Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

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Vanya
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Vanya »

Dave/David's not here.

I'm sorry Dave/David, I can't do that.
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dhkendall
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by dhkendall »

Vanya wrote:Dave/David's not here.

I'm sorry Dave/David, I can't do that.
I have the former phrase personally autographed by Chong on my "Cheech and Chong's Greatest Hit" tape (yeah, it goes back that far) that I got autographed when he played the comedy club I was performing at at the time (I didn't perform at that show, though), and the latter was, for many years, the soundfile my computer would say when it encountered a critical error (since it was a Windows machine, it happened frequently)
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Agggron »

seaborgium wrote:To my knowledge, Robin Woods and J.J. Todor are the only contestants to have won multiple games from a pre-FJ third place. Both did it twice, and Robin did it in consecutive games. (She could have gotten three in a row, but her opponents may have been wary of repeating history and wagered unusually small on what would be a triple stumper.)
Not to rag on you with more examples, but I remember a lot of people posting about Brandon Libby winning from 3rd place in his first and second games just last season. :P It is a very interesting statistic, though. : )
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by MarkBarrett »

How about this one for the name game? Unless I missed one in a quick search, no woman introduced with a hypenated last name has ever won five games. Jill Bunzendahl-Chimka with four wins is the only one to make the TOC. Richard Perez-Pena is the only one to win five games. Jim Tompkins-MacLaine is the only other TOCer with that last name distinction.
seaborgium
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

Agggron wrote:
seaborgium wrote:To my knowledge, Robin Woods and J.J. Todor are the only contestants to have won multiple games from a pre-FJ third place. Both did it twice, and Robin did it in consecutive games. (She could have gotten three in a row, but her opponents may have been wary of repeating history and wagered unusually small on what would be a triple stumper.)
Not to rag on you with more examples, but I remember a lot of people posting about Brandon Libby winning from 3rd place in his first and second games just last season. :P It is a very interesting statistic, though. : )
No, go right on ahead! I don't know how I forgot those more recent ones. I guess J.J. and Robin just stick in my mind for respectively being a ToCer and a doubly ZergCammed contestant.

How about people who won the exact same amount on different days? Darryl Tahirali won $28,401 in each of his first two games (covering second places with $14,200); Sid Moore, Jr. got $1,300 in each of his first two (both times wagering from a close second to keep a third place with $600 locked out, and winning when both he and first place missed FJ). Ken Jennings, by virtue of his staying power and propensity for round numbers, probably has a few (including three $52,000s), checking the Hall of Fame now... six $50,000s, eight $40,000s, five $35,000s, ten $30,000s. (It also says Tom Baker won $32,300 in back-to-back games, but that's wrong.) Looking at that, I found Sri Narayanan, who won $30k in each of his two victories.
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cheezguyty
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by cheezguyty »

seaborgium wrote:How about people who won the exact same amount on different days?
Here are some more that I found:

$25,000 - Ken Jennings - games 6, 9, & 60
$25,000 - David Madden - 4, 8, & 13
$25,000 - Jason Keller - 3 & 4
$23,201 - Tom Nissley - 2 & 3
$22,799 - Chris Miller - 2 & 3
$22,000 - David Madden - 10 & 18
$21,800 - Ken Jennings - 40 & 42
$21,599 - Jim Stevens - 4 & 6
$20,000 - Ben Tritle - 4 & 5
$17,201 - Jason Zollinger - 2 & 3
$12,601 - Chris Ward - 1 & 4
$11,000 - Bill Jacobs - 2 & 3
$10,800 - Lan Djang - 2 & 5
$10,000 - Mike Blumenfeld - 1 & 2
$8,900 - Juliet Wiley - 1 & 3
$5,300 - Mark Stacy - 2 & 4

ETA: Just found another one:

$26,801 - Jason Zollinger - 1 & 5

ETA: Well what do you know, just three days after I added that one we now know of another!:

$20,006 - Joshua Brakhage - 1 & 4
Last edited by cheezguyty on Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by opusthepenguin »

dhkendall wrote:
Vanya wrote:Dave/David's not here.

I'm sorry Dave/David, I can't do that.
I have the former phrase personally autographed by Chong on my "Cheech and Chong's Greatest Hit" tape (yeah, it goes back that far) that I got autographed when he played the comedy club I was performing at at the time (I didn't perform at that show, though), and the latter was, for many years, the soundfile my computer would say when it encountered a critical error (since it was a Windows machine, it happened frequently)
Ha! I would also have considered going with the HAL 9000 computer saying, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Paucle »

I guess one of us is missing something, Opus, I thought that's what he just said he used?
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by opusthepenguin »

Paucle wrote:I guess one of us is missing something, Opus, I thought that's what he just said he used?
I have terrible skip vision.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

This has to be a record: William Toren missed out on $35,200 in pre-doubled dollars by crossing out the correct response in two consecutive FJs, starting in this game. (I'm counting switching answers before finishing the first, correct one as crossing out a right answer.)

Other examples of crossing out right answers:
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2480 (First day of a teen final; had Emily stuck with it, her maximum potential total going into the second FJ would have been $100 higher than Chacko George's, and FJ was a triple get. Assuming she would have bet to cover, that one cross-out cost her $11,601 and a ToC berth.)
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2497 (Winter crossed out one wrong answer, started writing the one they were looking for, then switched to another response that I believe would have been accepted, but ran out of time. The damage here was $21,300, and the chance to call himself a J! champion and play again.)
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1210 (The only one here with what I consider a happy ending. Lara Robillard's fifth game, she entered FJ with a $50 lead, and she was the only one to write the correct response, which, of course, she changed. But she'd only bet $50!)
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Turd Ferguson »

seaborgium wrote:This has to be a record: William Toren missed out on $35,200 in pre-doubled dollars by crossing out the correct response in two consecutive FJs, starting in this game. (I'm counting switching answers before finishing the first, correct one as crossing out a right answer.)

