Match 1
Paolo Pasco vs. Juveria Zaheer
vs. Long Nguyen
Long knew a win could help him
the most and he came out swinging in the Jeopardy round. He found the Daily
Double in the Jeopardy writers tribute to Oliver Stone: GREEN, FOR LACK OF A
BETTER WORD, IS GOOD.
At the time Long was in the lead
with 2800 points and he bet everything:
In a Paris-set 1890 Marie Corelli
novel, a character says of this "What an idea…Medicinal green! Think of
melted emeralds". It
took a while before he guessed: "What is absinthe?" He was so
astonished he was correct.
By the end of it he had 11,600
points to Juveria's 2600. Paolo, who really struggled (as did the entire group
with) NON-KELSEY GRAMMAR was lucky to finish the Jeopardy round at -800 points.
(Grammar have never been my strong point either and I didn't even try to buzz
in on any of them.) He finished by referring to Arthur Fleck as the 'Joka'
before saying Joker just to get -800.
Paolo knew he had to come out
swinging in Double Jeopardy and he demonstrated some Holzhauer like ability to
find the Daily Double on his first two picks.
In the first category alone he
showed true skill in A NOT-THERE PHRASE. This was the kind of category that was
clearly designed for this tournament. Here's the example Ken gave: "Boy or
A best selling novel'. The correct response would be Gone Girl. This is
the kind of category even the best Jeopardy champions save for last. Paolo
picked the 1600 point clue as his first choice.
He bet the 2000 he knew he needed
to:
Relative humidity is used in
calculating the index: a virtual tie in a race.
You gotta figure Paolo's
crossword puzzle constructing clues helped him come up with: "What is dead
heat?"
Immediately after that the Joka
as Ken teased and Paolo smiled about found the other one in BODIES OF WATER.
Again he bet the 2000 points he was allowed:
Once one of the largest bodies of
water of its kind, its reduction came from the diversion of the Syr Darya and
Amu Darya rivers.
Paolo came up with it: "What
is the Aral Sea?" He moved up to 3200 points and into second place. But
despite his impressive recovery he couldn't catch up to Long.
Long finished in the lead with
22,400, ten thousand points more Paolo, 20,000 more than Juveria.
So the question was: would Paolo
play safe and try to play for second, which would maintain his position on the
leaderboard or go for the win in Final Jeopardy and try to lock up his place
right now?
The category for Final Jeopardy
was PEOPLE IN 2OTH CENTURY HISTORY. After brilliant service in Morocco in
1926 at age 33, he became the youngest brigadier general in the European Army.
Juveria was first. She wrote
down: "Who is Petain?" That was incorrect but she wagered nothing.
Paolo was next: "Who is
Lawrence?" He was clearly thinking of Lawrence of Arabia, not a bad idea
but also wrong. He bet 7599, leaving him with 4801. He clearly wanted to lock
up second place.
Long was now looking pretty safe.
He was also thinking of the French. "Who is De Gaulle?" As it turned out Spain was at war with
Morocco and it turned out to be General Francisco Franco, who would famously
become dictator of Spain. (For the record I was closer to Paolo; I wrote down:
"Who is Montgomery?") Long lost 2401, which left with 19,999 points
more than enough to get a victory he desperately needed.
Long received 3 Match Points.
Paolo got 1 more match point. Juveria had zero
Interview: Long mentioned a story
about how he had studied tennis for a while as a teenager and while he thought
he was good one day he went to his tennis coach and asked whether to go to a
math academic tournament or a tennis match that were on the same day, his coach
told him he had a chance to get an academic scholarship, he had no chance as a
tennis scholarship. Juveria shared that she had been comparing every single
Master to someone from the MCU. Long was Ant-Man because he was an engineer who
had just come out of nowhere, Paolo was the Filipino Peter Parker (same
initials) and Juveria was protective of her husband and children so she was the
Scarlet witch. Paolo joked that somehow since he'd first appeared on Jeopardy
there were people on line who he said was a 'Filipino Jeopardy champ' who 'has
swag' , something he greatly disagreed with based on close-ups from previous
appearances. He thought he'd improved his dress sense since the Masters.
