Final Jeopardy: Shakespeare’s Time (6-3-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (6/3/2019) in the category “Shakespeare’s Time” was:

The line “A great reckoning in a little room” in “As You Like It” is usually taken to refer to this author’s premature death

32x champ James Holzhauer, a pro sports gambler from Las Vegas, NV, has won $2,462,216 to date. In Game 33, his challengers are: Jay Sexton, a research engineer from Atlanta, GA; and Emma Boettcher, a user experience librarian from Chicago, IL.

Round 1 Categories: Picture the Idiom – Literature – Nests – Jukebox Musicals – Nixon Said It – I Am Not a Cook

James found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Literature” under the $1,000 clue on the very first pick of the round. He bet the $1,000 max and he was RIGHT.

The title peak of this Thomas Mann novel is home to a Swiss sanitorium. show

James finished in the lead with $9,000. Emma was second with $6,400 and Jay was last with $2,600.

Round 2 Categories: Capital “A” – Science – Political Philosophy – Somewhat Historical TV – Soviets Not Born in Russia – Playing a 3-4

Emma found the first Daily Double in “Capital ‘A'” under the $800 clue on the 4th pick. She was in second place with $7,600 now, $5,000 less than James’ lead. “You know,” Emma said, “I think I gotta make it a true Daily Double.” She did and she was RIGHT.

It’s home to the annual United States Sailboat Show. show

Emma found the last Daily Double in “Political Philosophy” under the $2,000 clue on the 14th pick. In the lead with $20,400, she had $2,600 more than James in second place. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.

On book covers from GOP lawmakers Jason Chaffetz & Mike Lee is this phrase for the bureaucracy said to be working against democracy. show

Emma finished in the lead with $26,600. James was next with $23,400 and Jay was in third place with $11,000.

ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE?

Christopher Marlowe a/k/a Kit Marlowe, Elizabethan poet & playwright, was stabbed to death at the age of 29 on May 30, 1593 by Ingram Frizer, in what is generally believed to have been a dispute over a dinner bill. Marlowe, it was said, attacked Frizer first and the inquest into the death did indeed find that the latter acted in self-defense. However, as is often the case when a celebrated individual dies young, a rash of conspiracy theories soon followed. There’s even one that claims Marlowe was Shakespeare! Read more on Above Top Secret.com

From 1999: THE WRITE STUFF ($400) In “As You Like It”, Shakespeare paid tribute to this “Dr. Faustus” dramatist, calling him the “Dead Shepherd”



Jay bet $6,000, bringing him up to $17,000.

James bet $1,399. “A modest one for the first time,” said Alex. James finished with $24,799.

Emma bet $20,201 and won the game with $46,801. So Emma Boettcher is the giant killer and the new Jeopardy! champ. Congrats, Emma! It’s so long but not goodbye to James. “We’ll be seeing him again, folks,” Alex said.

Final Jeopardy (6/3/2019) James Holzhauer, Jay Sexton, Emma Boettcher

There was only one triple stumper in the whole game:

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY ($400) Paternalism is restricting freedom in our (supposed) best interests, like state taxes on these, which began in Iowa in 1921

2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “World Transportation”

It traverses hundreds of bridges, the longest stretching 2 miles across the Amur River. show

Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.

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48 Responses

  1. Paula Valadez says:

    has jeopardy ever considered having a competition between the challengers that beat out the “Goliath” winners?

    • VJ says:

      I don’t know, Paula. More than a few people have expressed interest in alternate tournaments. For example, one for players who made a lot of $$ but didn’t make it into the Tournament of Champions because of the cutoff, or one for the highest scores among the players who lost to James

      I imagine if Jeopardy! weighed that against finding a way to bring back the super champs, they’ll pick the super champs every time because it would be a bigger draw.

  2. Cece says:

    Boy, was I wrong to have put all my dough on James. And boy, am I glad to be wrong—for reasons I’ve already stated in here.

    Having said that, I stand in AWE of James’ breathtaking brilliance and accomplishment.

    And Emma can feel just as accomplished to have toppled James, after he had handed numerous behinds to their rightfully owners. Congratulations to both!

  3. Alfred Robert Hogan says:

    Even though I disapprove of gambling, as a longtime viewer of JEOPARDY!, I did much enjoy the daring run of James Holzhauer and his quirky personality. (Though he should have dressed much better.) As a science journalist and historian, I have also like JH recommended reading upper-level ES and JHS books as an excellent approach to learning the basics of a field. He did know some clues I had zero idea on (though he and others passed or missed some to-me easy ones (like the only clue not correctly questioned on the Monday 3 June 2019 telecast, about tobacco/cigarette taxes in 1921, which I did know as a lifelong adamant tobacco opponent).

