Except Will O’Fortune. People liked that guy even less, for some reason. But Jeopardy! folk aren’t exactly enamored with current three-day winner Arthur Chu, who plays the game unlike any other contestant in the show’s 50-year history. He’s a shark that feasts on Daily Double clues, clearing out the “toughest” questions before heading to another category, rather than working his way down. Why? Because it’s brilliant.
Arthur’s searching was rewarded with all three of the game’s Daily Doubles. Arthur was particularly fond of the “true” Daily Double, wagering all his money the first time (he lost it all) but quickly recovering with a massive wager later on another Daily Double. While most contestants are hesitant to go all-or-nothing, Arthur is happily taking those calculated risks.
One Daily Double, in which he wagered just $5, was particularly strange. Arthur’s searching landed him a Daily Double in a sports category, a topic he knew nothing about. (Via)
He’d much rather lose $5 than let one of his co-players potentially win thousands. Also:
Arthur is an incessant buzzer-clicker, who emphatically presses his answering button like there’s no tomorrow. Given that he knows almost every answer, he’s perpetually smacking on that buzzer in public view…He also plays a furiously quick pace, often bowling over Alex Trebek’s words to get to the next question. This is also a matter of strategy — the more questions he can get to before the time runs out, the more money he can win.
To be fair, that is pretty annoying.
In Final Jeopardy, the leading contestant typically wagers $1 more than double of the 2nd place contestant. If both answer correctly, then the person in the lead wins by that extra buck. But Arthur did not add the $1, wagering enough so that if he and Carolyn both answered correctly, they would tie. And that’s exactly what happened, as both moved on to the next round.
Chu’s the Billy Beane of Jeopardy!, someone who looks for market inefficiencies (except unlike Beane, he’s actually won something). He’s also a mad robot who cuts his own hair and developed an app that tells him where the cheapest gas within a 10-mile radius of his house is. Horrible in real life; awesome on Jeopardy!