David Madden could not participate due to some technical issue involving his National History Bee and Bowl. Apparently the NHBB uses the same Standard and Practices organization as Jeopardy! and he thought it would be too much of a conflict of interest.
With regards, I do think he is the third best player. He won a stacked Tournament of Champions over solid players like Joon Pahk, Tom Nissley, and Mark Runsvold. He also holds the record for money won in a single game. Madden won the second most amount of gamesm but he lost in the semi-finals of his Tournament of Champions. Going back to Roger, I think he made the correct call on the first day Daily Double. It was a second row DD, which usually means it is going to be an easier clue. Doubling up his 10,200 would have given him a large lead heading into FJ. With such a large lead he would have not had to make a big bet on the second day Double Jeopardy Daily Double.
Ken had some bad luck that prevented him from massing a lot of cash. Namely, he did not find a single Daily Double over the two days. Had he found one or two of those, he might have been able to take it.
Agree. He also advanced the methodology of preparation for unique aspects of the game, describing a scientific, pattern recognition based approach, not simple ad hoc absorption.
Going back to Roger, I think he made the correct call on the first day Daily Double. It was a second row DD, which usually means it is going to be an easier clue. Doubling up his 10,200 would have given him a large lead heading into FJ. With such a large lead he would have not had to make a big bet on the second day Double Jeopardy Daily Double.
Not only that, but even if Roger only nailed the second DD ("Winnipeg" instead of "Manitoba") he would be on a path to winning the tournament with thousands of points to spare. All in all, he lost more than 20,000 instead of winning 20,000 on DDs - that's a turnover / flip of more than 40,000 points.
Nothing wrong with the strategy — as Ken said, somewhat wistfully, "That's what he does" — Arthur Chu has recently done the same, and both Ken and Brad were successful at employing it as well, especially when done early enough in the game, though not as methodically.
It was a game between equals. Amazing tournament!