Game Recap – Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time, Match 3 (Thursday, January 9, 2020)

20 Comments on "Game Recap – Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time, Match 3 (Thursday, January 9, 2020)"

1. Vasilios Vasilounis | January 9, 2020 at 9:54 pm |

   Interesting game 3 by all players. Ken seems fired up for this tournament, I think a bit more than James. Brad seems lost at times. Is this the same player who won all the major tournaments? He seems a shadow of his former self. Although I’m rooting for James, there’s a strong chance Ken may win it all. I just hope the tournament reaches 7 games–we direly need intelligent, classy entertainment such as this.

   • Vader47000 | January 10, 2020 at 8:01 am |

     I bet ABC wishes it were 7 games. The ratings have been huge

2. Will E. | January 9, 2020 at 9:56 pm |

   I think how tonight played out proves my point from the first night that Ken played FJ too conservatively on the first game. I mean I think James should’ve bet at least 2/3 the first game as well given all of the scores in the second match, but I know he also likely wanted to make sure his daughter got a shout out.

   I know everyone had gone “all in” on each DD, but with Ken having gone for it on the final the game before, he squeezed both Brad and James to the point where they needed a BIG lead going into final. James having a 5k/0/0 lead, would not have needed to double down there, and without kens lead.

   Ken’s adjustment to how the game is playing has been so impressive. I have thought his in game/tournament adjustments with game theory to be lack luster before, but how he’s shifted is interesting. I’m stunned at how James’ presence has some how blocked brad from ringing in — guy is averaging 20% vs. 42% AND he usually beats Ken 1-on-1!

   For me, however, a GOAT will forever encompass someone, who takes greatness and then fundamentally changes the way a game is thought of or played.

   • Andrew | January 10, 2020 at 2:24 am |

     I’m not sure he played too conservatively in the first game, but he still made the proper adjustment this game. FJ is arguably the weakest part of his game, as in previous big tournaments he’s led going into FJ during a match and then lost it. Going into the first match, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect a super difficult FJ and he probably shouldn’t have risked too much without getting a feel for the difficulty and how James was betting. Yes, James has a history of aggressive bets, but you also didn’t know if he’d play any differently given the competition and similar difficulty concerns.

     However, by the 3rd match trends are emerging. The FJ so far haven’t been ‘easy’, but they’re also far from triple stumpers. It’s worth taking a big risk and doubling down to a huge advantage. And James is obviously betting just as aggressively, so there’s no reason to be conservative given the difficulty level. I have a hard time criticizing Ken’s match 1 bet, hindsight is 20/20, but would have been super critical of him had he done the same thing match 1 today.

     • Will E. | January 13, 2020 at 8:41 pm |

       Ken’s adjustments have been the x-factor. I have been markedly impressed by that. If anyone were to adjust I thought it would have been Brad.

       I also think Brad must use a hybrid method to ring in of cadence and timing the light, proving to be much weaker than a purist method. I agree that it’s not terrible to be conservative w the weakest part of his game, but I think given his past experiences w Brad, I’d rather take the risk, knowing Brad, and having James as an x-factor, than play it safe because this is a weakness in my game.

       Ken still got most of his FJ correct, and a 2/3 bet puts him at a marked advantage, while a 1/3 bet really doesn’t, given how fickle DD can be in the DJ! round. Given the category and competition and ability… really?

       I actually think how the 3rd match went, he might have been too aggressive. He’s lost to Brad on the buzzer so much. Lost on so many levels, and here Brad is floundering…. he’s had 7 dd in the DJ! Round, vs 3 for Ken and 2 for James. Here brad can’t ring in… some how James has neutralized him. Here’s a situation that Ken feel more comfortable.

3. Brad (not Rutter) | January 9, 2020 at 10:01 pm |

   James missing the daily double after a great start to game two really took the air out of the back half of the show.

   Through 3 contests, ken has answered (correctly) one more question than james (135 to 134) and Brad has exactly half of James(67). Was surprised to see that James had more correct answers than Ken tonight, considering the blowout.

   • Jim Fryza | January 10, 2020 at 5:32 am |

     It shows the importance of the Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy in determining the winner. Ken getting that DD where he risked 9,200 points made a difference of 18,400 which he doubled up to 36,800 with FJ. He just managed to get that one right and if he missed it he would have had 36,800 less points.

4. Bill | January 9, 2020 at 10:02 pm |

   I was surprised at Alex seemingly mispronouncing “Jean-Luc Picard”. Every Trekkie knows that “Picard” was consistently pronounced with a hard “d”, regardless of its language of origin.

   • Bill | January 9, 2020 at 11:56 pm |

     Aren’t you the clever one?

5. Bill | January 9, 2020 at 10:04 pm |

   Definitely a different game today. It almost felt like all three were a bit off. During the first two matches, there wasn’t a single triple-stumper that I would have come close to answering. Tonight, there were four of them I would have gotten.

