He was on Sports Center last night and had done something at the Vegas Golden Knights/SJ Sharks game (blew the horn?). Scott Van Pelt asked ‘so that was a childhood dream?’ and James said ‘Well not really since the Knights weren’t around when I was a child.’ Take that, Scott (I don’t like him). James had some personality in the interview.
I think he’ll get to throw out a ball or something for the Cubs.
He ‘only’ needs about $58k tonight to go over $1M.
Not the top 10, but some of the highest winners are here, and many appeared on the recent tournament where they played in groups of 3 (Brad’s team won). Some stats though about high game winners (now James is destroying those records). Remember, before 2003, the players could only be on the show for 5 days. There were some great 5 day winners but now we have 10-15-19 day winners, and of course Ken Jennings at 74 days.
We’ve always watched Jeopardy and are enjoying James very much! He plays smart. He is very very good with the buzzer. Choosing the large # questions early on is wise. He is not only building up a lot of $ in order to bet large on daily doubles, but he’s also jumping in while his competitors are getting comfortable. His breadth of knowledge is amazing. I hope he goes on for a very long time!
James is wonderful - quick on the buzzer, knowledgeable about a huge range of things, and he has … well, you know … I guess I should just say guts. I am enjoying the heck out of his run!
At home, Jeopardy is on at 7 pm. However, I am traveling for work this week, and in this market, it is on at 3:30 pm. I am not done with work yet so I am missing it and am bummed. He is so amazing to watch. I read an article that said Jeopardy viewership has increased during his run.
I have been a Jeopardy fan for years, and I have never seen anyone quite like James. He has buzzer skills, a huge range of knowledge, a great strategy and like @kelsmom said, guts! I just love watching him, although I feel sorry for the contestants going up against him. I look forward to seeing how far he goes!
You know…back in the day when they was a five day limit, there were some pretty amazing players. It’s really too bad some of them couldn’t have continued.
I haven’t seen this fellow…but I loved Ken Jennings. He was just so interesting.
Maybe this guy will get to play against that computer…what was it’s name?
“Its also interesting that Alex has publicly stated that he does not like the way James plays (the Forrest Bounce – going from category to category and starting at the bottom rather than starting at the top of a category, running down the questions in that category and then picking another category from the top)”.
James does not play a true “Chuck Forrest Bounce” strategy. Forrest’s strategy (which has been subsequently used by several other champions) was to jump randomly around the category board, both up and down and side to side, with a two-fold intention of a) finding the Daily Doubles (DD) and primarily to b) keep the other contestants a little off-balance and out of rhythm, because they wouldn’t know which clue or even category was coming next, but he would.
James’s method of picking the next clue is anything but random. He clearly starts at the bottom of the board and works his way up. His goal is also two-fold - he is primarily looking to rack up big bucks early so that he can make huge bets when he hits a DD. His other goal in shooting for the big money clues early is to deny them to the other players, which is especially useful late in the match. We see that in match after match - James has a big lead and all the big money clues are gone - leaving the others with no way to get back into contention. James also clearly wants to find the DDs, but he doesn’t want to find them too soon, since that would thwart his big betting strategy.
Back in my Jeopardy glory days I was pretty much a top-to-bottom purist. Alex is right that the clues do often form a pattern that helps you figure out the harder clues based on what you saw with the easier ones. Plus, my rather mild (or perhaps nonexistent) form of intimidation of the other players was to repeatedly beat them on the buzzer even when they knew which clue was coming next. Sort of a reverse Chuck Forrest Bounce. Kinda like the pitcher who signals to the batter than he’s going throw a fastball right down the middle of the plate and then blows the pitch right by the batter anyway, even though he knew what was coming. Of course that requires that you have to actually be better with the button than your opponents - which I often, but not always, was. James, on the other hand, is a total demon on the button. I’m pretty sure that if I could somehow recapture my prime and go back on the show and play him now he would clobber me thanks to his superior button work.
If you are traveling or miss the broadcast, or don’t enjoy suspense, the jeopardy reddit has an early recap of each day’s show (from its 9:30 am broadcast in AL). I check out the results in the morning and then enjoy watching James in the evening.
We hadn’t watched Jeopardy in years, but recently started watching - I will confess it is because we heard Alex was ill and we wanted to watch him while we still had the chance. Coincidentally, this guy (James Holzhauer) starts playing and we are totally hooked.
Two things I recently learned: These shows were recorded months ago. I was “fooled” by them signing off Friday and saying they would return Monday. I think they even noted it was Earth Day on Monday, but this all was recorded months ago. And I also read about how the button works; a light comes on after Alex finishes reading the answer, and only then may a contestant hit the buzzer. If he hits it too soon he is locked out for .25 seconds. So obviously James has some great buzzer skills,(in drag racing we call it “reaction time”) because he even gets the easy ones, but so many of those answers my wife and I just look at each other and go, “Huh?”
It’s been driving me crazy trying to figure out who this guy looks like but I finally realized it’s an actor from Kegends of Tomorrow. Im probably the only person who watches that show so nobody else is likely bothered by it.
I like him but I’m sure I’ll get tired of him soon. I was really sick of Ken Jennings after about 20 games.
I also didn’t like the recent Championship tourney when they played on teams. We watch during dinner (so distracted) and it was impossible to tell what was going on and who had money. And the questions were insanely hard.
