Ken weighs in

Another show, another eighty grand for James Holzhauer.

It's getting hard to remember that Roger Craig once held the single day winnings record on Jeopardy with $77,000. James hasn't just broken that record. He's repeatedly smashed it to bits and buried the pieces. I haven't seen any comments by Roger, but the holder of the all-time record for "regular" winnings on Jeopardy has now weighed in on the Holzhauer reign of terror.

Ken Jennings told Wired that he is "just gobsmacked" by Mr. Holzhauer. I'm not a big fan of that Briticism, but in this case it might be acceptable. Ken goes on to say that he would never have the stomach for the kind of huge bets James makes night after night. He also has interesting comments about how James usually gets a big lead in the first round, which enables the giant wagers later on.

Ken even mentions Moneyball, the (overrated, in my view) study of how analytics have affected baseball. He thinks that James' constant hunt for the Daily Doubles might have a similar game-changing effect on Jeopardy. We'll see how the game evolves.

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