Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

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Fleeboy
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Fleeboy »

seaborgium wrote:It's not exactly an obscure record, but it's obscure enough that I don't have a way to find out who some of its holders are: highest single-day total of the season. I have the following:

1: Elise Beraru, $23,800
2: Harvey Becker, $25,400
3: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $16,000 by Tim Casey; I doubt it's the season's record)
4: Kevin Frear, $27,800 (beating out Bruce Naegeli's $26,600)
5: Garrett Simpson, $25,500 (Frank Spangenberg's Wikipedia article lists him as the previous season's biggest one-day winner)
6: Frank Spangenberg, $30,600
7: Mark Born, $29,400
8: Jerome Vered, $34,000
9: Mike Boyd, $21,601 (Jerome's Wikipedia article lists Mike as the following season's biggest one-day winner)
10: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $18,801 by Tom Lakeman)
11: Steve Chernicoff, $24,700 (beating out Matt Handel's $23,400 the very next game)
12: Michael Daunt, $27,400 (edging out Karl Coryat's $26,100)
13: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $19,601 by Peter Braxton, one of a few 2x champs any one of whom could have made the 1998 ToC if they'd just gotten their third FJ right)
14: John Skelton, $31,000 (in Dan Melia's fifth game, he could have safely attempted and achieved $33,200, but he shot for and got $24,000 instead. But then, John could have safely gone for $34,199)
15: Mark Whittinghill, $17,799 (only two games in the season are unarchived, and the winning totals of those games can be figured out to be smaller than this)
16: Doug Lach, $32,400
17: Michael Arnone, $24,999
18 pre-doubling: Ramsey Campbell, $20,000
18 post-doubling: Jeff Goldfarb, $39,999
19: Brian Weikle, $52,000 (edging out Myron Meyer's $50,000; Myron could have won $73,999 with the maximum safe wager, but Brian had less than half Myron's leeway)
20: Ken Jennings, $75,000
21: Ken Jennings, $55,099
22: Maria Wenglinsky, $46,600
23: Jennifer Gotcher, $40,001
24: Larissa Kelly, $45,200
25: Kevin Joyce, $49,699
26: Ryan Chaffee, $41,600 (the only one to achieve this record from a pre-FJ second place position!)
27: Roger Craig, $77,000
28: Joon Pahk, $50,800
29: Helen Juvonen, $40,801

Hey cool, I just realized I've met five people on this list. Anyway, seasons 3, 10, and 13 are the ones I can't make a definitive statement about. (Well, I can't really with the Wikipedia stuff either, but the fact that someone did makes me a little more confident about them.) I could see the $19,601 figure for season 13 holding up (particularly since the season is much closer to complete), but I'm less sure about the other two. (What were John Cuthbertson's totals? He certainly could have won $82,400 over his five games without clearing $18,801, but if someone did it, he's my prime suspect.)
Ray Richmond's "This Is Jeopardy" listed high single-day scorers for most of the first 19 1/2 seasons (he omits that stat for Seasons 7, 9 and 12).

For Season 3, he lists Doug Molitor, Brentwood, Calif., with $17,600.
For Season 10, Steve Ashworth, Mt. Kisco, N.Y., with $21,200.
For Season 13, he confirms it's Peter Braxton, Fairfax, Va., with $19,601.
In Season 15, Jeff Krause, stationed in Sigonella, Italy, won $18,000 in one game during Military Week (the producers doubled his payout to $36,000). Of course, this wasn't during "regular" play.
Otherwise, Richmond's numbers agree with yours.

Just saw that Mr. Barrett posted this same info when I was composing the above. A younger guy beats me to the signaling device again!
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by rmfromfla »

As for Season 9, Tim Buthod, a 2-day winner from Georgia of $29,400 (#1893-1894, 11/25-26/1992) had the high score on 11/25/92 -- $21,900.

Others who hit the 20K + in S9:
Tom Nosek -- $20,000
Carl Courant -- 20,300
Kevin Porter -- 20,400
Bernie Shearon -- 20,700
Mike Boyd -- 21,601 :)
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by georgespelvin »

seaborgium wrote:Michael Shutterly may have missed out on the ToC by $201 to Ron Trigueiro, and Doug Antoniazzi may have missed out on being the 1998 ToC alternate by $2 to Bob Willoughby, but Sara Wilkinson missed qualifying for the 2011 ToC by a nickel!
Good one. You made me look. :lol:
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

Many thanks to rmfromfla, Fleeboy, and MarkBarrett for your help.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Bamaman »

I was watching the rerun of the triple zero game from the teen tourney and wondered about something. Have there been games (other than triple zero games) where everyone bet it all on FJ?
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by rmfromfla »

Can't remember off top of my head, but the "Jeeks Game" from S16/2000 comes close. :P
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

I'm pretty sure there's been a post-Ken Jennings game in which there was a tie for the lead, the leaders both bet everything, and the trailing player went all in as well. I don't think it ended in a tie, but I don't know who won.

edit: I found a pre-Jennings game that fits the bill (incidentally, the game after Jeeks lost). The reason I claim there was a post-Jennings game is that I recall reading a transcription on the Sony board of Alex remarking in the following game that a triple zero could have happened, and there were more transcriptions of that type after season 20.

P.S. Had Cindy Olson clammed on the final DJ clue of the game after the one I linked, Glen Savory would have entered FJ in a tie for the lead for the third game in a row. (Or Glen could have had some foresight and wagered for a $400 lead on the DD that was the 29th clue.) That one wouldn't have ended as well for him, though.

edit again: Seth Alcorn's losing game saw three maximum bets; Seth had the only miss. Maybe this was the game I was thinking of, even though it's pre-Jennings.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Bamaman »

Odd wagering in those games. The third place player in the first (and thrid) game you mentioned seemed to go all in just because the others had to. A strategy that only works on a sole get, but not on a triple stumper. I thought there would be scenarios like that, I think the triple zero in the senior tourney game had the same situation.

