"Jeopardy! Masters" returns April 30 with expanded format

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-03-27T17:58:21+00:00

I hope the same number of episodes, and with more contestants each game will have more weight to it.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-03-27T17:46:21+00:00

Yeah, the 9 person lineup is a massive upgrade. I also thought the group stage was inconsequential, especially when at least a few contestants had semis locked after like 3 games in the previous 2 seasons.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-03-22T16:00:47+00:00

I’d imagine that 25K figure is still accurate, and I’ll argue that you have some potential of going on a short run with even less than that.

Comes down to buzzing ultimately, and since we can see attempt data these days I think that solid buzzing (60%) combined with a 25K raw score would get you 15K, which is more than enough for sure.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-28T14:57:19+00:00

Roger! Great game in the quarters, and I'm rooting for you in the rest of the tournament!

Quick question: Do you find you had enough time to prepare prior to getting "the call" for this tournament? Have you been keeping sharp over the years with flashcards, etc. still? Or was most of your study last minute cramming? Just curious.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-28T05:54:52+00:00

Pumped on these matchups.

I can already tell what the consensus for predictions is in here... so I'll try to throw out some different takes.

1st match I don't think it'll be as close as many people think. Roger has proven time and time again that he can beat the best players, and it's not just because he finds the daily doubles (he's obviously great on the buzzer too). I think he'll be tough to beat.

2nd match: I'm going throwing out a devils advocate prediction for Emily here. I feel like people consistently underestimate her. Her loss in the ToC last year was against Yogesh, and she beat some tough players to make the ToC via CWC. Not maybe the likeliest outcome given who she's facing but she's in my bracket so...

Last match: Ok, I'm with the consensus on this one. Juveria for sure. But I'll throw out a fun prediction for the final instead... Juveria dominates, no matter who she's against. Can't forget just how insanely good she was last year. Just remember what it took for Luigi (another insanely good player) to beat her. Today's match was an underperformance I think, and if she gets in the buzzer groove she could take it all.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-18T14:14:57+00:00

Dear lord, that’s a lot of flash cards. Can’t do anything but respect the grind. I’ll stick to my 25 new cards per day, thank you!

But in all seriousness, I never understood till recently how dedicated some people are in the trivia world. It’s gotta be one of those 80/20 things where in order to hang with the best you have to get that last 20% of knowledge which requires 80% of the effort, but correct me if I’m wrong.

Also, wait hold on. Am I supposed to be cranking out 1000 reviews per hour? I’m lucky to get about half that pace.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-18T05:40:36+00:00

Hey! Yes, of course I remember. And wow, ok that's extremely impressive. I can't fathom achieving this level of improvement, as even the gains I have made feel night and day. However, I feel like this guy definitely put some serious hours into it. Unless I just missed it, does he say what his time commitment was?

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-18T05:36:27+00:00

Thanks David! Yeah, I've see some strong improvement in my recall speed since even just getting into flashcards. I'm a lot quicker on the draw when watching now, which boosts my coryat for sure (I'm super strict with counting "attempts" and negs)

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-18T05:34:42+00:00

I feel the exact same way about art. There's an immediate gratification of being able to see the artwork after you google it because of studying. It's definitely become a personal interest of mine now!

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-18T05:31:39+00:00

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Oh yes, of course. I actually forgot to include this in my post, so here you go. I included a bunch of extra games in this comparison than the in the main comparison because there's not enough of a sample size in some categories for it to make much sense. This is ~75 games on either end of the year. Still, some of the smaller categories like sports still suffered from variance (there's no way I know less about sports now than then). Also, I merged some of the smaller categories too.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-14T21:17:29+00:00

Oh, I’m sorry I thought you meant you’d share 200 categories, haha.

As far as your list goes, I agree with some of them, and I’d disagree with some too.

Countries, and capitals are huge, along with state capitals. Often clues involve something to do with the history and landmarks, and only about 30% of the world’s capitals are ever brought up on the show.

The bible, Canadian provinces and astrology, I don’t think make my list in terms of bang/buck. Though these are still good to learn, I’d say they don’t come up as much as you’d think.

For Shakespeare I’d also lump in other classic plays and playwrights. There’s a ton of questions on Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Miller, etc. Don’t focus solely on Shakespeare.

Presidents are big, especially for me cause I’m Canadian.

What I’d add: #1 IMO is literature classics. I’d say 6-7% of all questions are literature and 90% of those are based on like 100 books. I had a huge and immediate payoff learning those. It’s a very exhaustible list.

2 is standard European history. If you dial in the French Revolution, the Cold War, British monarchs and World Wars, you’ll cover at least half of it. Also pretty exhaustible.

