‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant’s Betting Blunder Costs Him Nail-Biter Game

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tuesday, November 12 episode of Jeopardy!]

Modern-day Jeopardy! is all about taking full advantage of Daily Doubles, and a worthy challenger learned that the hard way on Tuesday, November 8’s episode. In this instance, a wager of the play-it-safe variety came back to bite him, as fans pointed out he otherwise would have won.

Joey DeSena, a development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina, entered as the one-day champ with winnings of $17,497 after a promising debut. He faced Jonathan Fox, a staffing capacity manager from Plymouth, Massachusetts (who signed his wife’s name in his intro), and Kathleen Clark, an English teacher originally from Stamford, Connecticut.

In the Jeopardy! round, Clark found the first Daily Double in an “English Literature” category. Despite this being her wheelhouse, she opted to bet $800 instead of the maximum amount permitted by law (as Sam Buttrey would say), which was $1000. With that foreshadowing, DeSena finished with $4,000, she had $2,800, and newcomer Fox led with $4,600.

In Double Jeopardy, DeSena retook the lead with an all-in bet on the second Daily Double to have $8,000. Then things got interesting. Fox found the last Daily Double, a “TRANSPORTATION” clue that read, “Disneyland opened one of these in 1959; Seattle, in 1962 & Las Vegas, in 1995.” With $9,400 to DeSena’s $14,400, he wagered $5,000. He got the clue correct with a crisp annunciation of “Monorail.” But only bet enough to have a tie for first place.

This meant that, after some incorrect responses from Fox, DeSena led going into Final Jeopardy. The conservative wager was made more apparent since the champ didn’t buzz in once during the last dozen clues, and still led. DeSena finished with $14,400, or what Ken Jennings called “the narrowest of leads,” Fox with $13,600 and Clark with $7,600.

The “LITERARY MONUMENTS” clue was, “A 112-foot-tall monument in a Madrid plaza depicts a writer seated above bronze statues of these 2 characters.” Everyone correctly responded “Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.” A near-tears DeSena added $12,801 to emerge unscathed with $27,201 and a two-day total of $44,698.

Fans took to the Reddit thread for the episode, celebrating the two-day champ and pointing out that Fox, who looked visibly frustrated with himself during the triple-get Final clue, technically lost because of a lack of Daily Double grit.

“If Jonathan had gone all-in for $9,400 on DD3, he would have had the lead going into FJ and very likely would have won the game,” one user wrote.

“I like how clearly Jonathan said “What is a monorail”?” appreciated another.

“Did Jonathan say something in ASL during the intro?” asked a third to which a fourth wrote with a heart emoji, “He spelled out his wife’s name.”

“Great game by all three contestants today,” surmised a fifth.

What did you think of the game and Jonathan Fox’s DD3 wager? Can Joey DeSena keep up his winning streak (that Kylie Minogue/Keith Urban mixup notwithstanding)? And how did no one know Ocean’s 11? Let us know in the comments section below!