Jeopardy! Weekly Recap (6/19-6/23): Ben Goldstein Qualifies for the Tournament of Champions
Though the week began
From Stumbling Beginnings
Last week, I wrote about Suresh Krishnan qualifying for the 2023 Tournament of Champions the previous week. Given how the rest of the week went and how last week began, it did not look very promising that we would gain the privilege of another TOC qualifier. After winning his first game worth $6,198 the previous Friday, Ben Goldstein returned to the champion’s podium on Monday with the desire for more.
While he was in command compared to his opponents Mary Kate Gliedt and Jonathan Belford, it was a rough game all around, with all three players posting the worst Combined Coryat of the season at $11,800. The game was met with criticism against the boards for being too rigorous, with some fans speculating that the categories were leftovers from Jeopardy! Masters. Jonathan fell below $0 before Final Jeopardy! and all three Daily Doubles were answered incorrectly, leaving Ben with $10,000 before FJ! compared to $100 for Mary Kate.
No one got Final Jeopardy! correct either, in the category of Entertainers: “In 2022 Jeff Bezos awarded her $100 million to give to charitable causes because "she gives with her heart"“ The correct response was Who is Dolly Parton?, and both players answered incorrectly; Mary Kate went with Oprah Winfrey, Ben went with Lady Gaga. Ben dropped $1,000 to win with $9,000 for a 2-day total of $15,198. With a tough Monday game out of the way, many hoped the next game would be of more substance…
…it wasn’t, really. With a Combined Coryat of $16,000, it was another one of the weakest games played this season. Ben was posed a decent challenge from his opponent Janie Sullivan, who collected $7,500 compared to $6,800 for Ben. Tym Blanchard, his other opponent, struggled to get in the whole time, occasionally answering before his name was called. He wound up with -$3,800, which is equivalent to approximately -57,400 in dogecoin.
Once again all Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy! were answered incorrectly, with Ben going with a risk-averse bet of $705 on the basis of assuming his opponents would be wrong, via the advice of Keith Williams of The Final Wager. It ended up working out for him perfectly, netting him $6,095 for a 3-day total of $21,293. People had remarked that before that Suresh Krishnan was a pretty unlikely player to get a TOC berth, but Ben seemed to be mirroring him after Tuesday’s game.
Setting Unique Jeopardy! Records
In Ben’s 4th game against Nabeela Rahman and Lee Papa, his gameplay saw a bit of a resurgence. He found the first Daily Double of the game in Official Nicknames, Ben correctly guessed Philadeplhia as the City of Sisterly Love. Despite missing his Daily Double in the second round, it was shortly after Lee missed his Daily Double. While Nabeela was able to get a substantial number of clues correctly, 16 for the game, a series of wrong responses caused her to lose enough money for Ben to go into Final Jeopardy! with an insurmountable lead of $15,200 compared to $6,200 for Nabella and $4,600 for Lee.
The Final Jeopardy! category was World of Water and the clue was: “The Bass Strait divides Tasmania & mainland Australia & hydrographers have disputed which of these 2 larger bodies it's part of.” Ben answered correctly with “What are the Indian and Pacific Oceans?,” adding $800 to win with $16,000 for a 4-day total of $37,293, “surpassing” Philip Steele’s all-time low 4-day total of the doubled era, $38,898. Gary Palmer, season 2 four-time winner, holds the technical record of $36,800, or $18,400 in previous values.
With Ben being #13 on the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions roster following his 4th win and 5 weeks left in the season, he needed a 5th win to secure himself a spot above 4-time winners Matthew Marcus ($114,200) and David Sibley ($78,098), as well as tournament winners Justin Bolsen (High School Reunion) and Ike Barinholtz (Primetime Celebrity Jeopardy!).
Unlike the previous game, Ben did not have a runaway before Final Jeopardy!, though he had the same total of $15,200 going in. Dan Meuse mustered up $12,000 with the help of DD1, while Andrea Rednick Granados collected $4,500 after missing both Daily Doubles in the Double Jeopardy! round. Andrea wound up being the only player correct in Final Jeopardy! but it didn’t matter because she already had less than half of what Dan did.
Dan made the wise move of betting $0 to stay within range of Andrea and Ben in case he was wrong, which he was. Ben was wrong from first place for the first time, and with the difference between him and Dan being only $3,200, he was at a high risk of losing the game if he had made the cover bet. However he wagered $3,195 to the grave shock of his opponent Dan, leaving him with $12,005 and a 5-day total of $49,298.
With this 5-day total, Ben Goldstein officially qualified for the 2023 Tournament of Champions, also breaking the record for the lowest 5-day total of in syndicated Jeopardy! history set by Megan Wachspress with $52,002, one year after her run officially ended on June 22nd, 2023 when she lost to Jeff Weinstock.
The End of Ben’s Streak
On Friday, the last game of the week, Ben entered his 6th game against his toughest competition to date from players Donna Matturri and Ron Nurwisah. Up to this point, he had some of the strongest buzz-in/attempt ratios of the season, having a higher buzz-in rate than every player in the Tournament of Champions despite his R/W response rate for Final Jeopardy! and Daily Doubles being the lowest of the season.
It was competitive the whole way through, as all three players went into Final Jeopardy! with five-figure totals. Ben held the lead with $16,200, Donna had $11,400, and Ron had $13,800. In the category Female Authors, the clue involved Willa Cather meeting Annie Pavelka. Donna was the only player who answered correctly, gaining $6,000 to finish with $17,400, already in first place ahead of the other two players. Ron risked it all and Ben went for the cover bet for the first time, dropping $11,500 to finish in second place with $4,700. Ben’s run was over and Donna Matturri was the new champion.
Despite the total for Ben not seeming like much, and his accuracy rate not being as high as some of the other Tournament of Champions qualifiers, I think he’s being a little bit underestimated based on how quick he is on the buzzer and how difficult his boards were. I also think people are interpreting his sharing of his own stats with a lack of charitability, treating him like he’s cocky for it.
I’ve had the privilege of getting to talk with and know some of the show’s biggest winners, and these players are all put under an intense amount of pressure and often even scrutiny. When you have a lot of people doubting your ability or saying your games aren’t fun to watch, you’re bound to stick up for yourself and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with players doing that so long as they aren’t throwing others under the bus.
Good luck to Ben, and everyone else who has qualified so far, in the 2023 Tournament of Champions. And we will also see how Donna does this Monday and if she can become another qualifier as well!