That guy on Jeapordy would be a great tourney player (strategy post)

[DrewOnTilt]

Hi all! Normally I am a cash game player but have started to study tournaments. I saw something today that tourney players may find interesting.

There is a guy who has been a contestant on the game show "Jeapordy!" for something like 73 consecutive shows. I don't regularly watch the show; before today I had only seen enough footage to know that the guy is smart. Today I watched a full show and saw that not only is he smart, but he also knows how to bet. Tourney players might want to watch a couple of shows.

What he did was this: He came out swinging on the first round. He rang in first on probably 80% of the questions. He was hitting his buzzer long before Alex Trebek had finished the question, betting on his general knowledge of the subject and simultaneously taking a wagering opportunity away from his opponents. He reminded me of an aggressive poker player betting a draw.

By the middle of the second round, he had built a large lead. He then let up on the buzzer and forced his opponents to answer the higher value questions. This is much like hammering away at a short stack and then letting the rapidly increasing blinds eat him up. The guy literally did not even buzz in for the last 15 questions or so. He even managed to force one of his opponents "all-in" twice: the second place player caught both Daily Doubles in the second round and had no choice to but to bet his entire "stack" each time. The second-place player busted out on the first Daily Double; afterwards, he stood essentially no chance of catching up.

The guy barely bet at all on the Final Jeapordy question, since he had the 2nd place player more than doubled up. He could have missed the question and still won by a large margin.

I would not be surprised at all if the guy is also a successful tournament player. He seems to have a very good understanding of wagering strategy.

EDIT - Hell, what am I talking about? Why play poker when you can win two million bucks playing Jeapordy?

[stinkypete]

jeopardy strategy is basic. i don't know why you're so impressed.

he actually fails to maximize his EV pretty badly in final jeopardy most of the time. he should pretty much always bet the maximum he can bet while still being guaranteed to win since he gets way more than 50% of the questions right, but usually he plays it weak-tight.

[zaxx19]

Stink your analysis is actually pretty elementary itself not taking into account marginal utility of each extra dollar over each guaranteed dollar........

[Apathy]

I think stink is saying that Ken Jennings (thats his name btw) could actually wager more money and still be guarenteed the victory. Ken should ALWAYS bet as much as possible without losing the game if he gets final jeopardy wrong and the secong place player doubles through. Ken does not employ this strategy. The reason he should bet as much as possible (with the above requirements met) is that Ken is WAY over 50% to get the question right. Oh and fyi Jeopardy betting strategy is really basic, and imo not much of a parallel to mtt poker, but nice try.

-CPJ

[SuitedSixes]

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I would not be surprised at all if the guy is also a successful tournament player.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think he's mormon, so that's probably a no.

[stinkypete]

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Stink your analysis is actually pretty elementary itself not taking into account marginal utility of each extra dollar over each guaranteed dollar........

[/ QUOTE ]

actually, it does take everything relevant into account.

his 2,400,000th dollar is worth almost exactly the same as his 2,410,000th dollar.

[Superfluous Man]

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I think he's mormon, so that's probably a no.

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Indeed. I highly doubt he plays poker for this very reason (though he certainly has the mathematical knowledge and the recall to be a successful poker player).

I played against him (and, predictably, lost like a bitch) when I went on that show. Overall, he's a damn nice guy; I can see how he rubs people the wrong way, as they only see him on the show, through the eye of the camera. On the show, he's ultra-competitive. You don't win 74 in a row without that fire (and the buzzer timing; his buzzer timing, not the recall of facts or the ability to see through the questions' puns, is the absolute most amazing thing about this run). It's kind of like how certain poker players come across badly on ESPN's WSOP coverage (Ken never told me I had little cojones, though; I put myself on tilt easily enough by not being able to get the timing down right early. The tilt caused me to start buzzing in randomly, even on categories about which I had very little knowledge, just to see if I could beat Ken and my other opponent to the punch. -EV right there).

Since my show was filmed in the afternoon, I ate lunch with the group (we were all sequestered under the watchful gaze of contestant coordinators). Ken mainly discussed his wife and kids with other contestants while I talked with Glenn, a contestant coordinator, about playing poker online (I mean, what else do I do?). Apparently he plays some mid-high limit cash games and some of the higher buy-in tournaments on Party (or maybe it was 'stars; I think I was the one singing the praises of 'Stars to him, though). I thought that was pretty cool. I'll quit rambling now.

[pindawg]

He goes out tonight

[DrewOnTilt]

n/t

[M.B.E.]

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He was hitting his buzzer long before Alex Trebek had finished the question, betting on his general knowledge of the subject and simultaneously taking a wagering opportunity away from his opponents.

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No, you can't buzz in until Alex has finished the question. If you do, your buzzer is locked out for a short period.