Thirty Wins Hath Jamie Ding on Jeopardy…By The Skin Of His Teeth

 

The moment Jamie Ding passed Mattea Roach for fifth place on all time win list the question was whether he could make it to 30 wins a mark that only James Holzhauer, Matt Amodion, Amy Schneider and Ken Jennings himself have managed to reach. The question was could Jamie reach it and how much money he'd have when he got there?

It was a huge struggle for Jamie just to get past Cris Panullo when it came to passing him for fifth place on the all-time money list. Cris needed just 21 games to with $748,000. It took Jamie 27 wins to get up to $753,000 – and even then he had to back into it. On that day he wagered $13,000 on a Daily Double late in Double Jeopardy and got it wrong and just barely finished with the narrowest of runaways, having to guarantee it by getting the last clue of the game correct. Even then he got Final Jeopardy incorrect for the tenth time in his original run and 'merely' won $21,000.

For the three players other then Jennings who managed 30 wins the 28^th win was a significant one for all of them. For Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider, they both crossed the $1 million threshold. For James Holzhauer, he would cross the $2 million threshold. By contrast for the first time in nine straight games Jamie Ding didn't have a runaway victory and only responded correctly on 22 clues, though again he got none wrong. He had to get Final Jeopardy correct to win against Max Ernst and he did.

Game 29 was by comparison easier another runaway victory though he finished with $20,200 by the end of Double Jeopardy and yet again got Final Jeopardy wrong.

So by the time of Game 30 it had already been more of a grind for Jamie then usual. And his two opponents Leighanna Mixter and Patrick Nolan were absolutely determined to make sure that Jamie didn't have an easy time getting to that critical number.

From the start of the Jeopardy round Patrick matched Jamie practically correct response for correct response. At the end of the round Jamie's lead was $7600 to Patrick's $6400, the narrowest he had all week. Leighanna, who'd spend much of the round in the red, emerged on the last clue on the side of positive with $200.

The back and forth continued in Double Jeopardy. Patrick managed to take the lead away from Jamie on the ninth clue with $11,600 before finding the first Daily Double in TEENY TINY COUNTRIES.

He knew what he had to do and he did it, betting everything:

Boroo Maggiore & Serravalle are towns in this landlocked nation that bears the name of a 4^th century man.

Patrick paused: "What is San Marino?" And he jumped into his biggest lead with $23,200.

Patrick got the next clue correct, then Jamie got the following and that led him to the other Daily Double in ART FOR ART'S SAKE. At that point Jamie was at $13,200 to Patrick's $24,400. Daily Doubles on big wagers had not been going well for Jamie for a while. This time he had no choice but to bet everything:

The Glasshouse in Seattle in a one-of-a-kind structure holding a 100-foot sculpture by this artist.

Jamie paused for a long time: "Who is Chihuly?" It was Dale Chihuly. He took the lead back with $26,400. He held it the rest of round narrowly but this one was a nailbiter. Jamie finished with $30,800 to Patrick's $28,000 and Leighanna's $5400.

It came down to Final Jeopardy. The category was THE 1950s: The announcement declaring this safe & effective was made April 12, 1955, the 10^th anniversary of the death of a famous American.

Leighanna's response was revealed first: She wrote down: What is nuclear power, crossed it out, and then wrote: What is the polio vax?" That was correct: the tenth anniversary of FDR's death. She bet $5000, putting her at $10,400.

Patrick was next: He wrote down: "What is penicillin?" That was incorrect. He bet $10,000 which left him with $18,000, still enough to win if Jamie was incorrect and wagered too much.

It came down to Jamie: "What was…the polio vaccine?" He even wrote in parentheses (Salk's). Jamie had to wager big this time. Jamie bet $25,201, giving him $56,001 and his thirtieth win which made his total $849,603 for 30 days.

Patrick did play superbly but not well enough. Such as the case with the few times Jamie has been threatened in runaways. (I was very tempted to title this article "You Come At the Ding, You Best Not Miss") I suspect Patrick will be invited to the inevitable Second Chance Tournament when it occurs. Of course given that Season 42 has now essentially become the Jamie Ding show, when the Second Chance Tournament, much less the next Jeopardy Tournament of Champions will take place is very much an open question. But that's a problem for another day and for Jamie not at all as he's going to be comfortably waiting with Harrison Whitaker with a bye into the semi-finals.

But even as he closes in on James Holzhauer for fourth place on the all-time win list it is clear that Jeopardy James II is not at the level of Holzhauer, Schneider or Amodio. He remains 'only' the fifth best Jeopardy player of all time. Which I imagine is as much consolation to those who have played against him and lost as it was to everybody who came up against those three or Jennings during their tenures on what is now the Alex Trebek stage. Indeed so many of them must feel like Tantalus with victory over Jamie always just out of reach.

Jamie in reaching these elite group continues his status as an outlier. He has won 30 games and has yet to reach (insert Dr. Evil impression) One Million Dollars. But seriously Ken actually broke the million dollar threshold on his 30^th game and as I mentioned above the next three players Jamie has to catch and pass on the list of consecutive wins reached $1 million or higher far earlier. Don't get me wrong, nearly $850,000 is nothing to sneeze at but it gets to what might be called Jamie Ding's law: "Whenever he bets very big on Final Jeopardy, one will get it wrong. Whenever he bets very little in Final Jeopardy, he will get it right."

To be fair with the notable exception James Holzhauer this is a truth that every Jeopardy super-champions runs into more often then not, and that is true not just for the ones directly above him but many of the ones he's already passed in wins: David Madden, Julia Collins and Ryan Long all lost their share of big wagers on Final Jeopardy. But for Jamie this has been the pattern since the very first defense of his title when he lost $30,000 plus on Final Jeopardy. This has also been true on more than his share of Daily Doubles: he's lost $23,200 on one a few weeks ago as well.

But as we've seen so many times when Jamie needs to get Final Jeopardy correct he does. It was true yesterday to be sure. But that said his opponents do seem to be getting better. In his last three victories he's only managed 22, 22 and 21 correct responses respectively and that has resulted in two of those three games having to be decided in Final Jeopardy. Jamie Ding is one of the great super-champions but every Jeopardy champion is defeated eventually whether it is by Emma Boettcher or Jonathan Fisher or as Ken Jennings knows all too well, by Nancy Zerg. Yesterday was not that day for Jeopardy Jamie II.  How long will his reign continue is the question.