Friday, April 12, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[hscer]

David Madden 19x: $430,400
Julia Collins 20x: $428,100
James Holzhauer 7x: $415,035
Matt Jackson 13x: $411,612
Austin Rogers 12x: 411,000

At his current rate he would pass Jennings in regular play cash winnings in Game 43. Imagine if clue values paced inflation.

[CyrusChan]

During the break I wondered if he'd bet the ~31k he could afford to safely. Like there was ever any doubt

what an easy week of FJs!

How many episodes do you think he can go for?

Until he misses a big DD and his opponents take advantage (so that the board being drained of high-value clues works against him), which would require 1) his opponents actually hunting for them, and 2) the DDs he does hit being more difficult than "Cantabrigian + college cities -> Cambridge" and "Carthage + Spanish + Colombian city -> Cartagena"...

And yeah, instaget FJ. Come on, J! writers, you can do better than this.

Also, how the hell did the writers not anticipate Parmagian?

Yeah, those geography ones have been jokes. The hardest thing he has seen up to this point is "Bishkek"
One of those messages at the bottom is going to bite him in the @$$. that's like focusing 5-8 seconds on nothing.

[Ironhorse]

They're not doing that.

Yeah, I imagine that would open up a can of legal worms, no?

[Linear Gnome]

The writers misspelled "minuscule" in the "Moolah" category. I have a feeling that "miniscule" is eventually going to be considered an alternate spelling because it appears so frequently. I don't think that's happened yet, though.

[CasketRomance]

trebek's comment after announcing the category of "general knowledge"..."sounds easy"....i am guessing he has never done a morbeedo general knowledge quiz on alpaca

[CasketRomance]

what an easy week of FJs!

How many episodes do you think he can go for?

i'd say...first time i went 5 for 5 in a week in i don't know how long

[TheSunWillComeOut]

They're not doing that.

Yeah, I imagine that would open up a can of legal worms, no?

[insert Charles Van Doren obituary here]

[floridagator]

Who else noticed this misspelling?




I posted that before noticing that linear gnome had already mentioned it.

I think the champ has too great an advantage on the signaling button from days of practice. Obviously all three contestants knew many of those Clues; the most obvious one is letter from the Birmingham Jail.

Long before this champ began his run, I said I would like to see the rule change the categories can only be played straight down. That would also speed up the game by eliminating the need to call the dollar amount.

[cheezguyty]

Who else noticed this misspelling?

Wutz mispeled?

Fourth second-row DD this week?! Including two in a single day (Thursday)!? Has that ever happened?

The week of December 19-23, 2016, had seven second-row Daily Doubles -- two each on Monday and Wednesday and three on Friday.

[Le Master]

The writers misspelled "minuscule" in the "Moolah" category. I have a feeling that "miniscule" is eventually going to be considered an alternate spelling because it appears so frequently. I don't think that's happened yet, though.

[econgator]

Who else noticed this misspelling?

The person 3 posts above you.

[kprather895]

When James commented that he's running out of dates to wager, Alex quipped that he could use his birthday. That wager would be a cool $72,240.

[morbeedo]

trebek's comment after announcing the category of "general knowledge"..."sounds easy"....i am guessing he has never done a morbeedo general knowledge quiz on alpaca

haha but I suspect Trebek is playing my quizzes under the alias trivia9922. I need to write another one for you, bro

I can't blame them, but Mike and Ali look battered and bruised at the end of this game. I can only imagine the hurt. They both played well, Mike's early negs aside. It's just bad luck that they never uncovered a single DD

I see how maximizing the DD can lock up a game pretty quickly, but I'd put my conversion rate at far less than 100%. And most likely I would have missed the blindingly obvious Cambridge or Cartagena under the lights

For those tempted to go big - a cautionary tale

James is great, but I'm ready for someone to take him down. That's no sleight against him - I am in awe - but I'm rooting for the challengers now. Anyway, I figure he's already lost sometime in the future - we just need to catch up

[JayK33]

I got a bit scared for James after yesterday's game, but he came back and dominated unbelievably again today, getting everything right along the way.

[twelvefootboy]

The only suspense was how high up the board the contestants had to chew to find the DD1.

Literary Adaptations: The director of the 2018 TV version of this 1953 classic said yes, books were harmed in the making of this motion picture

WTF, writers?. Literary, director, TV, classic, books, motion picture all in one clue? What are we looking for? A movie? A book? I went directly to the answer, fully expecting that they wanted something else, maybe even an actor or an author.

I out-performed James in FJ this week . Where do I get my $400K?
It did seem like he took the last dozen or so clues off after he secured the big payday in DJ. He probably just relaxed, and why not? If the other players get a little dignity out of it, even better.

[morbeedo]

James said M-M-M for the 3-letter maker of Scotch tape. I said 3M. Same thing? Never heard MMM

[hanzz]

James said M-M-M for the 3-letter maker of Scotch tape. I said 3M. Same thing? Never heard MMM

It was asking for the NYSE symbol, which is MMM, not 3M (NYSE symbols can't have numbers, I don't think).

[hbomb1947]

For those tempted to go big - a cautionary tale

Some people will draw all the wrong lessons from that video.

[CasketRomance]

trebek's comment after announcing the category of "general knowledge"..."sounds easy"....i am guessing he has never done a morbeedo general knowledge quiz on alpaca

haha but I suspect Trebek is playing my quizzes under the alias trivia9922. I need to write another one for you, bro

I can't blame them, but Mike and Ali look battered and bruised at the end of this game. I can only imagine the hurt. They both played well, Mike's early negs aside. It's just bad luck that they never uncovered a single DD

I see how maximizing the DD can lock up a game pretty quickly, but I'd put my conversion rate at far less than 100%. And most likely I would have missed the blindingly obvious Cambridge or Cartagena under the lights

For those tempted to go big - a cautionary tale

James is great, but I'm ready for someone to take him down. That's no sleight against him - I am in awe - but I'm rooting for the challengers now. Anyway, I figure he's already lost sometime in the future - we just need to catch up

i just wrote another one and submitted it

[yclept]

Not that I blame her, but Ali didn’t appear to be very happy. Either that, or she was shellshocked. Someone who obviously has a big love for trivia being left to fight for table scraps when James temporarily loses his buzzer mojo. It sucks for anyone who has to challenge the top of the line players...unless you are the one who knocks him off.

Eventually, by luck alone, the person entering DJ in third is going to uncover the DD on the first call of the round. Eventually, by dumb luck alone, he might get a game where he uncovers no DDs. Or a game where he starts by calling a $1,000 clue and it ends up being the DD, minimizing the impact (and even potentially putting him in a $1,000 hole)

But he is beating solid players thus far. If he runs into a string of players that are below par, watch out - he could easily get to that million.