    Emma Boettcher comes across as an extremely intelligent, likeable, modest, nice young lady in the memorable JEOPARDY! traditions of Phoebe Juel, Dr. Larissa Kelly, and Julia Collins. Ms. Boettcher (she says her last name rhymes with stretcher) bears a striking resemblance to the fine actor (and teacher) Kim Darby (real name Deborah Zerby) of the 1969 film classic “True Grit,” with John Wayne and Glen Campbell, based on the eponymous novel by journalist Charles Porter. I will most definitely be rooting for Ms. Boettcher, who is from the Philadelphia area, went to NJ’s Princeton University, and earned her master’s degree from Duke University, including by doing her thesis on the difficulty of JEOPARDY ! clues. The University of Chicago is indeed fortunate to have on its staff such an outstanding librarian, one gifted with intellect and class, and at just 27 an exceptional representative (in all meanings) of the younger generation. I am confident my poor dear Mother, also an avid JEOPARDY! aficianado, would agree with me.

  4. aaaa says:

    James is in fourth place among wins among US game show contestants, as Ken Jennings, Thom McKee (43 wins on Tic Tac Dough in 1980) and Kit Salisbury (38 wins on Tic Tac Dough in 1984) are ahead of him (there may be one or two other Tic champions ahead of Holzhauer, as I don’t remember how many games a couple of their six figure winners won). But for now, Well done Emma

  5. Jacob ska says:

    @VJ, thanks for the hard work putting together the stats. For me trying to compare Ken & James at the same level is difficult. The 2 champions, aside from being 15 years apart in achieving their unique victories, met their defeat in different ways in their last regular play games. Going into FJ Ken was leading in 1st place while James placed 2nd. Ken missed his FJ clue but James got his FJ clue correct. In answering clues during his regular last game Ken had 4 incorrect responses and James had zero incorrect responses in his regular last regular game. Ken earned approximately  $2 million dollars after 70 games. James earned approximately  $2 million after 27 games. It  doesn’t matter to me whether someone places  1st or 2nd in the history books of Jeopardy during regular games. Show me the money asap. Remember Brad Rutter? Ken and James are both champions for me to remember in Jeopardy history in different ways & at different times. Congratulations James (fantastic run) & congratulations to Emma. Competition is about possible upsets & you did it.

  6. Howard says:

    Only Julia Collins has had a major long run among women, yet it was women who took down both Ken and James. I like this Emma and believe she could have a decent run of her own. Someone had to be super-smart, quick on the buzzer, and fortunate with DDs to beat James.

  7. Jocelyn Foreacre says:

    I am upset. I wanted him to beat Ken Jennings.

  8. Joseph R gallo says:

    what a shame a great champ- James will be missed!

  9. John Christian Ambion says:

    I’m very disappointed. James Holzhauer came so close towards beating Ken Jennings, but Emma pulled off a Nancy Zerg today. What a dismal end, and if she makes it to TOC, she wouldn’t make it past the first round. She’s not having an inferiority complex, but she’s also smug. Because of this, “Judge Judy” will be at the top again. To those who rooted for a “giant killer scenario”, shut up because you all caused his downfall.

    • JP says:

      I’m curious on what ground you could possibly say she would fare poorly in the ToC, given that answered 21 clues correctly, and zero incorrectly, and beat the most dominant player in the show’s history. That’s not to say that she’s guaranteed to have success tomorrow or in the future, as Nancy Zerg showed us, but I don’t see any evidence that she is a weak player, to say the least.

      I also just watched a bit of the game (thanks to a YouTube clip I’m sure is already taken down), and did not see any evidence of smugness from Emma. Seemed like a nice, confident woman who handled the situation with remarkable aplomb.

      Personally, I didn’t care if James lost today or won 200 games. To me, the star of the game is still the clues and their writers. Although it’s interesting to see how James’ streak has sharply divided the fan base, from those who absolutely adore him, to those who wanted to see him fail miserably. A bit of a Rorschach test, I think.

      • VJ says:

        I’m in the same camp as you, JP. I watch for the clues and rarely give a damn who wins. lol. But of course, in a case like this, even I couldn’t help having a somewhat emotional reaction to James losing so close to beating Ken’s record. I thought that if he had won, it wouldn’t have been enough to pass Ken today and that would have been frustrating as well!

        And speaking of the clues, has anyone seen that series “Terror” (the first season) that was mentioned in the Somewhat Historical TV category? I did not realize that they were actually talking about Sir John Franklin’s ship till I looked it up. Not sure if I should watch it with that “horror aside” bit in the clue. But anyway, Lady Franklin’s Lament is one of my favorite folk songs

    • VJ says:

      Well, if you’re looking for someone to blame for James not passing Ken’s record, blame James. He probably could have passed it if he just rounded his DD and FJ bets up.

