What Is… STRATEGY?

My motto has been, in terms of dangerous situations, until you know what the hell’s going on, don’t do anything. Bend your toes into the ground like talons and don’t move until you figure out what’s happening here. Is there a danger? Where is there safety? What should I be afraid of? And as soon as you figure it out, then, feet, do your stuff. To me, there’s no plus to running around just for the sake of running around, until you figure out what’s going on. And the same thing is true as a contestant on Jeopardy!

You came up with a couple of incorrect responses. Okay, take it easy. Settle down. Take a deep breath. Don’t try to make up for it on the next clue if you’re not 100 percent sure. A lot of contestants try a little too hard and guess at clues they shouldn’t. There are going to be thirty more clues coming up. Then another thirty clues. You’ll get a chance. Wait for your chance. If it’s a category you don’t feel confident in, lay back for a while. Maybe the first person to ring in gets it wrong, and maybe the second person to ring in gets it wrong. Even if you don’t know that much about that subject, two possible responses that might have occurred to you have now been eliminated. So now maybe you can take a chance. “Oh, hello, I just made $1,600. Thank you very much.”

And don’t immediately jump down to the $2,000 clue—unless you’re James Holzhauer and you’re so bright you can get almost all of those correctly. Why place extra pressure on yourself? The game contains enough pressure to satisfy any player. Don’t make it more challenging than it is. I always recommend starting at the top of a category, because sometimes the category titles don’t even tell you what it is.

On the other hand, when it comes to Final Jeopardy!, it never ceases to amaze me how conservative contestants will be with their bids. When there is no other alternative but to bet everything they’ve got, when that’s the only way they will win, many still won’t do it. The difference between second place and third place is a thousand dollars. If you finish in second place you get $2,000. If you finish in third you get $1,000. (Fans of the show’s early days will remember the runners-up prizes included Lee Nails, “delicious low-calorie meat” from Mr. Turkey, and Tinactin Antifungal Cream—use only as directed!) Bet as much as you can or need to in order to win the game. There have been books written about Jeopardy! strategy, and several theories out there about wagering in Final Jeopardy! But, for me, it always comes back to the Kaiser Wilhelm line, which was one of General Patton’s favorite quotes: “L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace.” Audacity, audacity, always audacity.

Here are three 2019 categories that could take you down many different paths.