The J! Masters contests thus far (8pt ET, ABC) have been very entertaining, but oddly stretch my willingness to sit still and pay attention to J!

Oh, and on the "bet to win" notion... interesting twist in Game 4.

It worked, but that had to be a low-odds bet. You simply can't play assuming Holzhauer is going to miss questions.

Agreed, I do not like the play, despite it working there.

I will say that only a few games into the J! Masters series, it seems like all the participants have agreed that betting everything in most DD situations is optimal. The doom from a loss is nowhere near as severe as in the regular game when it just sends you home. And the 3-1-0 points scheme (which I support) is enough to make shooting for first place still the obvious goal.

The last answer in Double Jeopardy might have been the worst answer I've ever seen.

The questions are too hard.

I think the fact that 2nd place points are in play makes it more acceptable. He wins if Holzhauer gets it wrong and gets 2nd if Holzhauer gets it right.

If he bets everything, his best case scenario is to tie and hope to beat James on the tiebreaker.

But I think you have to go for 3 if the opportunity is there. If you're willing to settle for 1 you've already lost. There are so few matches that each 3 points is huge.

Tonight's final jeopardy answer might have surpassed the Walt Disney answer a few weeks ago as the most obvious final jeopardy answer I've ever seen.

Some news. No idea if she was good or bad.

Mayim Bialik Out At ‘Jeopardy!’ – Deadline

She was unbelievably horrendous.

Good; still catching up on the episodes from earlier this season -- all Ken -- and I remarked to my wife "you know, I'm really not missing Mayim." Which really didn't need saying -- neither of us liked her hosting -- but it really did seem like Ken was superior, the show is running along smoothly (even if the writing was occasionally weak)...why bother going back to the [clunky] shared duties?

I didn't hate her, but she's nowhere near as good as Ken. And I will definitely not miss her pauses when she reveals the question on Double Jeopardy answers. God that was annoying.

Ken has gotten a lot better with the banter between himself and the contestants.

Yogesh working really hard not to be so hatable in the tourny.

+1

Jeopardy Masters makes me feel really ignorant. I prefer Celebrity Jeopardy!

Betting fail on last night's game.

P1 (Champ) - 3600
P2 - 9400
P3 - 8800

P1 bets everything. Who cares? They shouldn't have a shot to win. But still dumb considering what happened.
P2 makes the only correct wager with $8201, enough to cover a P3 double.
P3 should know that P2 is likely to do this and their only chance of winning is if P2 misses. They should bet no more than 1501 to stay ahead of P1's doubled score of 7200. Instead they bet 7800.

P1 is only one to get it right and wins. Their wager was still kinda dumb because they would've lost if they got it wrong, but won no matter what if they bet zero.

It's nice to see new contestants again.

I had my interview more than a year ago. At the time, they said I'd be in the pool for 18 months, but they've since increased it to 24 months with all the second-chance tournaments.

Chen from today's game was the first from my group of nine to get the call. I'm pretty sure I won't - there are too many middle-aged computer geeks in the pool and I'm not exactly a ToC player in the making.

John Barra, who is the contest coordinator, really liked Chen. I told my wife after the interview that I was sure he'd be invited soon. If anyone from the group got the call, it would be him. Chen seems very down to earth, personable, interesting. I'm very sorry he didn't win a game. If I remember correctly, his specialty is reconstructive hand surgery.

Best of luck, Jim -- you're probably not wrong about the middle-aged computer geek point.

--------

I actually had a dream last night that I was a contestant, though it was in a studio which was some sort of 1970s abandoned house/museum, (a much younger) Trebek was there, and I started out as someone who was assisting in the games first. When I woke up I was finally about to get my shot, against a champion who had won an astounding $177k in their first game. LUCKY ME.

And that's still one of the worries I have about ever trying out again; I'd get my one shot (though these days I guess it's not necessarily just one) and run into a buzzsaw. I've improved, but is it enough? When is it enough? I mean, there's T.J. Tallie. He won a single game, came back, won one more in Champions Wildcard. This guy is in my LearnedLeague rundle -- and more often than not gets the best of me (I am 4-7-5 against him). He finished 60 of 786 in the last championship (I was...T297*). I know he is good. He only won 1+1.

There's also the never ending worry that I'd just choke. I don't do well in front of crowds. I'm not sure THAT is ever going away.



* Other J! notables (I'm sure I'm missing some):

T. Meyer - 5th
V. Groce - 6th
P. Mueller - 14th
M. Jackson - 19th
Y. Raut - 45th
A. Schneider - 56th
J. Zuffranieri - 120th
M. Roach - 138th
B. Rutter - 205th
A. He - 259th

(It's worth noting that how the LL rounds operate, there can be a bit of noise in the standings -- you get more points for questions that fewer people get right -- IF you have the confidence to mark those as "money" questions. So there's a factor of judging what will be hard for others -- it's not just "most answers wins." The previous championship, Yogesh finished in 8th, two points ahead of both Victoria and Matt (just short of 1500). 4-time champion Troy finished 31st, the only time out of TEN he finished out of the top-10. I suspect we're going to see him on J! again.)

I also wonder how deep they will dig with the JIT tournament. Take Patrick Friel. He won two games in Season 13 (1997!). I doubt few remember him (though he also won $100k on WWTBAM). But, he's won the last two LL championships. Might do pretty well if given another shot.


(His loss was a doozy; 23 right, 2 wrong...against an opponent with 23 right, 2 wrong, who became a 5-day champ.)