      In other news, I just finished rearranging the statistics table on him and separated it week-by-week so I could add all the images from the weekly FJ recaps.

      • Richard Corliss says:

        He should be on the new Nickelodeon show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” hosted by The Prototype.

    • Albert says:

      How can judge Judy have such high ratings? That Thing, Judy, is soooooo obnoxious and rude it is like an extremely mild form of torture for me to watch.

  10. DC says:

    I’m a long time viewer and I must say I am very disappointed in the leaked video. I heard on the radio early this morning that he would lose. Kinda like going to a movie and knowing the ending. Not nearly as much fun.
    Anyway, I really enjoyed James. We should commend excellence.

  11. Huggy Bear says:

    He bet enough to cover the 3rd with place guy if he doubled up, not so he would get 2nd automatically, although that was secured. He knew, based on Emma’s daily double wagering, she would bet enough to cover his amount 2x’s. She had to get FJ wrong for James to win whether he was right or wrong. As usual, it was the perfect wager by James. Way ahead of the people commenting here.

    • JP says:

      Agreed, James definitely made the optimal bet. The bad scenario for James would have been if Emma bet nothing, because then James would have lost, despite getting the correct answer, because he did not cover a $0 wager from Emma. It would really hurt to lose when a larger wager would have given you the victory.

      However, James was aware that first place almost always bets to cover the second player doubling up. In addition, he knew that Emma was as librarian, so she would probably be more likely to know a Shakespeare question. Also, she knows that James plays an aggressive game with large bets (and probably knows he is very very good at FJ), and probably figured he was likely to bet big in FJ as well, and James probably figured she would reach that conclusion as well. So he bet as much as he could to secure second place.

  12. Sue Ikenberry says:

    I confess I was sad not to see James surpass Ken Jennings’ record before he went down to defeat.
    I predicted it would happen soon, but I didn’t get the scenario right. I thought he’d make one of his huge wagers on Double Jeopardy! and have bad luck. But instead, Emma had good luck, both in terms of landing on daily doubles and in terms of categories. She’s good, though, I don’t mean to take anything away from her. She also learned from watching him. She went for the big numbers early, as all players do now. It will be interesting to see if players now simply all begin to adopt James’ strategy.
    Did James figure he couldn’t beat her if she bet everything, so he just bet a bit to be in the lead if she lost? If he’d gone “all in” he would have beat her…..He must have kicked himself afterwards.

    • Tom K says:

      She bet a dollar more than what he would double to. She had him covered in the end. He was betting to secure 2nd place if he was wrong and he would win if she was wrong.

  13. William Weyser says:

    Oddly enough, the last woman won on JEOPARDY!, in terms of regular games, was also named Emma, and that was Emma Badame. She won 1 game, despite a tough clue, and then, she met 5-time champion: Steven Grade on the next day, and of course, Steven won his 1st game, by runaway.

  14. Albert says:

    James’s wager bothers me a little. James didn’t bet as if Emma would bet zero, which would have allowed Emma to still have $26,600. That is one scenario James probably considered and then decided against the ‘Emma betting $0 scenario’.

    James would have looked like a real bozo if Emma bet $0, Emma got the Final incorrect, and James loses with a correct answer and lower score. Oh, well. Those are the vagaries and strategies Jeopardy.

  15. Albert says:

    I thought Emma was going to regret not doing a True Daily Double on the ‘Deep State’ DD, but she still held off James, about which I am really happy.

    I hope Emma keeps winning in order to prove she is not a fluke. She seemed very strong and very knowledgeable.

  16. elan xu says:

    I feel sorry for him.

  17. Steve says:

    Good run for the IRS!

  18. VJ says:

    Well, well… I have to say that I saw this tweet from James yesterday, even before I heard about the leaked video:

    My kid cried about the possibility of her dad losing, so I told her we could have a party the day after it inevitably happens. Now she cries when I win

    and I kind of thought that was an omen of things to come but my reaction to it was “Say it ain’t so, James!” But I hope she has a great party!

    Also, during the chat today, Alex asked James to thank his beautiful little daughter for the get well card she made him. Alex had it in his hands.

    Regardless of the “so close but yet so far” factor as to Ken Jennings’ winnings, James had an epic run the likes of which we won’t see for many moons, if ever!

    LINK: 10 more clues from the game

  19. Lou says:

    Well I’m glad James had a great time on jeopardy and winning all that money after 32 runs. Although I could say he didn’t get the two and a half million but still congratulations to him and to everyone getting final right. James played well so he Is now prepped for the toc. Let’s see how well Emma can do now that she is the new champion. A month long run in jeopardy sure must have made James really tired. But still VJ, you must be impressed at this historic streak our gambler made right? I still wish he could have bet more.

