Has James Holzhauer broken "Jeopardy!"?

It's happened a few times now that I've known an answer that neither James nor the other contestants knew.

With respect to his betting strategies on DD in the second round, he is very careful not to bet enough to put him in "jeopardy" of not having a runaway game, if he happens to miss it. Usually he is so far ahead by that point anyway that he can easily bet $1oK (or even $20-30 K) without that being a problem.

 

...Did anyone here see about Charles Van Doren's recent death? I only saw the obit belatedly.
As for Jeopardy!, for me it was all downhill after Art Fleming...........

 

Yes I did see that obit.

Why do you say that about the current Jeopardy?
I would think that (taking this from an earlier post) that having the "answers" be interrupted all the time by guessing contestants would be very annoying.

Unfortunately, I only saw the Fleming version a handful of times back in the day, and I have never seen it rerun anywhere, so I can't really make any comments on my own.

 

He revealed that he studied by reading history & knowledge books in the children's section of the library- which seems like a genius strategy to me.

Personally, I'm enjoying watching him. I think a lot of haters are just upset that he has found a new way to play the game that has allowed him to run away with it and win large amounts. As far as I can recall he hasn't missed a Final Jeopardy question yet and has gone into every round with a score that ensured he would win unless he bet and lost an amount that would leave him with less than 2x the amount the 2nd place player has.

 

Didn’t “Jeopardy” use to like a week limit for contestants? I know @Oatsdad brought that up earlier. I seem to remember that. When did that stop?

 

September 8, 2003

 

Which was not long before Ken Jenning's run.

 

I think I remember one game early on where he didn't have a "runaway". I hope I am remembering that right.

I'm not a hater at all either. You have to know your stuff to do what he is doing (and no, I don't think it's rigged).
And I don't think he has found a new way to play the game. I have seen plenty of champions do the same thing he does -- at least as far as fishing for daily doubles, both to make his score higher and to keep others from getting them. He's just doing it far better.

The one thing I see with him that is unique is his ability to be the first to buzz in on each clue. At times, it feels as if if he the only one with a buzzer. I know the other contestants aren't stupid; they must be trying to buzz in also. I wonder what is going on there, with him. I don't think it's anything nefarious. I guess he just has excellent reflexes.

There are times I notice, at the end of the Double Jeopardy round, when the outcome is not in doubt, and all that is left are $200-$400 clues, that the other contestants are answering questions that really don't seem very hard to me. I wonder if he is intentionally not buzzing in at those times.

If you watch him, you can't tell whether he's trying to buzz in or not. He's probably very efficient in his movements wrt buzzer.

 

But would someone with Asperger's shake Trebek's hand, while not shaking hands with the other contestants?

 

...Is it perhaps de regeur to shake Alex's if you wanna Jep?

 

There was a contestant named Alex Jacobs who was a very good player, and he said that he practiced buzzer technique with a toilet paper roll holder, said it was the same size.

 

Absolutely true. we noticed that as well. I just kicked your ass across the room,now I 'll ignore your handshake. What a jerk!

 

... Well, being a bad guy can work in wrestling.....................

 

There was a show early last week where he trounced two women, and at the end of the Double Jeopardy round, the two women laughed (lightly), presumably at what they'd just been through.

Without knowing this guy's mental makeup, one hopes he didn't take that too personally. Hopefully, by virtue of being a gambler and often being a winner or a loser, he can understand.

 

It's possible, yes. Based only on my experiences with people with Aspergers they can sometimes view authority figures or famous/important people as significantly different from "ordinary" people and treat them more deferentially or just differently in general.

None of us really know if this is something he has or not. It may be that he would only need to be reminded "hey, you should shake the other people's hands, too" and he would go "oh, I see" and then do it - he may honestly not know it's expected of him.

 

Totally agree.

 

I hadn't known about that. Funny, I'd just looked up Mr. Van Doren about a month or so ago and was surprised to find he was still alive.

Charles Van Doren, a Quiz Show Whiz Who Wasn’t, Dies at 93

Herb Stempel is still with us at age 92, btw.

 

Just watched today's episode of Jeopardy! and...

Spoiler

it was close, but James won again. It was not the usual runaway victory: one of his opponents had $26k IIRC at the end of Double Jeopardy, with James at about $33k. I was sure James was going to lose.

 

yep Monday he looked like a mere mortal...when his opposition hit a daily double the were almost even but he edged it out...

 

If Holhauzer wins tonight, he'll tie Julia Collins's streak of 20 consecutive wins, set in 2014. Her winning streak is currently the second longest in the show's history, but still a long way from Ken Jennings's 74 game run.

 

Last Monday's show (which we can talk about now) was one of maybe two times -- that I had seen -- where it wasn't a "runaway" at the time of Final Jeopardy.

I still have not seen a game where he was behind at the time of Final Jeopardy. In other words, I have not seen him be in a position where a correct answer in Final Jeopardy by the challenger, in addition to a large enough wager by the challenger, would guarantee a win for the challenger. Not sure if it has happened yet (I've not seen all the show James has been on).

 

He hasn't been behind. I think only once or twice was another contestant even in a position to win (if James got the answer wrong) going into Final. (Monday's show being the only one I can recall, unless it happened early on because I missed his first few wins).

It's interesting reading comments about his personality or that he's "creepy." Frankly I find him much more human than some past Jeopardy champs, like Arthur Chu, who used to jump around the board just to piss the other contestants off. James has a plan, no question, but as far as him "finding a new way to win," really it's still all about answering correctly -- and then just betting big on Doubles. Yet, he doesn't do it recklessly -- he's smart enough to go for padding his total when the situation allows him to, but he still won't put the win in jeopardy (no pun intended) if it's Double Jeopardy and he doesn't have as much money to play around with.

The moment when he broke down and dedicated his win to his late grandmother really won me over, so I hope he keeps it up. Sooner or later he'll miss all the Doubles (which I think he did the other night) and run into a really good challenger, but he's balanced enough -- and doesn't seem to ever have a "bad category" -- to overcome that most of the time. Will be interesting to see how far he can go -- Jennings was on the show for months but James is making far more per-win, so besting his overall winnings is entirely on the table.

 

yeah he seems to be kind of shy and nervous at times, I don't see the creepy thing at all, but seeing him behind and kind of human on Monday makes me think he doesn't have a shot at Jennings, interesting watching him bet, he def thinks like a poker player/sports better