Why do Jeopardy contestants usually pick clues from the top down?
- Thread starter her209
- Start date
cKGunslinger
Lifer
- Nov 29, 1999
- 16,408
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Questions typically vary in difficulty based on $$ value. You start at the top to "feel out" the type of question in the categories, as well as feeling out the other contestants. It's a lot easier to get in the "category mindset" as you gradually ramp up in difficulty.
HardcoreRobot
Lifer
- Nov 7, 2000
- 16,403
- 3
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if you mean daily doubles by daily jeopardies, i think they can be anywhere on the board, so thats not an issue
silverpig
Lifer
- Jul 29, 2001
- 27,703
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Sure it is. In the first round there are what 36 questions and 1 DD? On average you'd hit the DD after 18 questions. If you answer the lowest valued questions first, you'd have less money to wager. However, if you start at the bottom, you'll have more money to wager on the DD when it comes up.
Yah but what happens when you go for the gold and answer the 1000 dollar question wrong. You're down a grand and there's been one question.
This is true. This is why.
Take for example the category "Double B"
First value question - "An item without extras"
Answer - what is BareBones alex
Last value question - "To participate lightly in a hobby"
Answer - what is To Dabble alex
See the difference? Without understanding what the category really is, it's useless to pick from the bottom.
Daily Doubles are typically in the center row, +/- one row. That isn't really what he's getting at, per se, but it's legitimate to point out.
Choosing the lower-valued clues first is a way of defering and reducing risk. As already mentioned, choosing a low-valued clue lets you get some idea of what the category is about (this especially matters with "trick" categories like the ones today where all responses contain "eye" or are also a type of bird) with minimal risk. It also gives you a chance to "warm up" to that type of question, which again is especially important for weird categories.
The difference in money to wager is nonexistent. The increased risk of getting a clue wrong substantially offsets the dollar-value difference, as do the factors mentioned above. If you wanted to have the most money possible before hitting a Daily Double, you would pick all the clues on the top row (which are never Daily Doubles), then the second row, etc.
Moreover, very few people attempt a true daily double. Most wagers are very close to what the value of the clue would have been, sometimes ranging up to the highest dollar value of a clue in that round ($1000 or $2000). Once in a while you see some theatrics where someone makes a very large wager, but it is uncommon. Sometimes people wager $0.
Picking low-value clues first also means that if you run out of the time in the round and some clues are not read, it is the high-value clues that are not read. This is normally good for the player; running out of time indicates the game is going slowly because 1 or more of the players is doing badly. Very often this really means all of the players are doing badly (esp. true for the "before and after" or "spell your response" types), but some worse than others. Avoiding the high-dollar clues reduces your odds of getting screwed by one of them.
You will often see that as time starts to run out, players that are way behind will start choosing the high-dollar clues in a category that they know first, in an attempt to catch up (and to steer the game toward the clues they think they have a fighting chance on). Sometimes they will only pick clues from the middle of the board, hoping to hit a Daily Double.
It's no coincidence that virtually everyone that goes on the show plays the same way, nor that most other game shows follow similar patterns (start cheap, work your way up), nor that most "quiz bowls" and such follow similar patterns. It works.
1. You'll get more high valued questions correct if you start at the top
2. People rarely wager the maximum amount on Daily Doubles
3. Not all questions are answered correctly, I'd bet contestants would fair better if all questions were $400 or $600, which are usually easily answerable.
2. People rarely wager the maximum amount on Daily Doubles
3. Not all questions are answered correctly, I'd bet contestants would fair better if all questions were $400 or $600, which are usually easily answerable.
What I mean is, you are much more likely to get the 200 dollar question and worst case scenario you're down 200 not 1000.
You'd probably never get past the written test, or if you lucked that out, you'd fail the "test show" demonstration/test.
He's referring to having more money to wager I believe.
Edit: Good thing I finish reading threads before posting.
That's true. I haven't regularly watched the show in years, but when I did, the distribution of DD's wasn't truly random. I almost never saw a DD in the top row, and very rarely was it in the bottom row.
If I was a Jeopardy god, I'd run the top row, then the bottom row, and work my way up from there to maximize my money for when I hit the DD.
I've seen a handful of people do that, and from what I remember it was almost always the returning champion. I assumed they were more comfortable with the timing & mechanics of the game and were deliberately trying to disorient the newbies.
Another reason to do it is if you're an expert at a category, especially something esoteric. There's a bit of a shock & awe factor in hitting your competition out of the blue with a $2000 question that they have no clue about, then working your way backward through the category. Sometimes it appears to leave their heads swimming for a few questions.
YetioDoom
Platinum Member
- Dec 12, 2001
- 2,162
- 0
- 0
for Daily Doubles, I believe you can wager up to the highest amount on the board regardless of how little money you have on your score. Or is it which ever the amount the daily double was hidden under. Either way most people don't wager higher than $1000- $2000.
Ah..makes sense. I'm sure they ask their contestants to keep as robotic a face as possible when final Jeopardy comes around when the responses and scores are revealed.
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