Match 2
Yogesh Raut vs. Victoria Groce
vs. Andrew He
Andrew knew going into this game
that he needed a win just to stay alive. He had to do it against the two
highest ranked players on the leaderboard. It didn't work out as well as it did
for Long.
It took a long time in the
Jeopardy for anyone to find the Daily Double and VICTORIA found it in MYSTIC
COMMERCE. She was in the lead already and bet the 5400 points she had:
The name of this optical brand
founded in 1919 was meant to sound like the pinnacle of achievement. She figured it out: "What is
Olympus?" and doubled her score to 10,800.
At the end of it Victoria led
with 11,400 points to Yogesh 5200 and Andrew's 1400 points.
Victoria and Yogesh went back and
forth early but Victoria found the first Daily Double in CAUGHT IN 4 'A's.
There were going to be four A's in every response and at that point no one had
gotten a clue correct. So Victoria, who had 16,200 points "based on this
category bet a meager 200:
It's the title given to Ranjit
Singh, founder of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab.
She responded: "What is
maharaja?"
Two clues later Victoria found
the other Daily Double in 3-NAMED PEOPLE. She tried to do some quick math (and
there was a category on the board called "WERE YOU TOLD THERE'D BE MATH?)
before sighing and betting $2600:
She taught law at Notre Dame
before being joining the Supreme Court.
There are two obvious candidates
and Victoria picked the correct one: "Who is Amy Comey Barrett?" She
went up to 21,000 even.
She would finish the round even
stronger with 30,200 points. Yogesh had 9600 and Andrew had 4800. Victoria had
locked up the win but Andrew still had a chance at a match point for second
place.
The Final Jeopardy category was
PEN NAMES. Schardanus Rider, a pseudonym found on 17th century
British Almanacs anagrams to this American pseudonym from the 18th
century.
In a sense all three of them got
the correct response (as did I) but only two benefited.
Andrew wrote down: "Who is
Richard?" He was clearly thinking of Poor Richard but they couldn't accept
it as was. It cost him everything, but it wouldn't have affected the end
result.
Yogesh was next: "Who is
Richard Saunders?" And that is the complete pen name that Ben Franklin
famously used for Poor Richard's Almanac. Yogesh added 1 point to his
total, locking up second place.
Victoria also came up with
Richard Saunders and bet 4375, locking up her third victory in the 2026
Jeopardy Masters so far and added another 3 match points to her total.
Interviews: Andrew said that in
trying to keep up with Jeopardy he listened to a bunch of old songs on a loop
which made him joke that after the last summer Spotify seemed to thing he was
93 years old! (It didn't pay off for him.) Victoria told her about competing in
adult spelling bee which she says is with no offense to anyone here 'is the
dorkiest crowd ever' and impressed us with another word she'd won to win with.
Yogesh talked about his experiences in trivia around the world and how he seems
to be using his newfound success to serve as a mentor to others.
LEADERBOARD AFTER AUGUST 29TH
Victoria Groce – 9 Match Points
Yogesh Raut – 8 Match Points
Paolo Pasco – 6 Match Points
Long Nguyen – 5 Match Points
Juveria Zaheer – 3 Match Points
Andrew He - 1 Match Point
At this point Victoria has
officially locked up her spot in the semifinals. For the remaining three spots its
mathematically possible that the remaining five players could qualify at the
least until next week. That said its
looking pretty good that Yogesh will qualify for the quarterfinals for the
third consecutive year right now.
But there are still four games
left to play and next Tuesday we'll get a good idea who will be moving on to
the semi-finals on Thursday. It's been thrilling so far, let's hope they can
keep it up.
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