A poor DD wager on the other game. He could have safely bet another $700 to assure himself of being in the lead and no worse than a lock tie trailer if he is wrong.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by cheezguyty »

seaborgium wrote:I'm pretty sure there's been a post-Ken Jennings game in which there was a tie for the lead, the leaders both bet everything, and the trailing player went all in as well.
It was Sara Terrell's third game: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1253
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Bamaman »

OK, has there been a game where everyone went all in and there was not a pre-FJ tie involved and it was not a triple stumper?
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Magna »

cheezguyty wrote:
seaborgium wrote:I'm pretty sure there's been a post-Ken Jennings game in which there was a tie for the lead, the leaders both bet everything, and the trailing player went all in as well.
It was Sara Terrell's third game: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1253
I liked Alexandra's response!
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Mathew5000 »

TenPoundHammer wrote:Also, has there ever been a case where a contestant was in the red, hit a DD, yet was still in the red after getting it right? Also, has that ever been done with the "maximum value of a clue" bet?
Yes, I just watched this happen in the weekend rerun episode (originally aired January 30, 2012). “Kate found the Daily Double on the 30th clue. Brendan had $10,200, Kate was in the red with -$1,600, and Danny was at $3,600. Kate wagered $1,000.” [And finished the Jeopardy! round with -$600.] I loved her contestant interview where she corrected Alex’s phrasing on his response to a Fleming-era clue.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

MarkBarrett wrote:Season 3 Doug Molitor $17,600
Incidentally, before posting about it, I looked at the 1987 ToC intros and totals to see if there were any likely candidates; I could rule out the biggest winner, John Ryan, since his games were archived, and that left Doug as the most likely: he earned over $50k in four wins, and one of those was in a solo FJ. Since then, that game has shown up on kingskip.rutube.ru, and it turns out it wasn't the season-high game. He could have earned $17,600 and then some, but didn't shoot for it.

I'd also like to elaborate on a remark I made when bringing up the question of season highs:
seaborgium wrote:13. ? (The highest archived single-day score is $19,601 by Peter Braxton, one of a few 2x champs any one of whom could have made the 1998 ToC if they'd just gotten their third FJ right)
Pam Mifflin, with $42,300 in three wins, was the last qualifier for the ToC.
- Peter Braxton had $33,402 after two wins, led $9,800 to $6,400 (to $5,000) on his third FJ, and had the sole miss. The $12,801 he'd have won on a correct response would have brought him to $46,203.
- Patrick Friel had $30,021 after two wins, led $9,100 to $8,800, wagered to cover, and missed FJ. Not only did this miss theoretically keep him out of the ToC, but it resulted in the start of Dan Melia's run.
- Joyce Gray had $26,301 after two wins, led $8,200 to $8,100, and lost on a triple stumper FJ in which second place bet well. A correct response would have netted her $16,201 and bumped her to $42,502, just over $200 more than Pam's total.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

seaborgium wrote:The random FJ feature on J! Archive led me to Katie Sunseri's third game, and I clicked forward and found she was beaten in her next game by Jason Block. Jason lost in his fifth game to Mark Eckard (they were tied entering FJ and both bet it all, but Jason got it wrong). So that's a 5xer who defeated a 4xer who defeated a 3xer. Are there any longer sequences of successive champs winning one more (or fewer) game than the last?
I found a 1-2-4-3-5 string of champs crossing from the 20th century to the 21st. In reverse chronological order: 5xer Michael Arnone beat 3xer Adam Taxin, who beat 4xer Richard Kolostian, who beat 2xer Robin Jones, who beat 1xer Melinda Croft.

I was going to call that the longest string with no repeated streak lengths, but I realized that wording doesn't restrict it to strings with consecutive streak lengths covered. Particularly, I got curious about what kind of streaks preceded and followed the 9-6-4 of Jason Keller to Dave Leach to Dan McShane. Sure enough, they were both preceded (Boomie Aglietti and Beth Watkins) and followed (Brandon Libby and Betsy Schroeder) by a 2xer and a 1xer in that order. (And although it's the same number of champions, this streak is seven games longer than the Arnone one!)

And the most recent string of five champs with different streak lengths: 5-3-1-8-2 (Joshua Brakhage, Sara Garnett, Dylan Wint, Drew Horwood, Rob Groves).
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by MRMcDermott »

Magna wrote:This blogger comments on this (see #3):
http://fbeuks.blogspot.com/2009/04/jeop ... ourri.html
I think the incident may have been mentioned in one or more of the many books about the show.
Hmm, good thing I didn't make it to that interview for "The Chase" this spring.
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

Bamaman wrote:OK, has there been a game where everyone went all in and there was not a pre-FJ tie involved and it was not a triple stumper?
I found one. It was a triple get. http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=218
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by Bamaman »

Thanks for tracking it down!!!!!
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by seaborgium »

I lucked into it via the random FJ feature. That was one of those questions that's simple to understand, but impossible to get a search engine to answer. I just had to have the question in mind, and then go, "Hey, the leader doubled up on FJ. Oh, the other two did as well!"
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by robertyknwt »

teapot37 wrote:I've had this as my signature for a while, but I actually am curious how many people I share this distinction with, and if anybody has more losses on their record.
Late to the party here, but I've only managed 3 losses. My motorcycle licence plate says it all:

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 5574_n.jpg
5-time champion (1992), originally from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
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Re: Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

Post by GoodStrategy »

Here's one: What do former ToC participants Gary Palmer, Kathy Cassity, Aaron Thompson, and Deborah Fitzgerald have in common (that hasn't happened to any other ToCers)?
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