Jeopardy! Weekly Recap (5/15-5/19): Masters Quarterfinals Conclude, Hannah Wilson Passes the Torch to Ben Chan
The hammer falls on Hannah and Ben sweeps the week in regular games; Sam Buttrey and Amy Schneider out of Jeopardy! Masters tournament
From 8-Time Champion to 8-Time Champion
On Monday, May 15th, 8-time champion and data scientist Hannah Wilson from Chicago was looking very tough to beat, as two more wins would have made her the 17th player in the show’s history to have won 10 consecutive games in a row. However, 3-time champion Ben Chan also returned that day, after not being on the show for over a month due to contracting COVID-19 during his run in mid-April, and it was a surprising blowout from Ben, winning $60,000 to Hannah’s $13,599 for the second-biggest payout of the season. Hannah took home an extra $2,000 for second place to finish her run with an overall payout of $231,801. Ben’s excellence continued in his 5th game, winning again to become the first player to win his first five games in runaways since 2001. With 5 wins and $157,000, Ben Chan holds the 19th-highest 5-day total of all players since the show’s renewal in 1984, with original runs from 1984 to 2001 being adjusted to today’s dollar values.
The rest of the week was just as much of a cakewalk for Ben as his first five games. On Wednesday, he faced off against Brittani Seagren and David Lu. The first round was slightly more contested, with Ben missing the first Daily Double but generally still dominating, finishing the round with $8,400 compared to $3,200 for Brittani and $2,000 for David. The second round was much more menacing against Ben’s opponents, however, as a series of incorrect responses put them very close to being out of money necessary for Final Jeopardy! Ben was able to find both Daily Doubles in the Double Jeopardy! round and respond correctly, collecting $5,000 on DD2 and $5 on DD3, to finish the round with $24,205 compared to $400 for Brittani and $1,200 for David. In Final Jeopardy!, Ben and Brittani responded correctly, with Ben adding $795 to his score to win with $25,000 for a 6-day total of $182,000. David only lost $200 to finish in second place for $2,000.
Ben’s 7th game was just as insurmountable as the previous day, as he accumulated $31,000 before Final Jeopardy!, finding all three Daily Doubles yet again and responding correctly on 2/3, capitalizing an extra $3,000 to his overall score. John Groves and Kristen Beck were closely contested, John at $4,400 and Kristen at $4,600, but it was already out of reach. Ben responded correctly on the final clue, but wagered $0 to win with $31,000 for a 7-day total of $213,000. His 8th game was a lot rougher, however, as he had missed both Daily Doubles in the second round after responding correctly to a True Daily Double in the first round. With that being said, he was still dominant enough against his opponents to put the game out of reach once again with $12,400, compared to $4,800 for Erica Johnson and $3,400 for Chris Hammer. Everyone responded correctly in FJ! and Ben added $2,400 to win with $14,800 and finish the week with an 8-day total of $227,800, $1,801 behind Hannah Wilson’s 8-day total, who he had defeated at the beginning of the week.
Jeopardy! Masters Semifinalists
While Ben was cleaning the clocks of his opponents, the Jeopardy! Masters tournament was in action. Beginning this week, the top 3 spots were held pretty steadily by James Holzhauer, Andrew He, and Mattea Roach. With the three respectively accumulating 9, 8, and 7 points, the battle for fourth place between Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Sam Buttrey was the competition to watch for, as the bottom three players each had 3 points or less. With six games this week, each contestant played three games against different opponents.
The first game of Day 5 proved to be the most crucial and fatal battle of the week, between Mattea, Matt, and Amy. The game was very evenly matched, with each player grabbing a Daily Double and only Amy responding incorrectly. Matt grabbed a True Daily Double in the second round to lead with 24,800 JepCoins™ compared to 16,400 for Mattea and 9,600 for Amy. Despite the difference in score between Matt and Amy, she still had room for a victory, should she be the only one to respond correctly. Surely enough, that is exactly what happened. Well, partially. In a critical math error, Amy bet to cover an incorrect response/zero wager from Mattea, rather than an incorrect response from Matt. Mattea dropped to 13,599, compared to a drop to 16,799 from Matt, and a gain to 16,401 for Amy. Matt earned three match points as a result, Amy gaining one, a result which would determine Matt and Amy’s fate for the rest of the week.
The week was basically a cakewalk for James, as he crushed his three games in runaways, doubling his match points to 18 and solidifying his spot in the semifinals. Andrew also won his day 6 match against Mattea and Sam, despite missing both True Daily Doubles in the second round, which put Sam’s dreams of advancing to rest, as he finished third yet again.
The final day of the week solidified Amy’s elimination as well, as Matt Amodio dominated his game against Mattea and Sam, garnering 31,000 JepCoins™ compared to 10,400 for Mattea and 7,000 for Sam. Sam was the only one who responded correctly, garnering him one extra match point. With this, Matt had scored vengeance against Sam, who eliminated him from the 2022 Tournament of Champions semifinals previously. He joins James, Andrew, and Mattea as the four semifinalists. Sam and Amy will return to the first ever Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, which currently does not have a set airdate.
Ben Chan and Jeopardy! Masters Finals
On Monday, Ben will face off against Joe Lasser from Colfax, IL and Nancy Duran from Stowe, VT in hopes for a 9th win. Jeopardy! Masters will hold its first day of semifinals and conclude the next day, followed by a two-day total point affair on Wednesday. Whoever gets eliminated from the semifinals will pocket a prize of $100,000. The winner will receive $500,000, while second place will receive $250,000 and third place will receive $150,000. How long will Ben’s streak last and who will win the 2023 Jeopardy! Masters? We shall find out this week.
For more leaderboard stats, the full document of spreadsheets can be found here.