If Adam Remsen wanted to finish
June as Jeopardy champion he would have to win his thirteenth game. That is not
a difficult number to pass – as we've seen in Season 42 along two
super-champions were able to reach it and go further – but in addition to
skill, he would need the luck of the draw. And on June 30th he drew
Mandy Moreno and Richard Nguyen.
Early in the Jeopardy round Adam
got off to his usual strong start. But after the commercial break Richard found
the Daily Double in TABLE SCRAPS. With $3400 to Adam's $5600 he bet $3000:
The Vicious Circle was another
name for this celebrated group that first met for lunch in 1919.
Richard knew it was the Algonquin
Round Table and took the lead from Adam. Adam would get it back before the
round ended but it was much closer than it had been for a while. Adam had $7800
to Richard's $7000 while Mandy had $1800.
In Double Jeopardy Adam struck
first finding the first Daily Double in SPECIAL EFFECTS. At $11,000 to
Richard's $8800 he bet $5000:
The effect of this effect is that
patients sometimes get better even when treated with inactive substances for
fake procedures.
Adam immediately knew it was the
placebo effect and went up to $16,000.
But Richard didn't back down. He
went on a run of his own and by the time he found the other Daily Double he was
in the lead with $17,000. He also bet $5000 in DIARIES & JOURNALS.
Unfortunately it didn't go as well for him as it did for Adam:
His journal entry for November 5,
1922 includes his telegram to Lord Carnarvon: "At last have made wonderful
discovery in the valley."
Richard's response was: "Who
is Stanley?" In fact it was Howard Carter who had just discovered the tomb
of King Tut. Richard dropped to $12,000 and second place.
But it was far from over. At the
end of the round Adam was still in the lead with $20,800 to Richard's $14,000
while Mandy was still in contention with $5000. Unlike eight of Adam's twelve
previous wins, it was not a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
The category was 20th
CENTURY NOVELS. David Ben-Gurion called this 1958 book 'as a piece of
propaganda…the greatest thing ever written about Israel.'
Mandy's response was revealed
first and she couldn't come up with anything. However it cost her nothing and
she was still at $5000.
Next came Richard. He wrote down:
"What is Exodus?" That was correct: Leon Uris's novel about
the founding of Israel. He bet $6401, giving him $20,801 and putting him in the
lead by one dollar over Adam.
It was all on Adam. For six
consecutive days he gotten Final Jeopardy correct. His response was: "What
is Fiddler on the Roof?" (In
fairness he has a theater background and the musical is from around this
period.) It cost him $8001 and Richard Nguyen would enter July as Jeopardy
champion.
Adam Remsen finished with $306,415
which in a player's original appearance ranks 17th all-time behind
Adriana Harmeyer and Season 42's previous super-champion Harrison Whitaker.
That is an impressive figure by any standard and far more than Ryan Long won in
16 games. Of course it's also less than Austin Rogers did when he won 12.It's
also more money than Adriana Harmeyer had after 13 games and about the same as
Scott Riccardi after 12 – and for that matter only $8000 less than Jamie Ding
had after 12.
When all's said and done I think
Adam was closer to the kind of super-champion that Scott and Adriana were and
less so then not just Jamie and Austin but also Ray LaLonde and Matt Jackson,
both of whom won 13 games apiece but considerably more money. That's understandable considering that eight
of Adam's runaways were close matches and he didn't get Final Jeopardy correct
of four of them and in the four games he did win there wasn't a lot of room to
wager big. His biggest payday was $50,000 on Friday which was also the same
kind of payday Harrison Whitaker during his run.
With Adam's 12th win he
is at the moment guaranteed a bye into the semi-finals along with Jamie Ding
and Harrison Whitaker. Of course just last month the same could have been said
for Tristan Williams and there's still nearly three weeks left in the season.
And for those of you who have good memories, it was around this same time last
year Scott Riccardi began his run. A lot
can happen in three weeks and a lot has happened in Season 42 already.
So with that in mind here is the
updated roster for the 2027 Tournament of Champions so far. Starting from the
top with the players who have locked down their spots:
Harrison Whitaker, 14 wins,
$373,999
Will Riley, 4 wins, $77,403
James Denison, 4 wins, $99,400
Jamie Ding, 31 wins, $882,505
Tristan Williams, 10 wins,
$221,902
Chris D'Angelo, 8 wins, $194,201
Peter McFerrin, 6 wins, $147,399
Adam Remsen, 12 wins, $306,415
Mina Kimes, Celebrity Jeopardy
All-Stars Winner
And here are the three 3-game
winners who, while they have not officially locked down their spots, if the
rules of the last few years apply are certain to be included:
Ron LaLonde: $52,501
James Hirsh: $67,418
Greg Shahade: $74,602
Greg will be there, of course,
because he defeated Jamie Ding. Considering that Tristan has now been forced to
compete in the quarterfinals there's a good chance that he might want to face
off against Chris D'Angelo, there are a lot of great narratives for the
2027 Tournament of Champions along with a lot of great stories.
The one drawback where we've
either had a champion with an incredible run or this succession of champions
we've had is that so far we haven't had a lot of potential candidates for
Champions Wild Card yet. (I'll get to them at my end of year wrap-up.) There
have been very few two game winners. On the
other hand we've got a lot of great choices for the Second Chance
Tournament starting with Mandy from this game.
The field for the 2027 Tournament
of Champions just keeps getting stronger and Season 42 isn't even over yet.
Keep watching these pages to see if anyone new arises. I certainly will be
watching Jeopardy with breathless anticipation.
