Jeopardy! Weekly Game Recap (5/29-6/2): Two for Three
Three players finished last week with two wins each, but only one player returns this week. Let's see how each player did!
You Only Win Twice
Last week, Di’andra D’Alessio, a technical writer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada took her spot at the champion’s lectern with $3,299 in winnings on May 29th, following a third-to-first place finish in Final Jeopardy! the previous week. Her opponents were Travis Lee, a systems engineer from Phoenixville, PA, and Niranjan Murali, an education policy professional from Washington, D.C. Di’andra was off and running after the first category, getting the three clues from $600 to $1,000 to be on the board with $2,400. After her opponents struggled with some clues, Di’andra held her lead with $2,400 at the first break, followed by $1,400 for Niranjan and $800 for Travis.
The Daily Double was found on the 18th clue of the round by Travis, who put all $1,400 at risk on a $1,000 clue about Cannery: “This author said of Monterey, "The corrugated iron of the canneries glows with the pearly lucence of platinum".“ Travis went with William Faulkner, but the answer was John Steinbeck, thus causing him to fall back to zero. Despite this setback, he did finish the round tied with Di’andra at $2,800, compared to $4,200 from Niranjan.
In the second round, Niranjan found the Daily Double on the 8th clue in the category Monthly People, Real & Imagined: “The first woman to chair the U.K. Conservative Party, she led even more after becoming prime minister in 2016.” Niranjan correctly answered Theresa May, doubling his score to $7,600 with a TDD of $3,800. It took a while for the other Daily Double to be found, but it was eventually uncovered by Travis on the 26th clue about The Gulf of Mexico, in which he wagered $6,000 of his $6,800: “This 76,000-square-mile peninsula juts up into the Gulf's south end.” Travis correctly answered The Yucatan Peninsula, boosting him into first place, with four clues left.
On the final clue of the round, it was $6,800 for Di’andra, $12,400 for Travis, and $8,000 for Niranjan. Despite the big Daily Double gets for both of Di’andra’s opponents, a lot of wrong answers for the two resulted in the game still being a lot closer than what is comfortable. The last clue, worth $2,000, was in Pop Instrumentals. The No. 1 hit “Tequila” by The Champs was correctly answered, by Di’andra, giving her a bump into second place with $8,800 right before Final Jeopardy!
The final category was Memorials and the clue was: “The Vietnam War crypt at this memorial has been empty since the remains once there were identified & moved to St. Louis.” Niranjan and Di’andra were both correct with the response of “What is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?” Travis was about halfway through his response before time ran out on him, resulting in an incorrect ruling. Niranjan added $800 for a final score of $8,800, Di’andra added $3,601 for a total of $12,401, and Travis lost $5,201, giving him a third place score of $7,199. Di’andra was now a 2-day champion with a total of $15,700.
Di’andra’s glory would be short lived however, as she wound up losing the next day to Ilhana Redzovic, an investment associate from Chicago, IL. Nathan Dennis, a C-17 loadmaster from Charlotte, NC, also prevented Di’andra from being able to get within range of Ilhana’s score of $21,000 before Final Jeopardy!, picking up $1,356 on DD2, but was also dwindled by Ilhana knocking out a $5,000 wager on DD3. Di’andra was able to land an extra $4,000 to her total on the basis of two $2,000 clues at the end of the round, but still didn’t have enough to catch Ilhana. It was $7,200 for Di’andra, $21,000 for Ilhana, and $10,756 for Nathan.
On the final clue about Literary Groups, all three players were wrong with Ilhana dropping $600 for a win of $20,400. One thing worth noting here is that Nathan only wagered to cover a doubled score from Di’andra, which means he would have lost to Ilhana despite having enough money to overtake Ilhana with an all-in bet.
Ilhana’s success continued the next day, but with great pushback. Ilhana missed a $2,200 True Daily Double on the 15th clue in the first round, leaving all three players with $0 or less before the first break, a rare occurrence in any Jeopardy! game. After the first round, Kyle Marshall, a library branch manager from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, held the lead with $2,200, compared to $1,800 from Ilhana, and -$600 from Lisa Gargiulo, a middle school English teacher from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
The second round was a horse race between Ilhana and Kyle, with Kyle getting the first Daily Double worth $2,000, and Ilhana coming on strong with a $3,000 wager on the second Daily Double. The clue that really made the difference was a $400 clue on the 28th clue about Presidential Doin’s. Kyle answered with John Adams, rather than John Quincy Adams, which was then quickly rebounded by Ilhana, which ended up making the difference before Final Jeopardy! as Ilhana held the lead with $10,400, compared to $10,200 for Kyle, and $4,600 for Lisa.
On the Final Jeopardy! clue about Sports & The Movies, all three were incorrect. Lisa bet all but $1, Kyle bet $9,800 in hopes of Ilhana missing the clue and making the minimum cover bet of $10,001. However, Ilhana made a savvy $0 wager and remained champion with another $10,400 to her winnings for a 2-day total of $30,800.
Like Di’andra before her, Ilhana’s success was short-lived as she would also wind up losing her third game. She came up to bat with two strong opponents in Jared Watson, a quality control specialist from Greenville, Texas, and Eva Thomas, an attorney from Brooklyn, New York. Things were very neck-and-neck between Ilhana and Eva in the first round, Ilhana leading with $7,400 compared to $7,000 for Eva. Jared was in the red at -$200 after missing the Daily Double in the first round, but was quickly able to turn it around in the second round, despite missing the first Daily Double of the round worth $3,000.
He rebounded with a $2,000 Daily Double on the 17th clue, and it was basically back and forth between him and Eva the whole round. Ilhana only rang in on three clues, answering each one incorrectly to end the round with $4,600, compared to $11,600 for Jared and $16,200 for Eva. In the Final Jeopardy! clue about Pakistan’s name origins, only Ilhana and Jared were correct, with Ilhana doubling her score to $9,200 and Jared adding $2,400 for a total of $14,000. Eva incorrectly answered Oman, losing $5,599 to finish with a second place score of $10,601. Jared was declared the new champion.
Jared’s good gameplay continued into Friday, where he charged out of the game with a whopping 31 correct answers before Final Jeopardy! and a Coryat score of $22,800. Jared’s nearest opponent, Sylvia Izzo Hunter, a marketing manager from Toronto, was able to gather up $12,300 before Final Jeopardy! compared to $20,600 for Jared, with the help of a $1,500 Daily Double. Jong Limb, a former software developer from Glen Allen, VA, couldn’t really get much traction against the two, picking up $2,400 to play with for Final Jeopardy!
The final clue of the week was in the category 20th Century America, about the famous New York Times headline printed on August 9th, 1974: “Nixon Resigns.” Jared was the only player to respond correctly, adding $4,001 to win with $24,601 for a two-day total of $38,601. With Jared’s second win, he completed the week as the third and last player to end the week as a two-time champion, following Di’andra and Ilhana.
We had three solid repeat champions this week, but on Monday, June 5th, we’ll see if Jared can continue his streak. Between the three players, he seems to have the most promise with the support of 23.50 correct answers per game and nearly $40,000 in winnings. Can he keep his streak going? How well will Di’andra and Ilhana fare in the inaugural Champions Wildcard this fall? We’ll know the answers to all of these questions in due time. See y’all next week for the next weekly recap!