‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Debate If Power Player ‘Deserves’ Second Chance After ‘Unforgivable’ Wager

Darian Lusk October 9, 2024, 10:22 am

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the October 8 episode of Jeopardy!]

Jeopardy! champ Mark Fitzpatrick nabbed his third win on Tuesday, October 8, but like Ryan Manton in his third game or Adriana Harmeyer’s 16th (cue Survivor theme music), he got serious competition.

The content manager from Riverside, Connecticut entered with a two-day total of $50,401, facing Andrew Miller, an auto claims adjuster from Bristol, Connecticut, and Gino Montoya, an attorney from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After the Jeopardy! round, the game once again seemed like Mark’s to lose with $4,800, Andrew with $3,800, and Gino with $1,800. But Double Jeopardy! was one of the strongest showings in memory—for Gino.

Despite not finding either Daily Double, he caught fire with 15 correct responses going from third place to a close second by Final Jeopardy with $17,400. Mark narrowly led with $21,200 and Andrew, caught between two buzzsaws, had $4600.

Ken Jennings remarked, “Very close game!” presenting the “WORLD FLAGS” clue: “The 12 stars on its flag symbolize perfection, not geographic or political units.” It was a triple stumper as no one correctly responded: “What Is: The European Union.”

Andrew dropped to $4,183 (writing: Australia?) and Gino’s wager…dropped some jaws. He went all-in (writing: ?), rendering him unable to win if he were incorrect from any position, leaving him with $0.

Thus, Mark was able to hold on (writing: “Liberia”), dropping $13,601 to win with $7,599 for a three-day total of $58,000. Gino’s bet not only cost him the game but dropped him to third for the smallest consolation prize.

In the Reddit thread of the episode, many fans discussed Gino’s non-cover bet of such ill-advised magnitude and whether it should affect an otherwise all-but-guaranteed invite to the 2025 Second Chance Competition.

“Even if Mark didn’t win as much today as his first two games, I’m sure he was happy to have won a third game at all!” one fan wrote. “I like to think Gino felt very confident in the FJ category and that’s why he wagered his entire score, but sadly, it didn’t work out for him. He’s likely to be in Second Chance with such a high losing Coryat, but the all-in second-place wager never survives a Triple Stumper FJ.”

“Yeah, I am not sure that I agree that someone that blew the wager should get a second chance. If he bet to get one dollar more than the leader he would have won, losing on bad wagering should not get you a second chance,” wrote another (scoring 12 downvotes.)

“Jeopardy is a game about having knowledgeable contestants first, gameplay second,” argued a third. “Gino had a 17,400 Coryat in his opening game. Of course he should be considered. What are we doing here.”

“Personally, I think Andrew’s FJ wager was unforgivable,” quipped a fourth. “In all seriousness, Gino’s all-in FJ was his only major error, and it would have been moot anyhow had Mark gotten the FJ clue correct.”

Another fan pointed out that Gino did make another error; he wasn’t Daily Double hunting, giving Mark the opening in the second round: “I think he also went back to the category with the DD and/or went for a $400 clue which allowed Mark to get the second DD,” they wrote.

Scott Tcheng, who nearly beat most previous streaker, Manton, also rallied behind Gino for Second Chance and said he was “better than him” in a lengthy comment:

Meanwhile, other fans took issue with Final Jeopardy overall, some expressing that nothing in the clue or category un-pinned it from being about a specific country.

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What did you think about Gino’s gigantic wager, his Second Chance merit, and the clue itself? Let us know in the comments section below (and please no Princess Bride puns!).

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