Having spent a considerable amount of time and words trying to bury Jeopardy
on Tuesday, I imagine some might consider it somewhat hypocritical for me
to praise it on Friday. But one must give credit to where its due and the fact
that Jeopardy has it’s first five game winner of the season just six
games into ‘regular’ play is a considerable accomplishment. More to the point it is my habit of writing
on superb Jeopardy players for this column and few who have watched the show
for the past week can denied Alison Betts one of them.
On the second day of Season 40, Jeopardy watchers were introduced
to Alison Betts. She gave four correct responses in her introduction and jumped
to $9000 at the end of the Jeopardy round. Challenger Brian Hardzinski gained a
lot of ground back in Double Jeopardy and it was only due to an incorrect
response on the penultimate clue of the round that Allison moved back into the
lead. Had she not you would not be reading this article.
In Final Jeopardy the category was SPACE SHUTTLES. “2 space shuttles
were named for craft commanded by this man who died far from home in 1779.”
Alison knew the correct response: “Who is Cook?” (Discovery and Endeavour) She
won $28,600 on her first day and was gracious in victory to her challengers.
Her next two victories were utter runaways and in her first three
victories she was averaging $32,500 a win. In her fourth game she got
off to another great start and had $6800 at the end of the Jeopardy round.
Then in Double Jeopardy challenger Eric Reimund did something no one had
since her first win: got to a Daily Double ahead of. He managed to double his
score to $4800 and closed the gap considerably. One clue later, he found the
other Daily Double in SAY IT IN SPANISH and then fell victim to one of the
oldest rules in Jeopardy:
“A song often heard in Spanish-speaking countries at Christmastime is
this ‘Sabanero’, meaning ‘My Little Christmas Donkey.” Eric paused for a long
time before saying just as time ran out ‘burrito’. This was the correct
response but because he didn’t phrase it in the form of a question he lost
$4000.
He managed to make an impressive recovery and on the last clue of Double
Jeopardy passed Alison for the lead with $11,600 to her $11,200. It was the
first time in her run that she went into Final Jeopardy behind – and that,
ironically, may have preserved it.
The Final Jeopardy category was WORDS & THEIR MEANINGS: “Churchill
gave this word a new meaning when he called for a ‘talk with Soviet Russia upon
the highest level…a parley at” this. Alison guessed: “What is Yalta?” It cost
her $1000. Eric had written down: Himalayas?” The correct response was a summit
– Churchill was calling a high level conference a summit. It cost Eric all but
a dollar. Allison had won with $10,200 and again she was gracious in victory.
Game 5 was a very tough fight for everybody. Alison built an early lead
over Vidya Ravella and Jeff Plate but it was not an easy one: there were many
incorrect responses and clues that stumped all three players. Alison herself
gave eight incorrect answers during the match. At the end of the Jeopardy round
Alison was ahead narrowly with $3600 to $2200 apiece for Jeff and Vidya.
Vidya moved ahead on the first two clues of Double Jeopardy. Alison got
the third clue correct and found the first Daily Double on the next one in
THINGS TO DO IN THE CITY. Clearly uncomfortable with it she still wagered the
$4800 she had:
“In June, take in the ‘white nights’ of this city; after 19 hours of
daylight, bridges across the Neva are raised at nights so boats pass.” She knew
it was St. Petersburg and doubled her score to $9600.
Two clues later Vidya found the other Daily Double in WORDS FROM
MYTHOLOGY. She wagered $6000: “This shield or breastplate of the gods now means
the protection of any powerful entity.” Vidya struggled before guessing aurora
instead of Egypt. She dropped to $600 and would finish the match in the red.
Alison managed to play just well enough to finish with $12,800 and lockup her
fifth straight win. Final Jeopardy added just $1000 to her final total.
