That was fun to watch. Pretty sure that will light a fire for James tomorrow. Also, he didn't get any Daily Doubles. I believe Brad got 3 wrong.

Tough break when you don't land on any of the 6 DDs. I think if James had gotten one of them he would have won.

Yeah James got some bad luck by missing them, but I've never seen anyone get killed by the Daily Doubles like Brad did. This format is interesting because James lost by $200 and got exactly as much as Brad did... Nothing...

third coast.. said:

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They called everything points though not money. Isnt there 2 more days left?

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There could be up to 7 nights. Each night is standalone (so points reset tomorrrow), and the first to win 3 nights is the champ. So it could be as short as this week only if Ken wins the next 2 and closes it out in the 3 nights scheduled this week, or it could come back next week Tuesday thru Friday (or however many of those needed for someone to get to 3).

Foxymophandlemama said:

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third coast.. said:

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James.lost day 1 by 200 points.

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He didn't get a single daily double in either game. Ken took advantage of them. It hurt Brad.

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And every Daily Double was found almost immediately, so there was less opportunity for big dollar bets.

third coast.. said:

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They called everything points though not money. Isnt there 2 more days left?

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No. 6 more episodes.

So theoretically they all win 2 and the last one is for all the marbles.

Million bucks to the winner. $250k to the other two. And it could still end up just 2 more if Jennings wins them.

That was a great start. I hope it goes seven games. I like all three guys.

Great game. Jennings was a bit annoying but I had forgotten how good he is. Holtzhower seemed to be cruising.

I know this has been discussed before but I can't remember the answer: are they given study categories/material/info? Or do they go in blind?

Stive said:

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I know this has been discussed before but I can't remember the answer: are they given study categories/material/info? Or do they go in blind?

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They go in blind.

The DVR lists 7 scheduled episodes

Sorry wrong thread.

Jennings was in solid form last night. Brad just got destroyed by those daily doubles and seemed slow in the buzzer. He actually had the most correct responses in the second game double jeopardy, so maybe he's found his form.

I just hope this goes 7.

Yep, it could go 7. I hope it does, but I imagine they just have all the DVR space reserved to avoid unintentional spoilers.

aggietony2010 said:

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Yep, it could go 7. I hope it does, but I imagine they just have all the DVR space reserved to avoid unintentional spoilers.

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Speaking of spoilers, i was googling last night to find out how many episodes this thing is going to go, and there were a lot of articles suggesting that the winner may have been leaked.

Just a warning not to go poking around too much if you don't want to spoil anything for yourself.

Spoiler alert:

The winner is: Ken, Brad, or James

Stive said:

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Man...has anyone ever been more fascinated with a coach fact than Craig is with Matt Rhule's experience coaching almost ever position in the field?

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What is "Your daughtah died"

Decay said:

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Stive said:

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Man...has anyone ever been more fascinated with a coach fact than Craig is with Matt Rhule's experience coaching almost ever position in the field?

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What is "Your daughtah died"

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Sorry, wrong thread

Southlake said:

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Great game. Jennings was a bit annoying but I had forgotten how good he is. Holtzhower seemed to be cruising.

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Ken Jennings + the techniques Holzhauer dominated with was powerful in the first match.

With 3 champions like this, so much of it comes down to timing the buzzer. Ken is hunting daily doubles like James did in his run.

James' "haha" and point to Brad when one of the answers was Philadelphia was pretty funny

Something tells me this good natured poke at Ken means Ken wins.

Y'all ever hear the story of Kosh Hutchersons little brother?

So Josh is filming Zathura during Kens fun and his little brother idolizes Ken. Has a poster of him in his room. Watches every show.

So his mom gets him tickets to be in the audience on his birthday.

Yep. That's the day Ken loses.

Foxymophandlemama said:

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Something tells me this good natured poke at Ken means Ken wins.

Y'all ever hear the story of Kosh Hutchersons little brother?

So Josh is filming Zathura during Kens fun and his little brother idolizes Ken. Has a poster of him in his room. Watches every show.

So his mom gets him tickets to be in the audience on his birthday.

Yep. That's the day Ken loses.

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Agree with your first point. I remember during James' initial run he was poking fun at Ken on twitter when he was closing in on the $2.5MM money record. Then of course, he ended up losing and fell just short of Ken's record.

TMoney2007 said:

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Southlake said:

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Great game. Jennings was a bit annoying but I had forgotten how good he is. Holtzhower seemed to be cruising.

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Ken Jennings + the techniques Holzhauer dominated with was powerful in the first match.

With 3 champions like this, so much of it comes down to timing the buzzer. Ken is hunting daily doubles like James did in his run.

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Ken hunted DD's in his 74 game run as well and if I remember right was one of the early adopters of doing it. Brad did it last night as well.

The crazy part is that James came within a breath of beating Ken and didn't get a single chance at the DD's last night. Ken bet modestly during both final Jeopardy's but had the luxury of doing so in the first round because of the big lead and the luxury of doing so in the second round because he could. If James gets a DD in either of those games last night (especially in double Jeopardy) I think he wins it. This whole contest is going to be a scavenger hunt battle of who can find the DD's; I think that alone will decide the thing. They're all going to bet huge on the DD's because they all live to fight again the next night.


During Brad's interview in the first game I thought it was interesting that he talked with Alex about having trouble with recall as he got older. It seemed like that was front and center during the first game but by the second round of the second game he got in a groove and you could see what he's capable of when he gets on a roll.

It's funny he's talking about his recall as he gets older. He's younger than Ken.

Yeah, the DD's will clearly drive the most likely winner each day, as well as nailing Final Jeopardy. James couldn't find them and Brad flubbed a couple. Score was fake close. It was a relatively dominant W given how the DD's played out, although still lose-able had he gotten Final wrong.

James had to bet big in the second final jeopardy. Ken's had a relatively small bet needed to secure the win.

DannyDuberstein said:

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Yeah, the DD's will clearly drive the most likely winner each day, as well as nailing Final Jeopardy. James couldn't find them and Brad flubbed a couple. Score was fake close. It was a relatively dominant W given how the DD's played out, although still lose-able had he gotten Final wrong.

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Which Ken nearly did as he guessed on one of them.

EMY92 said:

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James had to bet big in the second final jeopardy. Ken's had a relatively small bet needed to secure the win.

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I alluded to that in my post though. James won the second game and did so without finding a single DD. That allowed Ken to bet modestly because he had the luxury to do so from the first game. James finding one DD in either game probably changes the dynamic of the whole thing. Brad finding them didn't do him any good.

EMY92 said:

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James had to bet big in the second final jeopardy. Ken's had a relatively small bet needed to secure the win.

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Yep. Ken did the math to keep the lead. He would have bet more if James had more to gamble.

It basically comes down to final jeopardy unless the leader is so far ahead that the 2nd place player can't close the gap.

A huge part of it really comes down to being on time with the buzzer so that you can control the board and search for DD.

As a pretty regular watcher of Jeopardy and someone with a head full of useless trivia I found the categories to be tougher than normal.

Perhaps they were just coincidentally full of things I know nothing about but does anybody think they make the answers harder for this specific tournament?

And those triple answer categories are a freaking doozy.