{"id":46789,"date":"2020-01-08T21:31:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T01:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46789"},"modified":"2020-08-12T21:31:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T01:31:14","slug":"greatest-or-not-jeopardy-james-changed-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46789","title":{"rendered":"Greatest or not, Jeopardy James changed the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Man, that was some good Jeopardy!<\/em> last night.\u00a0 I felt like a black guy watching the NBA slam dunk contest<\/a> at certain points of the consecutive matches, like whenever any contestant went all-in on a daily double or Final Jeopardy and got the question right.\u00a0 And to think there are several more nights of this, I think it\u2019s safe to say that there are at least two more solid nights of some solid Jeopardy! entertainment to be had.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken Jennings may have taken the first win of Jeopardy! <\/em>GOAT tournament, and could very well\u00a0 win it all; but I think it\u2019s safe to say that when the smoke settles \u201cJeopardy James\u201d Holzhauer is still the one who really changed the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take a lot of time to see that from the very start, the contestants started with the high-dollar answers, a staple of the Holzhauer tactic, with the ultimate objective being finding the Daily Double(s), and then going all-in to either run away with the game, or crash and burn trying.\u00a0 This was definitely not something that either Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter did in their previous runs, but by virtue of Holzhauer standing at the podium next to them, forced them to adapt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically what it boils down to is that if you don\u2019t play like Jeopardy James, there\u2019s little way to actually beat Jeopardy James.\u00a0 Contestants are forced to clear the Daily Doubles and wipe out all of the high dollar answers so that he can\u2019t build any bank, because he\u2019s so good at the game that he can win any game where he\u2019s capable of remaining in striking distance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Jennings and Rutter played a Holzhauer game where they sniffed out all the high dollar questions first, and unfortunately for Jeopardy James, between the two of them, they basically found every single Daily Double in the two matches of the night.\u00a0 Rutter, who was there solely on his legacy from 19 years ago, found 3-4 of them, and blew it and zeroed out each time, and it\u2019s painfully evident that in spite of his imprssive lifetime earnings through Jeopardy, he really has no place being in this tournament today.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a clear two-horse race between Holzhauer and Jennings; I think most assumed that would be the case from the start.\u00a0 But even Jennings admit to being out of his comfort zone when he bet his entire 3,800 on a Daily Double, and you could see the immense relief in his face when he happened to get it correct.\u00a0 But it no more clear the importance of playing like Jeopardy James than in the first match\u2019s Final Jeopardy where all three contestants going all-in on their wagers, with Jennings getting the win solely based on him building a strong lead in the first two rounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The most interesting part of night one was the Final Jeopardy of match two, was where Jennings made a fairly modest wager on Final Jeopardy, whereas Holzhauer went his customary all-in; both got the question correct, but by virtue of the rules of the tournament, where the aggregate of two matches was the deciding factor, Jennings edged Holzhauer out by a mere 200 points for the first win of the tournament.\u00a0 The impression I got was that Holzhauer didn\u2019t really think about the final tally, and just went all-in, because that\u2019s what he always does, whereas Jennings had Holzhauer\u2019s score constantly in his mind, and was actively tracking the numbers that he needed to be at in order to remain in front.\u00a0 And in the end, Jennings knew pretty specifically what he could safely wager to remain in front, even if and when Holzhauer went all-in and got it right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, experience won out in the start, and much like a match-up between heavyweights, it\u2019s clear that we\u2019ve got a game on our hands now.\u00a0 Ken Jennings beats Jeopardy James in the race for three wins, and we\u2019ve got several more nights to see how this thing will transpire.\u00a0 It\u2019s great television for viewers, and I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve had this much fun watching Jeopardy ever before.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, I\u2019d be remiss to not take another opportunity to dunk on Brad Rutter again; sure he seems like a nice guy, but again I don\u2019t think he has much place in this matchup.\u00a0 And in all fairness, as famous as James Holzhauer got through 2019 for his 30+ win streak, he\u2019s not really the first guy to play in this manner.\u00a0 Arthur Chu also played in a similar manner of going after high value answers first, and sniffing out Daily Doubles, but in comparison to the GOAT trio, he only amassed an eleven-win streak and nowhere near the earnings of the others.\u00a0 But as far as entertaining television goes, he would\u2019ve been a far more appealing third than Brad Rutter has so far demonstrated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever though, there is still much more Jeopardy to be played, and frankly, I\u2019m not sure whom I\u2019m rooting for.\u00a0 Definitely not Rutter, but I respect Holzhauer\u2019s tactics and like that he\u2019s also super into baseball and baseball numbers, but I also hold no ill-will to Ken Jennings, and I fondly remember the summer of 2004 when he basically dominated the game like no other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, no matter who wins the title of Greatest of All-Time, there\u2019s no denying that James Holzhauer changed the way the game is played, and it\u2019s no more evident in the fact that the other all-time greats have been forced to play like him, in order to have any chance at beating him.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man, that was some good Jeopardy! last night.\u00a0 I felt like a black guy watching the NBA slam dunk contest at certain points of the consecutive matches, like whenever any contestant went all-in on a daily double or Final Jeopardy and got the question right.\u00a0 And to think there are several more nights of this, … Continue reading Greatest or not, Jeopardy James changed the game<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79,100,152,69],"class_list":["post-46789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-cashmoney","tag-comparison","tag-gambling","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46791,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46789\/revisions\/46791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}