6. stuck | January 9, 2020 at 11:33 pm |

   very disappointed with James in game 2 tonight and I’ll be floored if KJ wins this 3-1-0 tomorrow …. if KJ wins it 3-2-0, that’ll be alright with me even though I still want James to win

   • John G | January 9, 2020 at 11:50 pm |

     Next game isn’t until Tuesday. 🙁

7. BARBARA EPSTEIN | January 9, 2020 at 11:47 pm |

   THEY ARE ALL BRILLIANT – I , PERSONALLY , AM ROUTING FOR KEN TO WIN – LIKE HIS DEMEANOR.
   HOPE HE WINS IT TUESDAY.

   • John G | January 9, 2020 at 11:51 pm |

     Same here. He is beginning to beat James at his own game – buzzer control.

8. Vader47000 | January 10, 2020 at 12:17 am |

   Thanks to Ken’s huge lead from game 1, James’ 5K DD miss early in game 2 wouldn’t have made a difference (numerically, anyway — whether it affected James’ confidence and thus buzz speed is not for me to guess).

   Of course, it also meant that the only way Ken was likely to lose the match was for James to get timely Daily Doubles in game 2’s DJ, which was rendered moot by Brad getting both of them. Hence Brad’s “your welcome” to Ken after getting the second one. After that I think they all knew the match was pretty much over, since after that they seemed to just play to run out the clock, so to speak).

   It also really speaks to the dynamics of the three-person format compared with head-to-head. With this match-play format it’s technically possible (though unlikely) to win the tournament without actually winning a single game.

9. Pizza Face Fred | January 10, 2020 at 1:09 am |

   I’m here for the “rooting” misspellings and Ismael’s helpful comments,,,

10. Andrew | January 10, 2020 at 2:48 am |

    The biggest surprise to me so far is Brad, but a deeper look and I wonder if this shouldn’t have been somewhat expected. It feels like he’s getting demolished, but looking at Coryat (for Games 1 and 3 at least) he’s clearly 3rd but not outclassed. So what’s happening? At first I was just figuring he’s gotten older and far from his peak, and surely he’s a little off his peak, but I don’t think that’s it. When he beats Ken, often he outbuzzers him, while Ken knows lots of random crap that keeps him close or gives him a slight lead, and then Brad has the advantage for the really tough FJ clues with some time to think. You feel like Ken knows more random trivia, but Brad can beat him at the advanced FJ clues and outbuzzer him for the other clues he knows.

    James has completely thrown a wrench in that, because he can outbuzzer Brad. So Brad is having trouble building points to make himself a factor in FJ. To compensate, he has to be much more aggressive in daily doubles and hope he knows random clues, which isn’t his game. He’s getting a bit unlucky with the DD clues he’s getting, but still having to go all in on random DD clues to build points is a much better Ken strategy than Brad. Meanwhile, the random crap and wordsmith type clues that Ken can excel at are still there for him, so he can still build his points while playing more aggressive on DDs because of James. And James has to play a riskier style on normal clues when he falls behind, which isn’t HIS style (see 7 missed responses today). Point being, I’m not sure a whole lot has changed from previous Brad vs Ken matches on paper, but the James dynamic is changing everything.

    I thought the FJ comedy was funny, but do wish to know if Brad had that answer. He got both DDs in double jeopardy today right. With just a few more points, he’d have quadrupled up and made himself a factor. With just 5000 more points before pulling that first DD, Brad might have been able to win that match, as crazy as it sounds, if he knew that final jeopardy. Though I did find it funny when Brad acknowledged he did Ken a favor by drawing the DDs, as James landing a DD was the only chance Ken had at losing that match.

11. Brian Green | January 10, 2020 at 3:36 am |

    I hope when Jennings wins the series 3-1-0, Alex Trebek says in front of 15 million people watching: “Ken, come on over here. You grace us with your presence.”

12. James Allen | January 10, 2020 at 4:24 am |

    Wow! Like I noted two days ago (and Ken said in his filmed piece), Ken is all-out to win. A strategic DD wager helped him win game 1, but after James dominated match 2, Ken responded by dominating match 3. The thing to remember is that not only does Ken want to beat the new kid on the block, he wants to beat Brad (whom he has never beaten). Brad, for whatever reason, has been a total non-factor. The messed up part is that he’s picking almost every DD, and picking every DD while having a paltry score, and picking every DD and getting them all wrong, and by picking every DD he is helping whomever is in the lead (which he even acknowledged today.)

    I’m all for Ken at this point. We’ll no doubt see James again, but this could be Ken’s long awaited cherry on the top of his Jeopardy! career.

    • Jim Fryza | January 10, 2020 at 7:06 am |

      Brad is 4 out of 9 in Daily Doubles at this point.