Friday, April 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[jeff6286]

Could have been quite interesting if the $412 James left behind on his DD wager made the difference in the game being a crush or not. Didn’t turn out that way but wasn’t far off. Obviously the single get Final would make this irrelevant but I don’t see the strategic value in not going all in there.

So far, he has made wagers with numbers that represent important dates for his family. Like,

Spoiler

9/8/12 is his wedding date, and $9,812 was the amount of one of his DD wagers yesterday (as well as his FJ wager today).

I haven't asked him yet but I'm sure November 9, 2014 must be a date with special significance for him as well. He seems okay with very slightly reducing his chances of winning, and/or leaving a little money on the table, with his sentimentally motivated but still massive wagers

Not sure if you're disagreeing with me or agreeing with me. I maintain my stance, don't see the strategic value here, and from a player of his background it's a bit surprising.

[StevenH]

That one did not strike me as likely as having the DD.

What? Each category has a 1-in-6 chance in the J! round.

Right, but based on historical trends some types of categories are more likely to have DDs than others. For example, categories called Potpourri rarely or never have them. The Monet category struck me as being in that same type of mold that is not good for DDs. I could have been wrong, but there were other categories that seemed more likely to have them.

[harrumph]

threearruda: Thank you for the insight about Marshall's sibling, Ramona Shelburne even though I have to play the CasketRomance card of never heard of her. Put her on HQ with Papi & Dan and then she can hit my radar.

HQ is one of my all time favorite shows.

ETA: It was not until reading comments elsewhere that I realized I never considered London. England should go with the other biggies above.

I assumed that the "neighboring countries" stipulation in the FJ clue eliminated London from consideration.

[hbomb1947]

Could have been quite interesting if the $412 James left behind on his DD wager made the difference in the game being a crush or not. Didn’t turn out that way but wasn’t far off. Obviously the single get Final would make this irrelevant but I don’t see the strategic value in not going all in there.

So far, he has made wagers with numbers that represent important dates for his family. Like,

Spoiler

9/8/12 is his wedding date, and $9,812 was the amount of one of his DD wagers yesterday (as well as his FJ wager today).

I haven't asked him yet but I'm sure November 9, 2014 must be a date with special significance for him as well. He seems okay with very slightly reducing his chances of winning, and/or leaving a little money on the table, with his sentimentally motivated but still massive wagers

Not sure if you're disagreeing with me or agreeing with me. I maintain my stance, don't see the strategic value here, and from a player of his background it's a bit surprising.

I don't disagree with your basic point, but the marginal effect of not going completely all-in is small. My point is that while he knows what he's doing strategically, he takes another value into account - sentimentality - but it barely moves the needle.

[MattKnowles]

That one did not strike me as likely as having the DD.

What? Each category has a 1-in-6 chance in the J! round.

Does it? https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautifu ... eatmap_oc/

[BRD-98]

Another strong showing by James against smart challengers. Marshall Shelburne is no pushover, for instance: he's a known quizzing person and scored well on the WQC. Anyhow, can't wait for more pearl-clutching about James' "character" on Twitter on Monday!

[This Is Kirk!]

I assumed that the "neighboring countries" stipulation in the FJ clue eliminated London from consideration.

Not really, but it wouldn't take too long to eliminate Dublin from consideration.

I really should have thought more about the "6-letter" part of the clue but instead I just floundered about thinking of any European capitals and ran out of time.

Interesting that there was a clue about Ramona Quimby and one of the contestants tonight has a sister named Ramona. It's not a name you come across all that often!

[twelvefootboy]

Sorry, Satish. You watched his first game. I loved the way all three of them went straight to the bottom, although it does marginalize the endgame as they finish off the dinky clues.
The momentum of the game seemed to change with the Normandy clue. I'm sure James knew it but was happy to CLAM to avoid any chance of letting the other two off the hook.

I expected an easy triple get - boardies and contestants know their capitals. I expected to miss it, but I was in Bern in September (so was recently refreshed on a softball capital question), and I went straight to the four letter route specifically so I wouldn't have to mess with Sofia and Prague and ad infinitum. Bern, Rome, Oslo - easy as long as I check the clue and don't answer "Bern and Berlin", like I actually stopped thinking about.

I'm sure the conversation about some web site someplace will continue in today's game thread as well. My take on this (clicking on the offending site) is the same as watching ISIS beheadings. Don't. Do. It.

For the benefit of the sleuths, I will discuss my audience experience in December 2017. I fully expected to maybe sign a disclaimer/code of conduct, and/or provide some dox. I wasn't surprised when we didn't, as any conceivable documents would be unenforceable. What did surprise me was that there was never a verbal appeal or even hint or whisper during the warmup or breaks or any of the audience instructions. Johnny told us when to clap and when to shut our yap.

If there is a rogue perpetrator, they could have caught a game or three deep in the run and still known about the early successes. And, yes, if it's stupid, someone will do it. In their mind, nobody told them not to do it, and it will take Robert Mueller 30 months to check it out.

[BigDaddyMatty]

Coryat: 36,000
45 R/2 W
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: (none)

I love it when a player realizes that (s)he is there to win the game. James is combining a strong knowledge base with solid strategy. Let's see how long he can keep it going.

[heppm01]

Precalled Warsaw based on the category and was delighted to find it contained six letters. Wasted the next 20 seconds trying to mangle it into another capital name before switching gears and taking the four letter part of the clue and working backwards. Got it in the nick of time.