From the start, it was clear that yesterday’s match against Rob
Blumenstein and Marko Saric was not going to be a picnic. Alison didn’t help
her cause when she found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round in SECOND
CITIES (Each response would be the second-most populous city in its country.):
“The historic site Pedra de Sal in this second city has been called ‘the
birthplace of samba.” Alison guessed: “What is Buenos Aires?” It was the next
country over: Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. He lost everything she had. She rebuilt
quickly and had $2600 at the break and was in the lead with $5000 when the
Jeopardy round ended. But Marko had $4400 and Rob had $3600, so it was clear it
would be a fight to the death.
Rob got to the first Daily Double on the second clue of Double Jeopardy
in 9-LETTER WORDS. He bet the $3600 he had: “This verb can mean to create
through skill, or to construct a lie or forgery.” Rob knew it was fabricate and
jumped into the lead with $7200.
Three clues later Marko got to the other Daily Double in BOOKS IN
HISTORY. He had $6000 and was narrowly in second. “Economist F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom came out in 1944
when this woman was at Oxford and was a huge influence on her later policies.”
Marko knew it was Margaret Thatcher and added $2900 to his score, putting him
in the lead.
The rest of the match was fought pretty evenly among all three players.
Rob only got ten correct answers and one incorrect one, but that was enough for
$9600. Alison got 19 correct answers and three incorrect responses, which put
her at $11,000. Marko managed 22 correct answer but also gave six wrong ones,
and he finished with a very narrow lead at $12,900. It was anyone’s game going
into Final Jeopardy.
The category was an easy sounding one ALPHABETICAL AMERICA. The clue
wasn’t even close. “Until Alabama became the 22nd state, this one
was first alphabetically.” All three contestants went to the obvious choice:
Arkansas. But Arkansas didn’t become a state until after Alabama did. The
correct response was Connecticut. So it came down to wagers.
Rob bet $9559, leaving him with $41. Alison wagered $8500, leaving her
with $2500. Marko bet $9101, which would have given him enough to beat Alison
by $1 had she been correct and wagered everything. Instead it left him with
$3799 – enough to win and ended Alison’s streak at five games and $121,500.
Alison could have won if she’d wagered less but Rob’s close third place
score forced her hand. Her $8500 was clearly enough to finish ahead of Rob if
he wagered everything and she was hoping Marko would make a mistake.
As it is Alison’s five games, while not the record of a super-champion
are still impressive. Indeed it’s the most won by any Jeopardy contestant since
Ben Chan’s nine day run last May. There were two players in Season 39 who
qualified for this year’s Tournament of Champions but each of whom won
significantly less money in a similar or even more games. Ben Goldstein won
$49,298 in five games last June and Suresh Krishnan won $96,595 in six games.
(She was also running dead-even with Matthew Marcus after four games,
though he lost in his fifth appearance.) Alison is also the first woman to win
five games since Hannah Wilson managed to win 8 games last season.
Going back to Season 38, she also
finished significantly higher than Megan Wachspress who won $60,603 in six
games and more money than Tyler Rhode
who won $10,5901 in five games. And though speculation is the devil’s
playground here’s how she was running in comparison to some of Season 38
super-champions after they had punched their ticket into the Tournament of
Champions:
Matt Amodio: $147,800
Jonathan Fisher: $117,700
Amy Schneider: $170,400
Mattea Roach: $117,200
Ryan Long: $105,801
Alison Betts: $121,500
I expected her to be running well behind Amodio and Schneider, but her
comparison to the other three was a shock
That being said, she compared a lot worse with some of last year’s big
winners at a similar point in their run. Here are the biggest winners of Season
39 at Game 5, aside from the ones I’ve already listed (I’ll leave Cris Panullo
out of the equation)
Ray LaLonde: $132,200
Stephen Webb: $139,281
Hannah Wilson: $147,801
Ben Chan: $157,000
Troy Meyer: $170,401.
In other words Alison is clearly a very good Jeopardy champion but
calling her a great one is hard to say. What is clear is that in her play she
was fun to watch, spirited in her banter with Ken, and incredibly gracious in
victory. She is the kind of Jeopardy champion the show often produces and who
we always need. Whenever the next Tournament of Champions takes place I more
than look forward to her presence and I’m sure fans of the show will too.
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