Jeopardy! Weekly Game Recap (6/5-6/9): A New Tournament of Champions Contender Emerges
Following a week of two-time winners, we have a new contender for the next Tournament of Champions.
Jared Watson Continues His Streak
Following his two wins from last week, Jared Watson from Greenville, TX began to look like a real possibility in being the next qualifier for the 2023 Tournament of Champions in his third game, against challengers Harrison Seidel from Burbank, CA and Annabelle Winter from New York. With going 3/3 on Daily Doubles, as well as a $17,000 Coryat, his third win was inevitable as he went into Final Jeopardy! with a score of $19,600, vs. $8,800 for Harrison and $2,400 for Annabelle.
The final category was Acronyms and Mayim read out the clue: “It was originally a code word used by telegraph operators; Barack Obama used it in his Twitter handle.” The correct response was POTUS, abbreviated for President of the United States, and Harrison and Annabelle answered correctly. Jared, however, was surprisingly incorrect, pulling out the word “stop” instead.
Ultimately it didn’t matter, as he was far enough ahead to where the outcome wouldn’t be affected, but his first wrong response on Final Jeopardy! could be a foreshadowing. Jared dropped $1,999 to win with $17,601 vs. $12,700 for Harrison and $4,795 for Annabelle.
Faced with an opportunity to be eligible for the next Tournament of Champions, Jared faced off against new opponents Suresh Krishnan, a networking engineer from Suwanee, GA, and Deborah Claymon, a writer from Saint Helena, CA. For the most part, it was another dominant game for Jared as he had picked up $12,800 before Final Jeopardy! compared to $7,600 for Suresh and $600 for Deborah. Despite this, moments of the same weaknesses displayed in his first three games began to pop up again in this match.
Jared found two out of three Daily Doubles in this game and missed both, an issue that he had run into quite frequently during his first three games. The first one that he picked up in the Jeopardy! round was worth $4,000 and the other one he had found was worth $3,000. Suresh, on the other hand, found the last Daily Double and capitalized on $2,600 to get just within range of Jared before Final Jeopardy! This ended up being pivotal to the game’s conclusion, as Suresh only had one-third of Jared’s Coryat overall.
The final clue had to do with Historic Organizations: “A senator called the 1949 pact that formed this a "fraternity of peace" that "makes the obligation plain... for us & others".“ Deborah and Suresh both correctly answered NATO, with Deborah picking up $599 for a final score of $1,199, and Suresh picking up an extra $3,000 for a total of $10,600. Jared’s record on wagering clues, however, ended up making all the difference as he missed Final Jeopardy! yet again, dropping $2,401 to finish in a gruelingly close second place with $10,399.
Suresh Krishnan Climbs the Ladder
Despite having the chops to win several games, Jared ended his streak with 3 wins and $56,202 + $2,000 for second place, placing him at 531st of all time. Determined to live his dream to the fullest extent, Suresh went into his second game with $10,600 in his bank and the desire for more. Faced off against Kristine Rembach of Ghent, New York and Collette Lee from Paxton, IL, it was a pretty slow game for all players involved. After garnering $5,800 in the first round, Suresh only buzzed in on two clues in the Double Jeopardy! round, answering both correctly to add $1,200 to his score.
Kristine’s correct response on the last Daily Double ended up giving her the advantage into Final Jeopardy!, with $8,500 for her compared to $7,000 for Suresh and $3,500 for Collette. The final category was European Countries: “Of all the nations that border Italy, the one that didn't exist in 1990.” The correct response was Slovenia, which was answered by Collette and Suresh, both picking up $3,499. Kristine went with Montenegro, dropping $5,501 to finish in third place. Suresh won with $10,499 for a two-day total of $21,099, nearly doubling his previous win.
Suresh’s third game was his hardest one to date, faced off against David Ford from Pasadena, MD and a very tough opponent in Allison Strekal from Missoula, MT. After picking up $2,400 before the first commercial break, it was radio silence from Suresh for the rest of the round as Allison went on a bit of a tear, collecting $7,000. The second round was almost as dominating for Allison, as David missed a True Daily Double and Suresh missed a few clues himself, actually winding up at $0 at one point. By the last category, Allison looked inevitable with a score of $17,000 compared to $4,400 for Suresh and $2,400 for David.
Allison made the crucial mistake of picking from the top clue in the last remaining category, as one Daily Double was still left over and she missed an opportunity to keep it away from her opponents. Alas for her, Suresh answered the $400 and $800 clues correctly, then found the last Daily Double on the $1,200 clue where he went all-in with $5,600 on the line. After a moment of pondering, he answered correctly and doubled his score to $11,200 before getting the $1,600 clue as well. In just four clues, Allison was no longer inevitable, and David picked up the final $2,000 clue.
In the Final Jeopardy! clue related to Business History, David missed the clue by responding with London in regards to "the world's first initial public offering" that happened in 1602. Suresh kept his streak of correct Final Jeopardy! responses alive with Amsterdam, adding $4,300 to bring his score up to $17,100. Allison went with Berlin, losing $8,601 to finish in second place with $8,399. Suresh had won his third game in a row for a total of $38,199. Despite his 3 wins, he had never averaged above a $10,000 Coryat in any game of his.
To close out the week, Suresh went on a strong run in hopes of snatching a 4th win for Tournament of Champions eligibility. It’s worth noting that he had the lowest 3-day total of any player who had won at least 3 games throughout the season. Regardless, he was in command the whole game, picking up $15,800 compared to $7,200 for Tim Hagood and $3,800 for Vickie Cyr. Suresh’s lead was insurmountable for the first time, locking up his 4th game and earning him the eligibility necessary, even with getting Final Jeopardy! wrong for the first time. It didn’t cost him anything and with a win of $15,800, he ended the week with a 4-day total of $53,999.
With 4 wins and a smidge under $54,000, Suresh is the 12th player this season to officially be eligible for the next TOC. A win on Monday would guarantee him a spot 100%, although with how few multi-day winners there have been this season, 4-time winners are more or less expected to be given spots, as well as some possible 3-time winners. We will see if he can snatch an official spot with a 5th win on Monday, June 12th.
For more info on the best players and statistics related to Jeopardy!, check out my all-time leaderboard where you can find various results and players across various spreadsheets. Warning that I do post spoilers and Monday’s game has been added to reflect on the latest outcome.