Jamie Ding Is Now In the Top Five of Jeopardy Greats

 

 

It is now clear to anyone who's watched Jeopardy the past month that few players have ever played Jeopardy as well as Jamie Ding. And even fewer have done so well while making it look more difficult than it should be.

The contradictory nature of Jamie Ding was clear on Tuesday. He tied Mattea Roach for sixth place all time in number of games won with 23 and with $644,000 is also sixth in all-time winnings in a Jeopardy champion's original run. (He's also thirteenth on the all-time winnings list for those including tournament victories having passed Matt Jackson's total on Monday.) Yet despite having won 2 more games then Cris Panullo he has nevertheless won over $100,000 less than him.

I've commented on this discrepancy in my articles on him including last Wednesday's and it doesn't take a genius to see Jamie's Achilles Heel: Final Jeopardy. He started strong getting seven of his first eight Final Jeopardys correct. But in his next fifteen games he's gotten seven correct – and eight incorrect.

This is a track record that is almost unparalleled among so many of the players that James has already caught and passed on the leaderboard of legends. Jeopardy legends such as Austin Rogers and Matt Jackson had a far better track record on Final Jeopardys in much shorter runs than Jamie has in a longer one. And I know quite a few players who've never missed on Final Jeopardy who still ended up not making the grade. (One could make an argument – and many still will – then Ben Chan should have had a much longer run then he did because of that fact.)

This is rather bizarre contradiction and almost unparalleled among the Jeopardy greats. I'm not just talking about the legends still ahead of him on that board. In this sense Jamie has been playing as well as the five players ahead of him on money won when it comes to number of runaway victories:

 

Cris Panullo: 17

Ken Jennings: 16

James Holzhauer: 19

Matt Amodio: 17

Amy Schneider: 19

Jamie Ding: 18

 

Cris of course only managed to win 21 games before losing. But he managed to only get 7 final Jeopardys incorrect during 22 games. Jamie had already gotten that many incorrect by his 21^st. And that's a better track record compared to the four players who even higher up by the leaderboard of legends.

Furthermore all of the players above him on the list and quite a few others below him have never been as risky when it comes to Final Jeopardy as Jamie has been during their runaways. And the result has been decided mixed for him. And as a result while Jamie has the sixth highest total of money won in Jeopardy history, his average per game is considerably lower then the five players above him even though they won far more games. At this point Jamie is averaging just under $28,000 a win which is impressive- until you considering that the five players ahead of him all average at least $32,000 a win. Even if you set Holzhauer asides Panullo managed to win over $35,000 a win in his 21 victories. This is true of some of the players below him as well: Scott Riccardi managed to average $28,500 a game in his sixteen victories.

One has to admire any Jeopardy player who is so well to go for the big payday as Jamie Ding has been more than willing to do over his incredible run when it comes to Final Jeopardy. And considering the margins he's had in so many of his runaways you can understand the willingness to take the risk. The problem is when he does take the risk, he invariably gets burned and burned badly.

This may sound like I'm trying to throw shade on one of the greatest Jeopardy players in history. My readers know full well I absolutely am not doing that. I'm merely pointing out while Jamie Ding is one of the greatest Jeopardy players in history, certainly the best we've seen since Cris Panullo lost in December of 2022, it has been more difficult for me to tell with him then really any other Jeopardy super-champion since Ryan Long how much more luck has to do with his incredible run then skill. He definitely has the latter in spades – one does not have three games in which you get 43 correct responses or more if you're not one of the greatest Jeopardy players of all time – but more than any super-champion I've seen he seems more willing then most to undercut himself.

This was true in tonight's game where Jamie officially moved into fifth place on the all-time wins list ahead of Mattea Roach. It was yet another runaway victory for Jamie and both on the surface and beneath he was dominant. And yet I still came away with the same impression I have with so many of his victories: that the only person who could beat Jamie Ding was Jamie Ding – and he seemed more than willing to let that happen given the chance.

