The Tournament of Champions is not for the faint of heart! On November 4, Eric Ahasic stunned both Ken Jennings and audiences alike by repeatedly multiplying his score. Here’s how the Minneapolis meteorologist did it.
Eric Ahasic Advances To The Semifinals
Who would have guessed that a meteorologist would be such an expert gambler? On November 4, Eric Ahasic competed against Jeopardy! champion Jackie Kelly and College Championship winner Jaskaran Singh. While Ahasic proved himself to be a formidable opponent during his six-game win streak, it’s safe to say no one was expecting him to blow his competition out of the water so spectacularly.
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As recapped in the show’s Daily Highlights YouTube video, Ahasic sat in second place with $5,800 when he found his first Daily Double on Friday. The Minnesotan excitedly announced that he was wagering the entirety of his winnings. The clue read, “You’ll find this 1719 work quoted under ‘Goatskin’, ‘Rescue’, and ‘Wreck’ [in the Oxford English Dictionary].” Ahasic correctly answered “Robinson Crusoe,” bringing his winnings to $11,600.
Thanks to his wager, Ahasic already had a comfortable lead over the other players. However, he widened the margin almost immediately with the second Daily Double. Ahasic confidently decided to make it another “true Daily Double,” meaning he was once again wagering all of his winnings. The clue read, “Post-WWII British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin said this Secretary of State threw ‘a lifeline to sinking men.'”
Ahasic correctly guessed George C. Marshall, bringing his winnings to an astounding $23,200.
The Excitement Didn’t End There
In just two clues, Ahasic was able to quadruple his score. He is just the latest player to remind fans that Jeopardy! is just as much about strategy as it’s about trivia knowledge.
During his original run, Ahasic showed off his impressive gambling skills. “I’m a calculated gambler,” he told the Star Tribune. “When I was playing hundreds of games at home, my track record on Daily Doubles was about 80 percent. That’s a bet I’ll take any time. It’s been working for me so far.”
After the quarterfinal aired, Ahasic took to Twitter, confessing that he’d fulfilled a personal dream of his. “A back-to-back True Daily Double always seemed like the coolest thing you could do on Jeopardy,” he wrote.
In Final Jeopardy, Ahasic was able to add over $13,000 to his total winnings, bringing his final score to $39,201. That’s nearly three times as much as the second and third place finishers’ respective totals. It’s clear that Ahasic’s game was one for the books!
