Posted on 05/20/2019 11:34:06 AM PDT by llevrok
Like most people who are extremely cool, I'm a huge Jeopardy! fan and have been in awe of the recent dominant run by James Holzhauer. The 34-year-old professional sports gambler has piled up $1.7 million in just 22 games, through a combination of remarkable knowledge, fast buzzing, and lucrative betting.
He's averaging more than $76,000 per game. To give an idea of how impressive that is, when current winnings record-holder Ken Jennings set the one-day record in 2004, he won just over $75,000. Like former champ Arthur Chu, Holzhauer doesn't select dollar amount answers in neat rows, but rather he aggressively searches for "Daily Doubles" in order to maximize his chances. He's smart and ruthless. He's great to watch.
That is unless you're getting crushed by him on national television, as one salty runner-up named Robin Falco told CNN on Monday. (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
I think he is just plain smart.
Like you, I think I know about as much as the average contestant but am sure I couldn’t beat him.
I also think his knowledge of odds really helps him. I was once trying to find a gambler. I was talking to the chief of a department in the city the guy was from.
The cops were happy that we were after him. One thing in his file was that he had been caught playing craps in an alley. he also made high dollar bets of games etc.
The fact is, being a gambler, it really helps to know a lot. You really need to be smart.
I read an article about the guy. He spent days/weeks watching Jeopardy to listen to Alex’s voice and had a button rigged up to press. I’m guessing like playing cards, Alex has a “tell” when he gets to the end of the question. He did it standing up for hours (5?) on end. I guess they tape a bunch of shows on one or two days that last the entire week.
After the first day he realized his new dress shoes were uncomfortable and got inserts. (He asked if he could do the show in sneakers and shorts!)
I could almost see him losing from a dumb mistake. Betting the farm on Final Jeopardy and it will be to break the $10 million mark.
“And James - lets see your answer.”
Scrawled on the screen is “New Caledonia”.
“Ooh. That is the right answer but is not in the form of a question, I’m sorry James.”
(I don’t know - does it even have to be in the “What is ....” format on Final Jeopardy?”
Losers hate winners. That lady is prolly a Democrat.
he continues on as if nothing has happened.
= = = = = = = =
I had heard he said something about he has 3(?) years left on a contract so tight he couldn’t even ‘die’ before it was up...(Or something along that line)...
I had always figured if I were to have to start double jeopardy the best way to go was the 2000 line until you got ‘beat’....that will put you back in the game in a hurry (of course, it helps to not only know the answer but have good eye/buzz/hand/click/coordination)
I remember a ‘Married, With Children’ episode where Kelly won a chance to get on a Jeopardy type show and Al had somehow figured out that in Kellys case when one item of info went in, one went out so he force fed her answers and she got to the final round worth a gazillion or so bucks and she blew the one answer she had heard almost every day of her life.
Who set the record for Polk High by scoring 4 TDS in the championship
Apparently they had fed her too much info and it had forced out the only fact that she probably actually knew.
Al - as usual - took failure well....
Yep. I was on Jeopardy back in 1994. It took me a few minutes in the first round to get the hang of the buzzer timing, but once I did, I kinda dominated the game. Then I blew it in the last few minutes, missing a Daily Double question, then another big money question and not knowing the final question. But I did walk away with a nice coffee/espresso machine (this was back when the runners-up didn't get money, just prizes) and a good story. The contestant coordinators, the people who run herd on you all day, were very happy with me because I'd "played the game" and made good television, even though I lost. I'd say that all three contestants can answer 80% of the questions.
They don't like to talk about it, but they're casting the show just like they're casting any other TV show. They want people who have some personality, who can hold their own in the chat segment, who will appeal to their viewers, and so on. It's not just about who gets the highest score on the test. When I tried out in 1994, there was one guy who passed the written test along with me (about 10 out of 100 passed). The coordinators all knew him because he'd come back year after year, passed the test, and never gotten picked. And in the follow up, in which you play a little practice game and chat a bit, it was easy to see why he'd never gotten picked. On the other hand, I got a call a couple of months later to be on the show.
Depends what day he started, but they do a week's worth of shows in a day. Two in the morning and three after lunch.
I love watching Holzhauer and the whole household are rooting for him. His knowledge is impressive and I have speculated that perhaps he has a photographic memory. But he’s also excels with buzzing in which seems to trip up a lot of contestants. His unnerving gambling style keeps me on the edge of my seat. All hail James!
(After watching two weeks of those dummy teachers tonight will be a great treat!)
Lots of times when trying to recall specific bits of information we have a sort of premonition that we know the info, but haven’t quite brought it back to the articulable stage yet - probably only a fraction of a second in length, this latency gap could be enough to make a big difference if James were “buzzing” when the premonition hit and bringing up the information in the time it took to be recognized for his response - might be a learnable skill with practice......
It is sad to watch the antics of people trying to ring the buzzer with the wrong timing...I saw one lady who kept frantically pointing her buzzer toward the board, as if that would help her.
I happened to start watching just as Holzhauer started his streak. He intentionally causes cognitive dissonance by wandering around on the board, but there’s no law against it and he’s got a knowledge base bigger than mine for sure. I don’t particularly like him, but I respect his success.
If I ever get on Jeopardy I hope every category is “Arcane Firearms Trivia”.
I was a nerd child who read the children’s Encylopedia Brittanica for fun. And the World Book. And the Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia.
I know a little bit about a lot.
the down side of a photographic memory is that it tends to fade as the person ages.
Happened to an engineer I knew
That makes sense.
The actor Ray Collins was said to be able to read a script just once and have it memorized. He mentioned in an interview that he could no longer do it as he aged.
I grew up watching Art Fleming host Jeopardy, though normally was in school since it was on around lunchtime.
Back then I recall the main board top prize was $50 and skyrocketed to $100 for Double Jeopardy.
"I made no secret of the fact that James and I did not get on backstage," she said. "I did not feel he was respectful to me. He wasn’t respectful to a lot of the other people, to the staff, I felt. And he doesn’t have the respect for the game. It wasn’t what we were expecting. It’s not what we prepared for." I have to pause here. What did you prepare for? This is a simple game. You know the answer, you buzz in, you say it in the form of a question, you get money. You didn't study up beforehand? You don't have an impressive breadth of knowledge? You're probably going to lose. And if you're not willing to take some chances when the opportunity arises, you're probably going to lose. In their game that aired on April 26, Holzhauer had $29,600 going in to Final Jeopardy, and Falco was second with $4,600. And that was one of his lower totals during his sizzling streak; Holzhauer astonishingly didn't get a single "Daily Double" in that game, despite answering far more questions correctly than his opponents. He still thoroughly dominated them because he was faster and had a superior intellect.
But....but... she has a vagina! She should have won!
While Holzhauer has improved ratings I wonder if the increased ad revenue matches his winnings? If not he must be a nightmare for the show’s budget. Usually the winners take away $5000-10000, he commonly wins $40k-70K and so far has taken 1.7 million. IMO there is no one who will stop him and he will keep playing until he gets tired of it or they find a way to force him out.
I'm surprised that a really smart guy like you hasn't already taken their on line quiz that should get you on the show..........
Here it is, try it out.........
Evidently the on line test is closed for now but you should bookmark it so that you can take the test that will definitely get you on that show......
In the mean time, here, you can test yourself and come back and proudly tell us you scored the max..........
When I was young I would have at least have had a chance.
I bought a new calculator a few months ago. It was a TI Nspire CX or something close. I could not even figure out how to use it. Just gave it to my Grandson last week.
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