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Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 17, 2023, second game of Jeopardy! Masters — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. It will be updated alongside the Eastern Time airing of the show, beginning at about 8:30 PM Eastern.
This game’s Jeopardy! Masters contestants:
Amy Schneider, a writer from Oakland, California (5 points)
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Andrew He, a software developer from San Francisco, California (12 points)
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James Holzhauer, a self-described game show villain from Las Vegas, Nevada (15 points)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
By the time this game starts, we’ll know if Amy still has a chance at qualifying for the semifinals. If Matt finishes 2nd or 3rd in the opener, Amy has to win outright in order to qualify. Of course, she has to beat both James and Andrew in order to do so. (Things would be much easier for Amy had she defeated Matt on Monday.)
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! Masters today? Here’s the Wednesday, May 17, 2023 Jeopardy! Masters (game 2) by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The 20th Century; Mythological Words & Phrases; Secrets Of The Angelenos; Comic Strips; Masters Of Lit; Bring What?)
James got to the Daily Double early, but only pulled out 6,800 points by the end of the round. Andrew sat second and Amy third.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
James 13 correct 1 incorrect
Andrew 8 correct 1 incorrect
Amy 3 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
James $6,800
Andrew $3,600
Amy $1,800
Today’s interviews:
Amy owes a great deal of thanks to her brother for her Jeopardy! Masters anecdotes.
Andrew thought a reference that Ken made during the ToC went over his head.
James got to meet Sidney Crosby at the NHL Awards.
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Not-So-Plain Janes; Word Origins; Bodies Of Water; Headgear & History; Medical Terms; Rock”er”s)
James got to both Daily Doubles—again—and went all-in on both of them! (Nothing to lose, I guess.) He certainly made a statement for going forward, with 54,000 going into Final.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
James 30 correct 2 incorrect
Andrew 13 correct 1 incorrect
Amy 5 correct 0 incorrect
Scores going into Final:
James $54,000
Andrew $9,600
Amy $3,000
Final Jeopardy category: 20th Century French Authors
Final Jeopardy! clue: He said a famous book of his was inspired by a visit to the zoo, where he observed the gorillas’ humanlike expressions
Correct response: Who is Pierre Boulle? (author of Planet of the Apes)
Amy and Andrew went for joke responses; James tried to play it normally but didn’t get it correct. 3 points to James, 1 to Andrew, 0 to Amy.
Tonight’s results:
Amy $3,000 – $0 = $3,000 (Why not 2 points for finishing second?)
Andrew $9,600 – $0 = $9,600 (Stop! He’s already dead)
James $54,000 – $32,608 = $21,392 (Who is Camus)
Jeopardy! Masters Standings:
(Quarterfinal Results)
1st: James Holzhauer (18 points, 6 wins, 193 correct, 152,600 Coryat, 247,805 Pre-FJ)
2nd: Andrew He (13 points, 3 wins, 131 correct, 107,000 Coryat, 121,800 Pre-FJ)
3rd: Matt Amodio (9 points, 3 wins, 115 correct, 88,800 Coryat, 112,800 Pre-FJ)
4th: Mattea Roach (8 points, 2 wins, 112 correct, 75,800 Coryat, 86,400 Pre-FJ)
5th: Amy Schneider (5 points, 0 wins, 95 correct, 66,800 Coryat, 70,800 Pre-FJ)
6th: Sam Buttrey (3 points, 0 wins, 115 correct, 70,000 Coryat, 80,600 Pre-FJ)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE 20th CENTURY $1000 (clue #3)
James 1000 +1000 (Andrew 0 Amy 0)
2) WORD ORIGINS $2000 (clue #8)
James 8000 +8000 (Andrew 6800 Amy 1800)
3) ROCK”ER”S $1600 (clue #20, $6800 left on board)
James 25600 +25600 (Andrew 8400 Amy 1800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 300
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
James 5 4 5*
Andrew
Amy
DJ! Round:
James 5 5 5 5* 4 3 5 2 2 2 4 5 2 4*
Andrew 4 3 3 3
Amy 3 4
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
James 3.94
Andrew 3.25
Amy 3.50
Game Stats:
James $24,000 Coryat, 30 correct, 2 incorrect, 49.12% in first on buzzer (28/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Andrew $9,600 Coryat, 13 correct, 1 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Amy $3,000 Coryat, 5 correct, 0 incorrect, 8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,600
Lach Trash: $14,400 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $3,000
Player Statistics:
James Holzhauer, career statistics:
1694 correct, 79 incorrect
52/56 on rebound attempts (on 116 rebound opportunities)
53.04% in first on buzzer (1562/2945)
96/103 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $827,993)
41/52 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $27,008
Andrew He, career statistics:
429 correct, 57 incorrect
29/34 on rebound attempts (on 79 rebound opportunities)
33.25% in first on buzzer (398/1197)
25/33 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $104,600)
9/21 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,143
Amy Schneider, career statistics:
1600 correct, 111 incorrect
77/94 on rebound attempts (on 212 rebound opportunities)
46.35% in first on buzzer (1475/3182)
73/86 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $225,400)
37/56 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,043
Andy’s Thoughts:
- The predictions for the semifinals will be coming along with the semifinals preview post.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: James $54,000 Andrew $9,600 Amy $3,000)
James: Limit your bet to $34,799. (Actual bet: $32,608)
Andrew: Limit your bet to $3,599. (Actual bet: $0)
Amy: Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $0)
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Why not indeed! What would the rankings have been if Amy’s FJ wish had been granted and the match points had been awarded 3/2/0 in each game?