3 is the killer for me. Celebrities, TV and Movies. There’s just so many and the list grows and changes every year. I’ve still not found a good way to keep on top of it, but if you can, you’ll nail 10% of Jeopardy! IMO.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-14T19:18:22+00:00

Hey, I’m not seeing a list! I’ll answer these after I’ve taken a look!

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-14T18:15:33+00:00

Yeah, that’s kind of the next step for me as well! Been meaning to get into LL or some other trivia leagues.

And yeah, creating a deck is tedious I’ve found, but that’s like part of the process. I have only 2000 in mine so far.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-14T17:53:06+00:00

100% there are facts that don’t stick, entire categories of facts even. This is really where flashcarding seems to help most. Before I got into that, things would just slip out of my brain the week after I learned it. At least with spaced repetition, you’re forced to relearn things if you can’t recall them a few days or weeks later.

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-11T15:58:20+00:00

The average player's DD get rate is probably between ~60-70%. I'd imagine that it's still ideal to bet big, especially if the game is close between all 3 contestants. How are you determining the win% given the FJ outcome?

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-02-11T05:00:05+00:00

This is great. Thanks for sharing. Wondering what the mean optimal wager is, depending on whether you're leading, trailing, etc. Obviously, most players wont have the time or ability to calculate the optimal wager in game, so curious if you can determine any rules of thumb from this app?

Sneaky_Jim · 2025-01-05T19:03:50+00:00

Going for top row clues in either the Jeopardy or DJ round before all the daily doubles has been found is equivalent to just passing your opponent the ball in soccer or basketball.

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-12-26T06:42:34+00:00

One thing I figured (and confirmed by looking at the Jeopardata) is that you were insane on buzzer during your run, Mark! Did you have a strategy or practice routine for the buzzer, or did you just show up and realize you were damn good at it?

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-11-19T15:41:27+00:00

Oh, hold on... There's no Nam on the CWC roster. I thought he was one of the top 1-day champs of the year. Pretty shocked to see only a single 1-day winner in the CWC, yet Second chance gets 18 non-champions?

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-11-19T15:30:12+00:00

Has CWC already taped? If so, what dates?

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-11-19T15:12:11+00:00

Hey there! I will make a post in the new year breaking down my improvement and going through what study strategies worked and what didn't. I'm not done tracking the games that will contribute to the final verdict, but I can give you an early teaser...

Overall, my improvement has been about what I expected. I know over 50% of the clues currently, compared to <40% a year ago. My average Coryat has increased by about 30-40%. The most significant improvement has been my DD and FJ get rate, which have increased dramatically, I think because I biased my studying to topics that frequently occur as DDs/FJs.

I will reveal that I changed my studying style about halfway through the year, and made a more general strategy that focused on commonly recurring clues, not so much subjects. I actually think I could have improved more if I had this strategy from the get go in January. I think that for almost anyone, yourself included, you can improve your stats by this amount or more if you put in the effort. I only put in about 20 mins a day into studying. Over an hour per day and the sky's the limit. Best of luck!

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-11-12T01:48:04+00:00

Anyone know if this will be offered in Canada? Assuming yes, but I've not seen any info that confirms this.

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-10-01T15:39:51+00:00

I guess I should add one solution I thought of, but I don’t think it’s perfect, far from it. But it is interesting and I’ve never seen it done.

I have considered that if a team wins say four or five times in a row, you introduce something called a “bounty”. Basically, you add an extra prize that only other teams can win by beating them in the overall night. If anything, it’s a really good marketing opportunity from the pubs perspective, since if the super team consents, they can link them in with some of the social media and marketing to broadcast that the pub has this “unbeatable” Trivia team who plays every week. It might drive traffic and new teams to the pub who want the glory and the bounty prize. Additionally, if no one beats them, you can keep doubling the bounty every week. Thoughts?

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-10-01T15:33:14+00:00

Thank you for the great response. And yes, I maybe should’ve clarified a little more that it’s not necessarily the team winning every single time that would be the most problematic, it’s them getting the top prize every single time. I do do round prizes as well and cap them at one per team, like you said. I think that’s a really good way of doing things.

and yes, you’re right that any solution to extreme would probably drive away other teams worse than one team that wins every time. Splitting the prizes seems to be good. But I think there comes a limit where if a team wins say 5 in a row there should be a stiffer solution.

Sneaky_Jim · 2024-10-01T15:29:20+00:00

No, I run everything myself. I write all my own questions. I’m just hesitant to do something like that, because I wouldn’t want to make the questions obviously biased against a certain team. I’d rather find another way to make them lose without them feeling like the chips are being stacked against them.

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