The Playoffs Are Over. Hoist the Cup

No, not the Stanley Cup playoffs finals. That's still going on and will bleed into Flag Day in June sometime. No, this was the Jeopardy Masters Tournament which concluded the other night. I was DVRing it, so I just watched the two-game final last night. Nobody spoiled the results for me, since I don't know anyone alive anymore who watches Jeopardy. Not that no one watches Jeopardy. I just just don't know them.

I suspect the show is highly rated. They were certainly giving away significant jack to the 6 people who qualified for this inaugural runoff for the Alex Trebek trophy. First place was worth $500,000 and paid down to 6th place with $50,000, like a golf tournament, or a highly lucrative Grade 1 horse race. If you were in it, you were going to get some change. Also on the line was a $100,000 contribution to the winner's favorite charity.  

It was a highly entertaining 10 one hour shows, with 20 games played. As much as I didn't want it to end I hope I can now look forward to Ken Jennings coming back to the half hour weekly telecasts, taking the reins back from Mayim Bialik, who is not my favorite. Aside from a face clearly fit for AM radio, she annoyingly hesitates before she says, "that's correct." It's as if she needs confirmation from her earpiece. Watching is a painful experience.

When Sam Buttrey gave his little speech of thanks before he was eliminated from the final six, he eloquently thanked the writers who produce the clues/questions. Collectively, they really show off their stuff on geography, mythology, literature and Latin. No doubt there is an Oxford or Cambridge classics scholar embedded in that group of writers.

The total purse outlay and charity contribution totaled $1.225 million. Not bad for a quiz show that was a category of entertainment that was famously dismissed by JFK's F.C.C. Commissioner, Newton Minow in the early days of television as being part of the "vast wasteland."

In the recent obit for Mr. Minow Robert McFadden gives credit to Mr. Minow's reference to his knowledge of T.S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland when he compares the fare of '60s television's game shows, etc. as being part of a "vast wasteland."

If revenge is a dish best served cold, then TV writers and producers serve theirs subtly. In the silly, wildly popular 60s' sitcom Gilligans' Island, the shipwrecked boat that couldn't make it back to shore from the three hour tour was purposely named the S.S. Minnow, taking a poke at Mr. Minow.

And I have little doubt that the eggheads who write the clues/questions for Jeopardy had Mr. Minow in mind when they crafted a Poetry category clue that contained lines from a poem asking the contestant for the poet. In the Finals these crafty clue writers put lines from T.S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland out there for an answer. No one got it.  Someone in the background was smiling. They should get a raise

So after there were four contestants, Jim Holzhauer, Andrew Hee, Mattea Roche and Matt Amodio, how do they get to three contestants for the two game final? The second three contestant lineup was Mattea Roach, Andree Hee and Matt Amodio. Only two of those three was going to join Jim Holzhauer in the finals.

Matt Amodio ran away with the score, and Mattea Roach and Andrew Hee tied in their total point standings for the third spot. What was the tiebreaker? Number of correct answers in their rounds. Advantage: Mattea.

Mattea is a classy, amiable person whose company you would enjoy, is now introduced as a writer and podcaster on a Canadian series, The Backbench, a political show. She was truly surprised that she beat Andrew Hee for the third spot and gave him a heartfelt hug. She also in one of her introductions  gave an emotional speech about how her father had recently passed away while she was actually on the set taping a Jeopardy show. She thanked everyone who supported her when that news reached her.

So, what was the box score for the two game final with James Holzhauer, Mattea Roach and Matt Amodio?

James blitzed his way to the top of the leader board in effect becoming the number one seed. In this Masters format Ken Jennings would let the audience know where the daily doubles were placed. The one daily double, and the two daily doubles in Double Jeopardy.

I was surprised to see the placement of the Daily Double for the first game placed in a 1000 point spot. Players at this elite level are sharks. They play the game aggressively and usually open up at the 800/1600, 1000/2000 level question.

Jim went first, and of course chose a 1000 point spot under World Capitals. The Daily Double. Daily Doubles are best hit and capitalized on when there is money to bet. Big leads are built on big gambles that pay off. 

Holzhauer has always always shown his gambling aggression by going "all in," shoveling his cupped hands forward signifying his Daily Double bets. But when you get the Daily Double at the opening bell, no one has any money to bet. When you have no money to bet, the rules say you can bet up to 1000. Of course Jim does a 1000 bet. Goes 1000 in the hole with the wrong answer. Jim is rarely in the red, and Jennings comments on it.

A left, a right, another left...back and forth. Double Jeopardy Daily Doubles round find Jim betting  8000, all in, and hitting. A coup. Mattea goes all in on a 7200 bet and hits.

When the dust settles on the first game Jim is lording over with 34,314 points; Matt with 12,000 and Mattea with 24,800. Another Jim blitz. Game two.

No Daily Doubles for Jim, who seems to always find them. Mattea hits with a 7400 all in. Matt slips on 4600, all in. Zero is not where you want to be after the game has started.

Mattea is on a blitz this time. Dust settles with the second game going; Jim 9600; Matt 3200; Mattea 22800.

Aggregate scores going into Final Jeopardy, for the $500,000 first place prize: Jim, 43,914; Matt 15,200; Mattea 47,600. Is this the end of Jim?

One clue writer is smiling. Broadly. What's the clue? "A work by this 15th-century writer quotes the phrase: rex quondum rexque futurus. No one gets it. T.H. White is offered by Jim; Matt writes, "who will win" because he knows it's not him; Mattea goes with Chaucer.

Answer? Thomas Mallory in his Le Morte d'Arthur, the "once and future king." I didn't know it either.

In this round of wagering, the contestants were allowed to bet as much as they won in the first game. Jim goes with a strange, but effective 119 points, that will leave him the winner if her expected bet of 5915 falters with a wrong answer. She'll finish below his amount going in. Jim couldn't help Mattea from winning if her bet is right and her answer is right, but he'll win if she's wrong and he doesn't take too many points away from himself. Thus, the rather odd, but effective bet of 119.

What does Mattea do? It has to be stressful at this point. Sink the putt and grab the first place prize, or see the ball skim the lip and spin out. Talk about the yips.

Mattea's bet could have been nothing. Jim has to bet the right amount and get it right, neither of which he did. She can sit pat, not get it right, and win if Jim blows the answer, which he did. They all did.

Mattea's bet of 5915 is the right amount if Jim gets it right with a maximum bet of 9600 points added to his existing 43,914 and she gets it right. She'll win by 1; 53,515 to 53,514. Her wrong answer costs her 5915 points, which leaves her below Jim's total going in, which he has left fairly undisturbed with a bet of only 119 points.

 Good game, played down to the dollar, with many possible outcomes. The clue writer should get a bonus. A big bonus. The cup on the 18th hole was placed just right.

The N.F.L. has the Lombardi trophy named after the legendary Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi, winner of the first two Super Bowls. Naming the Jeopardy trophy after Alex is appropriate. After all, the show is taped on the Alex Trebek stage at Sony Pictures Studio.

All three Masters Tournament finalists get invited to compete next year. If this keeps up over the years, then the Jeopardy Masters Tournament might well end when the Stanley Cup is hoisted around Flag Day.

It's only fitting.

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