James 18
Andrew 17
Mattea 10
Amy 10
Matt 9
Sam 6
While Matt has answered your second question, regarding the first one: The point of Jeopardy! is to win—not to come second.
Couldn’t agree more, Andy. Let’s recall, as you documented here in 2016, that “only the winner keeps the cash” was a fundamental change made for the syndicated edition, as opposed to the Art Fleming-hosted network version.
https://thejeopardyfan.com/2016/11/why-does-only-the-winner-keep-the-cash.html
Read it and understand it. I still liked the old network system better 😐
Agreed. Amy just seemed off her game in this tournament, and weaknesses I’d seen in her initial run seemed amplified up against the best of the best. I’m a huge Amy fan, but she just seemed off in this tournament. I’m just glad one of her and Mattea went through, though Mattea’s weaknesses have also been on full display in this competition, as well. They have simply been closer to on-game than Amy was. And love Sam, but I was fully expecting him to struggle against this Murderer’s Row.
What I initially came here to mention was the absolute stupid blind hatred on Twitter with regards to Amy. My block button was getting fed pretty well this morning.
Of course, it’s not reasonable to assume the contestants would’ve employed the same wagering strategies had the stakes been 3/2/0, so we can’t really know what the standings would’ve been.
Well, maybe, but points is points, I think for the most part they would be wagering to get as many as possible, but it 3 or 2 or 1 (especially considering whenever one of the three players in a game had a runaway).
Sorry, I meant “be it”, not “but it”. I suspect my muscle memory thought I intended to type “but if”.
I think Ken meant to say that James had actuaaly abswered a Final Jeopardy subce the games, James and Matt were tied going into Final Jeopardy (James; only loss in the competition to date.
THE final Jeopardy answer explains ho Boulle came up with the idea for Planet of the Apes. Unfortunately the answer didn;t lead me to the correct response. If I knew Boulle was the author before tonight, I certainly didn’t remember.
At the third Daily Double, I thought “he’s not gonna do it a third time… is he?”, so you can imagine my complete and total shock when the phrase “25,600” came out of his mouth. I seriously forgot just how much I love watching James play. It’s unfortunate that Sam and Amy are gone so soon, but as Austin Rogers once said, “them’s the cookies”. Either way, I just can’t wait for the semifinals. Those are gonna be EPIC.
Yeah, old SF helps me again. The background story is new to me, but the category and gorillas pointed me to Boulle, who I was familiar with years before The Monkey Planet.
25,600 is now the largest successful true Daily Double and the largest overall successful Daily Double. The largest true Daily Double was previously 20,200 and the largest Daily Double overall was $25,000 – and you know what? Both of them were set by James Holzhauer.
Yes, but this was points. The other was actual dollars. So, I think there should be an asterisk since he wasn’t actually risking anything.
I certainly get your point and if they wind up doing that I would never complain about it, but I would argue that he was potentially risking losing that game (though to the opposite argument, he did not NEED to win this game) and that when you’ve already won one or two million dollars $25,000 is little more important than 25,000 points — and no one understands the concept of “house money” more than James Holzhauer.
