‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React to Winner’s $0 Wager in Runaway Game

Kelli Boyle October 11, 2023, 7:50 pm

Sam Stapleton wins 'Jeopardy!' on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 — Jeopardy, Inc.

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, October 11, 2023 episode of Jeopardy!]

The winner of Jeopardy!‘s October 11, 2023 episode came in hot and never stopped.

Sam Stapleton, a college consultant from Los Gatos, California, came in swinging by getting four out of five clues in the Saturday Night Live category right, one of them being a Video Daily Double, at the top of the game. With that, he doubled his $2,600 to $5,200 (and made his Jeopardy dreams come true when saying “let’s make it a true Daily Double” to host Ken Jennings), and no one else had even gotten to choosing a clue yet.

The rest of Sam’s playing stayed just as impressive. The college consultant was squaring off against Robert Won, a math professor from Washington, D.C., and Karla Fossett, a senior content administrator from Saco, Maine. Sam maintained his lead for the entire game, though his competitors did catch up at times. Going into the first break, the scores were Sam with $7,000, Robert with $2,600, and Karla $1,000, and going into Double Jeopardy the scores were Sam with $8,600, Robert with $6,600, and Karla with $2,000.

By the time Final Jeopardy came around, Sam had secured a runaway game with $30,800 in winnings. Karla had made it to second place with $7,600 and Robert was in third with $4,600. The highest wagers they could make (doubling their scores) still wouldn’t reach Sam’s total, so he only needed to stay away from large wagers to become the victor. Robert came in second with $4,600, betting nothing, and Karla unfortunately wound up with $0 after betting it all. Sam also wagered $0 in the final round, which fans made note of on the Jeopardy Reddit board discussion about the episode.

As these players are competing in the Champions Wildcard tournament, prize money is guaranteed for the winners. One Reddit user felt betting $0 in a runaway game took away some of the fun.

“I enjoy tournaments but today was a perfect example of an aspect I do not like: zero FJ wagering strategy in a runaway. Because payouts are guaranteed Sam had no incentive to make a [James] Holzhauer-esque wager of ~$15,000 to boost his winnings,” the fan wrote. “And because 2nd- and 3rd-place money is the same, there’s no strategy there either, though Karla made a game attempt at $7,600.”

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The comment referenced the seasoned Jeopardy champ, who became known for making big wagers even when he was guaranteed to win the game. This player’s interpretation of Sam’s decision may not have been entirely fair, however, as Sam didn’t even attempt a guess at the Final Jeopardy triple-stumper. Betting nothing, in that case, saved all of the money he earned earlier in the game when he wasn’t confident about this final clue.

One fan responded to the comment saying that at the very least, this game provided a high winning score — something the show has lacked in Season 40.

“We are going literally months without a player even having a chance to win a major amount of money, which partially explains the general lack of enthusiasm for this whole structure,” they wrote.

Sam’s $30,800 is one of the highest scores of Season 40. Only a few players have walked away with five-digit winnings, the highest of the season so far being $43,399 won by Jilana Cotter. Let’s hope there are more high-winnings games in the tournament’s future.

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