There are often interesting strategies on Jeopardy! Many players have watched the show for years and have devised plans for choosing categories, making bids, and knowing when to buzz in. However, one player from this Wednesday’s episode made daring bids that shocked everyone, including Ken Jennings.
That player, Mehal Shah, has now explained the strategy behind his surprising bids on the show.
Jeopardy! Champion Explains Daily Double Bidding
Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington, competed on Jeopardy! on Wednesday and pulled off a huge second win on the show. However, the win came with a move that left Ken Jennings speechless. Shah went all in on three different Daily Doubles.
Shah had an early lead of $2,200 and looked like he could run away with the game. However, he found the first Daily Double and made an ill-conceived decision. He went all in on it, missed the clue, and ended up back at zero.
He was playing Holly Luo, a product designer originally from San Diego, California, and Jack Altman, a law student from New York City. They moved ahead of him at that point, but he recovered and took the lead again with $4,000.
During Double Jeopardy!, Shah found the second Daily Double. While in the lead again, he decided he was going to go all in once again ($5,400). This time he got the clue right (“Midguard”). This built his total to $11,200. He then built up to $13,200 and found the third Daily Double.
He had a big lead now but made another questionable decision. WIth $13,200, he went all in one more time. The audience seemed shocked, and Ken Jennings said, “Wait, really?” Shah said, “All of it.”
The “Storming The Castle” clue was, “Now meaning to secretly weaken, it originally meant to tunnel below a fortification in order to collapse the walls.” Shah said, “What is Undermined?” and it was right. He now had $26,400, which caused Ken to just say, “Wow.”
Why Did Jeopardy! Champion Keep Going All In?
This meant that no one was catching Shah on this episode of Jeopardy! He went into Final Jeopardy! with $37,600 compared to Jack ($7,400) and Holly ($9,800), with a guaranteed win. Shah didn’t push it again this time, though. He only bet $1,337 and missed the question.
After two days, Shah won $46,062. Fans wanted to know why he went all in all three times on the Daily Doubles on Reddit:
- “Someone check me – is that the largest DD bet this season?”
- “Insane Daily Doubles from Mehal to get a well-deserved win. “
- “Mehal really flipped the script there.”
Shah responded in the Reddit thread as well after his elimination: “To me, it was the only right decision given how fast Holly and Jack were on the buzzer. From studying, I found that I have about an 80% get rate on DDs when I feel confident in the category and it was worth taking a shot.”
What do you think of this wild Jeopardy! game? Have you ever seen a person go all in on every Daily Double before? Let us know in the comments below.