James has been killing it this whole competition. But if I read correctly now we just go back to square one for the semi finals? I feel this is a sort of flawed system as James has beaten everyone countless times at this point. Heck in the last TOC they gave Amy, Mattea and Matt byes into the semi finals based on regular play I feel the same should be done for James in regards to a bye into the finals. I’m not 100% sure how the semi finals work but I’d assume James gets some sort of advantage in the semi finals???
In the four games that we’ll see on Monday and Tuesday of next week, all the possible combinations will be played. Another way of saying the same thing: in each of those four games, a different player will sit out; that player will be Mattea in Monday’s first game.
The match point system for the semis is the same as the quarters. Points from the quarterfinals do not carry over.
The player with the fewest match points over those four games (same tiebreakers also) is eliminated (and earns $100,000); the other three play a two-game, total-point affair on Wednesday to decide first, second, and third ($500K, $250K, $150K respectively).
Feels like a way to get an extra 2 games out of this. Just should have made it simple and put the top 3 in the finals
James doesn’t need any advantage given to him. He’s head and shoulders above the rest🗿🤷
Agreed but he shouldn’t need to prove himself over and over
I think both methods where mostly just ploys to maintain interest for ratings purposes. In the Masters it was to not risk have the winner be assured with several nights of games still left to play. In the TOC it was because those three players’ long streaks in the same season probably having SOME viewers mostly tuning in to see them, so don’t risk getting them knocked out early by some fluke of what categories that came up. [One could say “then why would THOSE viewers tune in to the early games if they just wanted to see the ultra-champions?”, but I think those wanting to see how their final opponents got there to go against them would outweigh those only tuning in at the end to see them.]
Sticking with my theory that James has attempted precisely the FJs he wasn’t 100% on.
Agreed that Amy was off her normal outstanding form. She finished sixth in number correct, Coryat, and pre-FJ points.
Obviously there’s still a long way to go, but a few questions/observations on the Jeopardy! Masters tournament thus far, and particularly James Holzhauer’s dominance…
1) A few have alluded that James has purposely tanked final jeopardy responses to write funny barbs, often directed at Ken; can anyone verify this? If so, and I suspect it is probably the case in at least one of the last three finals, this would skew his stats, like in Andy’s prediction model; I don’t think James much cares about things like this either way, but it’s definitely going to understate his final jeopardy % accuracy, which is of course a relevant stat, and one that had really distinguished him from the rest, as though every other stat didn’t do that enough already!
2) It’s just staggering how dominant he’s been in this tournament; sure, Andy had him as the favorite going in, but take the previous game to this one. He played the two people not named Ken Jennings with the longest winning streaks ever on the show, and made them look pedestrian. They both got true daily doubles in double jeopardy, and were still shut out heading into final.
3) I was thinking about players whose original streaks really understated their “expected” streaks for lack of a better words, and James definitely should qualify. His streak is the third longest not including Ken’s and yet he easily could have won fifty or sixty games. And frankly, honorable mentions to Emma and Andrew He, who held her own against James a few times, and who’s been the second best player in this tournament…so I’d say their three and five game streaks, respectively, definitely seem to be well below their potential theoretical streaks.
4) Last point is that the Holzhauer dominance is in some respects what I thought we might have seen in the GOAT tournament; certainly in the case of Brad Rutter, we did. And yet, I think his stellar play only speaks to just how impressive it was that Ken was able to beat him. And not just in a high variance one game, or even two point total match, where luck could matter quite a bit. But he did so in a very variance smoothing situation in terms of how many questions they heard, and games they played. In short, until proven otherwise, it just seems like it’s Ken, James and then everyone else just well below them in the pantheon of jeopardy champs.
About your “1)” . . .
I don’t know for sure what you mean by verify — even if he had tweeted or something that he really knew the answers, we couldn’t tell if he was kidding THEN or not.
This was only points, not money.
I don’t feel like going back and looking (which you could have done), but my memory is that he never bet enough to potentially lose by not giving a correct response.
Based on his extremely low career error rate, CHANCES ARE he did know the correct responses. [Though I was very surprised in his last game there were so many triple stumpers that no one, including James, even tried on.]
But, I think, mostly it is that they who will comment that they are sure that he actually knew the correct response would have been people who themselves knew it and DO NOT presume to think that they knew it when James didn’t.