Nothing can last forever, including Isaac Hirsch‘s Jeopardy! streak as the new fan-favorite player fumbled big time in the Final Jeopardy! round of the July 16th game.
Over a nine-day winning streak, Isaac had accumulated $215,390 in winnings as he entered his tenth game, but it was a massive wager in the last round that finally cost him the crown. Heading into Final Jeopardy!, Isaac had a solid $15,300 against fellow player Jay Fisher’s $16,200 and Erika Stromerson’s $600.
The clue in the category “1960s People,” read, “He said that California prison psych tests he took were ones he had designed, so he made himself look docile & unlikely to escape; then he did.” The correct response was “Who was Timothy Leary?” None of the players found the correct response, but Isaac’s wager of $14,000 put him in second place with a final score of $1,300 against Jay’s $1,799.
Jeopardy!, Inc.
Needless to say, Isaac has been knocked off his pedestal, but the player didn’t go out without a little explanation. Isaac, going by the Redditor screenname, nogoodcarideas75, offered some insight into his mistake that cost him the game.
“Okay, so why did I wager $14,000? The short answer is I did the math wrong,” Isaac explained in the comment section under Jeopardy!‘s July 16th recap. “(Although I guess it’s kind of obvious based on how I spent the first minute after the game looking at my scratch paper in horror.) I was trying to subtract 14,401 from 16,200, and somehow came up with 1300 instead of 1800 as the number I needed to arrive at if I got it wrong, hence the 14,000 wager.”
To make matters worse, Isaac added, “I spent the weeks after the taping seeing the bad math in my sleep. I remembered basically nothing about most of the games last week, but EVERYTHING about this game. All credit to Jay, who absolutely murdered me on the buzzer, especially in the first round.”
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Isaac acknowledges that every player’s time in the game eventually ends, as he continued, “This was bound to happen — I barely survived yesterday and I was just really, really tired. It’s been a fun experience watching these air back and I appreciate how nice people have mostly been to me. I’ll have a lot to prove in ToC; not least that I can do basic arithmetic.”
As mentioned above, Isaac will appear in the Tournament of Champions for a second shot at glory, but for now, it’s time to see if Jay, the latest champion can make a similar impact as the games continue. Let us know what you thought of Isaac’s loss in the comments section, below, and don’t miss what’s to come as Jeopardy! continues.
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