Sammy Sanchez went up against Greg Jolin and Susan Stumme during a tense episode of Jeopardy! and Sammy has now taken to Reddit to open up about his defeat

Sammy Sanchez has discussed his Jeopardy! experience

Jeopardy! contestant Sammy Sanchez has opened up about missing out on the top prize after one mistake left him “really rattled”.

The private tutor battled it out with Susan Stumme and five-time champion Greg Jolin on Thursday’s episode of the trivia game show. Sammy struggled when it came to the first Daily Double and later admitted he failed to regain his confidence.

Taking to Reddit, Sammy told fans: “As a huge math nerd, missing that first Daily Double really rattled me, and I don’t think I truly regained my confidence until well into Double Jeopardy. The next DD came to me at the last second, and I think that’s where I started thinking maybe I could actually win this. Alas, I had already missed a bunch of questions that I knew but was too afraid to buzz in on (Paraguay River comes to mind).”

He then admitted to having “no idea” what the answer was to the Final Jeopardy! round. Sammy wrote: “I completely skipped over the “lifesaving” part of the question and focused too much on the chemical name, trying to find an abbreviation or something that might have helped me out. Maybe if I had built up enough of a lead to not have to worry about Susan in third place, I might have adjusted my wagering strategy. But I’m not a “shoulda, coulda, woulda” kind of guy, and the best competitor won the game without question.”

The Jeopardy! contestants were closely matched (
Image:
Jeopardy!)
The game was a close one and it all came down to the final category. The clue Sammy mentioned was: “Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide was 1st invented to reinforce radial tires but the lifesaving polymer aka this would have many uses.”

Susan was the only one to answer correctly and she ended up becoming the new champion, having previously been in third place. Sammy heaped praise on Susan for her triumph.

“Hats off to Susan! As the day went on and Greg racked up dominant win after dominant win, I had only two thoughts going through my head: “please let someone else beat Greg” and “please don’t put me up against Susan”, because she was KILLING IT in the green room,” he said.

Despite not taking home the Jeopardy! crown, Sammy admitted he had a great time being able to appear on the program. He wrote: “What else can I say besides I got to live out my dream! Almost a decade of trying to get on the show, and the experience couldn’t have been more wonderful. The production crew, the rest of the staff, and all the contestants were some of the nicest, warmest, most professional people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

He concluded: “It was a dream come true and I’ll cherish my experience with the show for as long as I live. I highly doubt I’ll be invited back for next year’s Second Chance Tournament, so I’m at the very least so grateful to have had the incredible time that I did while I was there.”