‘Jeopardy!’ Player Says Losing Game Was Part of Their Strategy for Champions Wildcard Tournament

Kelli Boyle January 15, 2025, 7:30 pm

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'Jeopardy!' Champions Wildcard players for January 15, 2025 episode — Jeopardy, Inc.

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the January 15 episode of Jeopardy!]

A Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament player says that they planned to lose the game that aired on Wednesday, January 15, and his reasoning makes sense.

Playing in the Champions Wildcard Tournament in this episode were returning champ Drew Goins (who’s in this competition following his Second Chance win the week prior), Jay Fisher, and Aiden Orzech. Goins had a runaway lead in the first two rounds, with Goins at 2,200, Fisher at 200, and Orzech at -200 at the first break and the second-break scores being Goins at 5,000, Fisher at 2,400, and Orzech at 400. Orzech had a tough time catching up and ended up with -2,400 heading into Final Jeopardy. But Fisher staged an impressive comeback and closed the gap to prevent Goins from winning with a runaway. Fisher’s score heading into the final was 15,400, and Goins’ was 23,400.

It was an anticlimactic Final Jeopardy because no one wagered anything due to the tournament’s format. In Champions Wildcard, the player with the highest cumulative dollar amount wins, so there’s an extra incentive not to lose any points. Additionally, the top four non-winners with the highest money totals will advance to the semifinals as wildcards. Losing isn’t the worst-case scenario in this tournament, and Fisher accounted for a loss in his strategy going into this game.

Fisher revealed and explained this strategy on the Jeopardy! Reddit board on January 15. His wagers on the Daily Doubles, he revealed, were also all about increasing his score but not necessarily winning (Fisher wagered 2,000 and 1,800 in the two Daily Doubles he found, both of which he answered correctly).

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“I expect there may be some grumbling on the board about gameplay in this tournament format. I went into the game not trying to win,” he wrote. “From my research I posited that $14,000-$16,000 would give me a great chance of advancing as a wild card if I didn’t win. When I wagered on the DDs my goal was not to get ahead of Drew but to get to $14,000. The potential harm from missing was higher than the potential benefit of getting it right.”

“Drew was Drew. A powerhouse on the buzzer with an amazing range of knowledge,” Fisher added. “Aiden had a bad day on the buzzer and in tournament play it is hard to get your momentum back. Another day he could easily have won. Tomorrow or Friday we will see if my survive and advance was successful.”

One fan praised his plan. “Props on the approach and successfully pulling it off. At least in context to how the first two games played out (which, of course, you didn’t know), $15,400 looks real strong for a wild card spot,” a reply reads. “Heck, ALL FOUR non-winners from tomorrow’s and Friday’s games will have to surpass that for you to not advance.”

Fisher has the highest score among the tournament losers so far. Here’s the tournament leaderboard and wildcard standings as of January 15.