Park on Jeopardy! Second-Chance Tournament

[IndianaTwin]

Earlier this year, Twins beat writer Do-Hyoung Park finished second to bazillion-time champion Amy Schneider, but apparently he scored well enough to make it into the Second-Chance Tournament, which aired Wednesday night in my market. 

(Spoiler alert, in case you haven’t seen it yet — a summary of the results is below.)

“Honestly, I was just way too adrenaline-hyped after the game ended to be too upset about it,” said Park about his first-time experience, when being interviewed by host Ken Jennings. “I thought it was just the coolest experience. But then after a while it was kind of tough — I thought it was my one shot. Once I got over it, I was like, ‘I’m ready to get back to being a real person, going out with friends and things like that, instead of just cramming for everything.’

“And them, ‘Bam.’ Second-Chance Tournament and here I am, right back into the hidey-hole.”

During Single Jeopardy, Park particularly thrived in the “Peaks and Valleys,” category, picking up three questions in four attempts, but got caught in the barrage that was Rowan, who ended the round up $9,400-$2,000. Third-place Nikkie was stuck at $0 after betting $1,000 and missing the Daily Double on her very first clue selection.

Early in Double Jeopardy, Rowan largely put the game away, going for a True Daily Double with a lead of more than $8,000. A correct answer doubled Rowan’s money to $21,600. Later in the round, Rowan hit the second Daily Double. Up $20,000 to both opponents’ $6400, this time Rowan went with a more conservative bet of $2,000. Another correct answer boosted the lead to more than $15,000. 

Throughout the remainder of Double Jeopardy, the buzz saw named Rowan extended the lead, turning it into a runaway with $26,800 entering Final Jeopardy compared to Nikkie’s $7,200 and Do’s $6,800.

With “Charity” as the category for Final Jeopardy, as long as Rowan didn’t pull a Clavin and bet more than $12,399, a win was assured. 

To the answer, “A Catholic charity called Caritas Rome is the beneficiary of money collected from here, over the years averaging about $3,500 daily”, Do wagered $401 and incorrectly asked “What is St. Peter’s Basilica?”, leaving him with a total of $6,399. Nikkie wagered bigger, at $5,401, and incorrectly asked, “What is the Red Cross?” With the error she fell into third place at $5,401.

Assured of the lead unless pulling a Clavin, Rowan instead bet $10,000. With the correct question, “What is Trevi Fountain?”, Rowan finished with an impressive $36,800, qualifying for Thursday and Friday’s two-day Second-Chance Tournament championship, with the winner earning a spot in the Tournament of Champions. 

For his effort, Do pocketed the second-place prize of $2,000, with Nikkie winning $1,000. 

[IndianaTwin]

I neglected to mention that Do clearly had the best signature of the three, sporting a nice tail under the name, a la the Twins uniform. By contrast, "Nikkie" looked as much like "Ninnie" and all Rowan came up with was turning the "o" into a smiley face.