Playing against Bill Page and Kim Elliott Jamie started off well. He already had $2800 when he found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round in the category A FINE ROMANCE. He bet everything:

On April 5, 1953 the Atlanta Daily World announced the engagement of this pair who met in Boston.

Jamie paused: "Who are Elizabeth and Philip?" It was actually Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. Down to zero he went. As is his want he regained the lead by the end of the round with $5800 to Kim's $2200 and Bill's $1400. It was a much smaller margin at the end of the round then he's used to.

In Double Jeopardy he went on a very Jamie like run of 9 consecutive correct answers and has built himself up to $20,200 when he finally found the first Daily Double in LEVELING UP. He bet $4800 hoping for a nice round total of $25.000:

In 1826 this city became a state capital, taking over for Murfreesboro.

I knew almost immediately it was Nashville. Jamie thought it was Little Rock and dropped to $15,400.

Redemption came on the next clue in TOUGH 1-SYLLABLE WORDS. He bet just $2600 this time:

It can refer to an accident or part of a whale tail. This time he knew it was a fluke and went up to $18,000.

He would finish Double Jeopardy with another runaway victory: $22,400 to Bill's $6600 and Kim's $4600. Another impressive one but for Jamie a relatively low total by his standards.

The Final Jeopardy category was NOTABLE AMERICANS: In 1909 she jointed the Socialist Party & later published 'Out of the Dark', her writings 'On Physical & Social Vision." All three players knew the correct answer: "Who is Helen Keller?" Jamie was cautious this time, only betting $600. Or perhaps he was being precise. His total was $23,000 and now his 24 day total was $667,000 – two thirds of a million.

It was an impressive win and yet it brought his average per victory to just under $27,800. All five of the players ahead of him in terms of money won have a considerably higher total then Jamie doe – including Cris Panullo, who averaged over $35,000 per win. He's also significantly behind in this department of quite a few players behind him in games won. Jason Zuffraneri managed  roughly $28,000 per win over 19 games and Ray Lalonde managed just under $30,000 in each of his 13 wins. All of this must be laid at the feet of so many incorrect Final Jeopardys during this period and at this point we do have to look at the four players ahead of him during those 24 games

James Holzhauer 1 wrong in his first 24 games

Amy Schneider 4 wrong out of her first 24 wins

Matt Amodio: 7 wrong out of his first 24 wins

Ken Jennings: 8 wrong out of his first 24 wins.

The big difference with Matt and Ken is that most of their incorrect Final Jeopardy were in the first 15 games or 20 games and then they started to get much better in their runs going forward when it came to Final Jeopardy. Jamie by contrast started incredibly strong and is now starting to falter in that regard..  

This might also be tied to the fact that over the course of their runs other super-champions reach a point where they begin to inevitably get tired and their performance across the board begins to flag in ways that become clear in hindsight. I'm actually going to write on this in a later article when Jamie's streak comes to an end, though at this point I can no longer state with certainty when that will happen.

I have long since given up trying to predict how long Jamie Ding's run will last. I have already erroneously predicted he would not much outlast this season's previous super-champion Harrison Whitaker in terms of wins and he caught and passed him two weeks. At this point all I can say with certainty is that now that's Jamie is in fifth place its only going to get harder to get further up on the leaderboard.

In fourth place in wins is Jeopardy James I, Holzhauer with 32 wins. Just in order to tie him Jamie will have to win another eight games. This is not an impossible number to surpass, as viewers know. In Season 38 Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider did it within four months of each other. But it's still eight games just to get that far.

Getting past Cris Panullo on the all time money list in theory should be easier: Cris has $748,286. In theory Jamie could get that far in three or four victories. But again that would involve three or four victories and as Jeopardy watcher can tell you that's three more chances for something to happen. Jamie will be defeated, it's a given, the only question is when.

The next marker is if Jamie can catch and pass Cris Panullo who with his combined earnings is in 10^th place all time. That is the next marker he has to catch. He might get there; he might not. At this point we can only wait and enjoy the ride.