Other examples of crossing out right answers:
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2480 (First day of a teen final; had Emily stuck with it, her maximum potential total going into the second FJ would have been $100 higher than Chacko George's, and FJ was a triple get. Assuming she would have bet to cover, that one cross-out cost her $11,601 and a ToC berth.)
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2497 (Winter crossed out one wrong answer, started writing the one they were looking for, then switched to another response that I believe would have been accepted, but ran out of time. The damage here was $21,300, and the chance to call himself a J! champion and play again.)
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1210 (The only one with what I consider a happy ending. Lara Robillard's fifth game, she entered FJ with a $50 lead, and she was the only one to write the correct response, which, of course, she changed. But she'd only bet $50!)
Bruce Lin's "Marktiple Choice" (and that is what it was) cost him a TOC spot:
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1158
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

What is the largest deficit in the first game of a two-day final that a person recovered from in the second day to win the tournament? The two Teen Tournaments in 2007 seem like good candidates for #1 and #2: in the February one, David Walter went into Final 2 with $14,200 to Ben Schenkel's $40,000, and won (thanks in no small part to David's self-destruction on Daily Doubles); in the July one, Meryl Federman lost all her money in the first FJ, but came back to win against her opponents, one of whom had already banked $25,000. But if you double pre-doubled amounts, it looks like Frank Spangenberg's comeback from $600 against Tom Nosek's $13,600 (aided by Tom's blindly wagering everything from second*) wins. The biggest ToC comeback seems to be Michael Falk ($17,400) against Vik Vaz ($30,800).

*Tom Nosek was in two two-game finals, and bet everything on FJ in all four games. That has to be some kind of record.

Speaking of finals, I think the record for most tournaments' final rounds made by one player is three, with a tie between the M$M finalists: Eric Newhouse made the finals of his Teen Tournament, the Teen Reunion Tournament, and the M$M; Bob Verini made the finals of his ToC, Super Jeopardy, and the M$M; and Brad made the finals of his ToC, M$M, and the UToC. Two-final players (I think I got them all) are Tom Cubbage (CC/ToC), Dave Traini (ToC/SJ), Lou Pryor (ST/ToC), Marilyn Kneeland (ST/ToC), Tom Nosek (ToC/10AT), Jeff Stewart (CC/ToC), David Javerbaum (TT/TRT), Michael Daunt (ToC/IT), Robin Carroll (ToC/IT), Jerome Vered (ToC/UToC) and Cliff Galiher (CC/ToC).
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

I was just browsing through early 2004 in J! Archive, and came across this game, in which champion Margaret Meehan faced challenger Dave Meehan. I can think of only one other time that two players with the same last name competed against each other, and that's Lowell Goodman and Allen Goodman, who were co-challengers in season 24, I believe [checking... yup!]. Interestingly enough, there were potential ties between both pairs in those games: Margaret offered a tie from the lead to Dave in FJ (he only wagered $100 and got it wrong while she got it right), and Allen and Lowell were tied for second going into FJ (Allen wagered everything, Lowell held back $100, and only Lowell got it right).

There's also homophones David Siegel and Isaac Segal, who were finalists in the 1995 ToC (and missed each other by one day in regular games: Isaac's run started the game after David won his fifth). Are there any other pairs, homographic or not?
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by cheezguyty »

seaborgium wrote:Are there any other pairs, homographic or not?
Martin Smith and Carole Smith were the two challengers in an episode from 1997, and Dan Lee and William Lee played together in a Season 27 game (the William Lee who defeated Michael Falk (not the other Michael Falk), not the other William Lee)).
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by MarkBarrett »

cheezguyty wrote:
seaborgium wrote:Are there any other pairs, homographic or not?
Martin Smith and Carole Smith were the two challengers in an episode from 1997, and Dan Lee and William Lee played together in a Season 27 game (the William Lee who defeated Michael Falk (not the other Michael Falk), not the other William Lee)).
And if we have one of those Bacon degree things ever going on: I've played against Michael online (no Pitt or Norton there) and I've played with William on a pub trivia team.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

The nine one-day champs between Erin Zwiener and Stephanie Jass is the longest such streak I remember seeing, but I found a series of games in 2002 (with only the contestants archived, no clues) during which ten challengers won and then lost in the following match, between three-time champ Nanette Wargo and two-time champ Susan Robbins. Have any 1xer streaks gone on for more than two weeks?
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by cheezguyty »

seaborgium wrote:Have any 1xer streaks gone on for more than two weeks?
There were 13 straight 1-time champs between Richard Mason and Tom Kelso, spanning the hiatus between Seasons 18 and 19.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by MarkBarrett »

Not a J! record holder, but be ready for the singer with 3 letters in his name who surpassed Bieber for most YouTube video views with over 805 million.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Jeff-thecdboy »

How about people who won the exact same amount on different days?
Thanks to Mark Barrett for bringing this up in the 11/22/12 game discussion: Sara Cox happened to win $17,400 in both her first and third games in Oct. 1990 (she was also the second of only three J! contestants to be co-champions with two different people).
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by hanzz »

Has there been a situation yet where two contestants in a tournament final with the same first name end up facing each other? I can't imagine it happening under any other circumstance as TPTB would likely do all they can to prevent same-name matchups in regular or QF/SF play, and it would probably have to be a ToC final since that's the only tournament they can't control (to some extent) who gets selected.
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