Man vs App on Jeopardy tonight.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

To some degree yes, but I'd bet that Ken or that other guy could handily beat me even if I had first crack at all the questions.

According to Jennings, at the level of people who make it to Jeopardy yes. He has said that at that level all the players know the vast majority of the answer before the buzzers are active and it just comes down to who can consistently win that battle.

I figure that on the average board I know 65-80% of the answers, assuming that I could resist the temptation to buzz in when I didn't, first crack should give me at least the lead going into Final Jeopardy every every time (there's still the variable of where the ones I know are distributed and who gets the daily doubles).

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Alex

According to Jennings, at the level of people who make it to Jeopardy yes. He has said that at that level all the players know the vast majority of the answer before the buzzers are active and it just comes down to who can consistently win that battle.

I figure that on the average board I know 65-80% of the answers, assuming that I could resist the temptation to buzz in when I didn't, first crack should give me at least the lead going into Final Jeopardy every every time (there's still the variable of where the ones I know are distributed and who gets the daily doubles).

But where does that 20-35% you don't know fall? Wouldn't it trend towards the higher value answers?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

But where does that 20-35% you don't know fall? Wouldn't it trend towards the higher value answers?

Not necessarily, it tends to fall into categories. If "Grunge Bands" comes up I'm only going to get the Pearl Jam question and then likely only if I answer Pearl Jam to all of them. In categories where I don't have much knowledge I can frequently say what two or three of the answers will be just from the name, the problem is I have no idea what question they match to.

But I did say "there's still the variable of where the ones I know are distributed."