[John Boy]

I got this FJ by focusing on 4-letter capitals and then trying to add the other two letters. Rome? Can't see another European capital there? Oslo? No luck there either. Once I came up with Bern it was easy to get to Berlin for the solve with some time to spare.

Well that was genius. Seriously.

I thought of 6-letter capitals and went gaga: The non-exhaustive list includes Tirana, Prague, Berlin, Athens, Dublin, Warsaw, Lisbon, Madrid, Ankara, Moscow, London, and God knows what else. It stands to reason there are fewer4-letter ones, but it never occurred to me to start there.

I went google-eyed for a few seconds and then by the grace of God just happened to think of Berlin, and got this one right with plenty of time to spare. But this clue is a perfect example of why I hat clues like this (yeah, even though I got this one, so it ain't just sour grapes): give contestants a long list of plausible correct answers and 30 seconds to sift through them. Kind of like that one recently about state capitals east of the Mississippi.

This kind of clue seems like the sort that most of us could get if given, say, two minutes. But not 30 seconds. Wish these would disappear.

Having said that, man does James look strong.

And I don't look for comments about J! games on any other site but this one, so I know nothing about what kind of trash talking is going on elsewhere. From the comments in this board referring to those comments elsewhere, it sounds kind of pathetic. I honestly don't know what there is to rip about this guy. Game play and personality both seem to be just what TPTB are looking for. OK, I'm not a big fan of quirky wagering amounts, and I'd prefer people begin categories at the top row, not the bottom (unless it's late in the game and you need to score in a hurry). But neither of those is a big deal. Some times I'm just really glad I don't pay more attention to all the crap on social media. Let the guy keep playing and leave him alone already.

[yclept]

James is more Larissa and Alex than he is Austin or Buzzy in that he just crushes you without the added flair. Note that I don’t mind either type of contestant.

I went to the fansite that everyone says to avoid and.... saw nothing controversial or off-putting. Fans calling those he defeats “the Humbled”? That is suppose to rile me up?

[StevenH]

I went to the fansite that everyone says to avoid and.... saw nothing controversial or off-putting. Fans calling those he defeats “the Humbled”? That is suppose to rile me up?

Yeah, I'd say that it's in bad taste.

I still don't know who is responsible for the site, so please don't take this as me blaming James for it.

[RKane]

My biggest concern with the fansite is that James will wind up in a similar position to Skyler Hornback in that their momentous accomppishments are overshadowed/caveated by silly things out of their control.

[hbomb1947]

My biggest concern with the fansite is that James will wind up in a similar position to Skyler Hornback in that their momentous accomppishments are overshadowed/caveated by silly things out of their control.

I doubt that James's accomplishments (which will be considerable, judging by the hype in the promo video) will be overshadowed by the kerfuffle about the third-party website. The sniping about it is coming from the insular bubble of the hardcore trivia / J! community. I think It's highly unlikely that any average viewers have even noticed, or care about, the site - which, leaving aside the content, is not very impressive as websites go. It's not going viral.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

58 R (Missed Felix Leiter and Collusion.)
DD: 2/3
FJ:
LT: Varnish, Normandy, Miranda Lambert, Tremendous, Charles De Gaulle

[This Is Kirk!]

My biggest concern with the fansite is that James will wind up in a similar position to Skyler Hornback in that their momentous accomppishments are overshadowed/caveated by silly things out of their control.

I doubt that James's accomplishments (which will be considerable, judging by the hype in the promo video) will be overshadowed by the kerfuffle about the third-party website. The sniping about it is coming from the insular bubble of the hardcore trivia / J! community. I think It's highly unlikely that any average viewers have even noticed, or care about, the site - which, leaving aside the content, is not very impressive as websites go. It's not going viral.

I agree, hbomb. We've probably already discussed it here way too much.

[Ironhorse]

I'm intrigued by rather people tend to start with the 4 letter capitals or the 6 letter capitals. I tried starting with the 4's, knowing it was a smaller set, but I couldn't think of anything other than Oslo, so I panicked and began going for the 6s, which did get me there in time.

[davey]

That one did not strike me as likely as having the DD.

What? Each category has a 1-in-6 chance in the J! round.

Right, but based on historical trends some types of categories are more likely to have DDs than others. For example, categories called Potpourri rarely or never have them. The Monet category struck me as being in that same type of mold that is not good for DDs. I could have been wrong, but there were other categories that seemed more likely to have them.

You're right about the unequal distribution but the reason not to go for this category is that we didn't know what it was about, and Alex didn't help by pronouncing Monet to rhyme with Punny, which it doesn't. And then he referred to paper Monet, (pronounced correctly) in the clue which distracted me into wondering what currency that drawing would be on...
It wasn't till I started writing this post that I realized the category was another Bond reference...

[morbeedo]

Nice title defense by James in staying cool against a tough competitor. This week's pool of players had some heavy hitters in the mix.

Nice to see the challengers recognize what they’re up against and rise to the occasion. I imagine James could go on a long run if his future opponents revert to safe game play. I, for one, would go down kicking and screaming. Up against this week’s players, he doesn’t look unbeatable

This game was good for me. Few misses and some nice trash pick ups. My only miss on the big clues was Sarah Lawrence, but no way I’m betting more than $5 on COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES unless I’m forced to bet more