    • Riley says:

      He COULD HAVE. Not going all in was indicative that he didn’t care

      • VJ says:

        No, no, no. It simply indicated that he believed his only chance of winning was if Emma got FJ wrong and that he did not believe she would make a mistake with her bet

        • JJ says:

          Exactly VJ! If he goes all in on FJ!, he still loses by 1 AND if both James and Emma wager huge and miss it, and Jay answers correctly, he could have ended up on top. His wager was the wise move, which is no surprise considering what a math whiz he is!

        • MTC says:

          He explained as much as well.

          CNBC Article

          It’s basically ensuring that he wins as long as Emma was wrong, and ensuring a 2nd place finish if she was right.

          It’s a fairly well-known part of Final Jeopardy wagering strategy. It’s nothing new.

        • Riley says:

          Who cares if he ends in third vs second. Its only $1000 difference. Thats small to anyone on there. Thats even smaller to a man who won 2.4 million. If he goes all in and wins hes closer to ken. Now hes a NOTHING

        • VJ says:

          What a thing to say, Riley! You do have a point that the $1,000 difference isn’t that big of a deal when you’re sitting on a sizable jackpot, but to say “now he’s a nothing” is just absurd

        • Riley says:

          The reason I said hes a nothing is… without looking it up, who lost the February 2001 superbowl? People knew at the time. But now? Not many do. I do, cuz I’m a ravens fan so I know who we beat. 34-7 over the giants. See, Ken and Brad will remain known. But over time, nobody will remember James’s accomplishments. Lets return to this in a year. 5 years. 15 years. Youll know someone almost did it but you probably won’t know who

        • VJ says:

          That’s very funny to me, Riley, mainly because the chances of me still being around in 15 years are slim to none. ha ha ha! And if I am, I’ll be lucky if I can remember my own birthday. Also, I know very little about sports.

          In any event, considering all the entries in Jeopardy!”s Hall of Fame that James racked up, I think he will be remembered for a long time.

          Before James’ run, Julia Collins’ 20-game record was the one to beat. Take a look at Keith Williams’ Leaderboard on The Final Wager. James beat Julia Collins’ 20-game record by 12 games and he made roughly 6 times more $$ than she did. Now James is the one to beat before the players can even think of trying to top Ken. Even if someone could get to 32 games, what are the chances they will make as much as James?

  20. JJ says:

    What an AMAZING run! I know that many will be thrilled that Goliath FINALLY went down for the count, and I totally get that, but I LOVED watching this guy do his thing.
    He seemed to have a great rapport w/ Alex, he’d quickly do the math in his head so his earnings would match an amt that correlated to a loved one’s birthday/anniversary, he seemed respectful toward the game, etc.
    Now I can’t wait to see him match wits w/ the other legends of J! in head-to-head competition, namely Ken Jennings & Brad Rutter. Those contests should be epic!
    And I’d be remiss to not congratulate the the lady that fired the fatal slingshot! What a fantastic performance by Emma Boettcher! A well-deserved victory, indeed!

  21. Richard Corliss says:

    I think when James was having so much fun playing jokes on his opponents, they thought they would play on him. It sure isn’t funny like we thought it would be. That’s because we know what it’s like having a trick played on his opponents. Once they’ve been laughed at, it’s hard to laugh at someone else. Even if they deserved it. It’s not nice to make people laugh by embarrassing, scaring, or tricking somebody else. Everyone likes to laugh, but nobody likes to be laughed at. I guess James was so busy laughing that he thought his opponents was laughing too. Well, they were at first. As long as the joke was on somebody else.

  22. JP says:

    Well the inevitable finally occurred. If you believe a player has a 98% chance of winning a particular game, their chances of winning (at least) 33 games is 51%, and their chances of winning (at least) 75 games is 21%. And it’s hard to believe anyone’s chances of winning a game is ever 98%, given the randomness in the buzzer and daily double location.

    In the NYT interview, James said he came up with ‘Albany’ in the ‘A’ Capitals category too late. Emma buzzed in and was correct, and then proceeded to pick the daily double (the same clue James said he would have picked if had control of the board) and answer correctly. It just takes one split second lapse in memory on one clue (or more likely in this case, a split second lapse in decoding the clue) for a great contestant to lose.

    Plus think of all the other factors that could make a player underperform. Jet lag (Ken was allegedly jet lagged before taping the game he lost), a bad night of sleep, a death in the family, illness, etc.

    One clear takeaway from James’ run is that beating Ken Jenning’s 74 game record is going to be almost impossible. If the math alone did not convince you of that, the fact that James could not even reach half of Jennings record should, as I’d estimate that there are fewer than 100 people in the U.S. and Canada that could hope to do as well as James.