming to pull the correct answer out of nowhere.

[peeayebee]

Alex J is responding (or has responded) to questions on Twitter. For instance, he said that Judy Blume was basically an educated guess.

[ClareWalks]

I always get the impression that Alex is stalling when he does that, since he usually has a pretty big lead. But who knows? 

[chessiegal]

Don't they always clear the boards on TOC? If so, stalling doesn't accomplish anything.

[ClareWalks]

Excellent point, I have no idea what his goal is...maybe I'm just assuming he is stalling because I feel like there is no way he doesn't know the answers quickly, considering how fast he is at regular Jeopardy. Alex is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a conundrum!

[secnarf]

Excellent point, I have no idea what his goal is...maybe I'm just assuming he is stalling because I feel like there is no way he doesn't know the answers quickly, considering how fast he is at regular Jeopardy. Alex is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a conundrum!

I feel like he is either trying to logically figure out the answer (he doesn't have the option of not ringing in if he's not sure, like he does with the regular clues, so this could explain the perception of a difference in his speed of answering), or trying to ensure that his answer is correct by thoroghly thinking it through before answering. After all, he tends to "bet it all" which means the stakes are substantially larger than they are for the average clue.