Jeopardy! contestant makes history as he joins elite rank with accomplishment only 19 players share

Andrew Hayes became a two-time winner in a rather unusual way. The Jeopardy! contestant made history as he joined a special rank of competitors

Andrew went on a two-day game win streak

On April 10, a Jeopardy! shakeup made history with an unexpected twist.

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Kat Donahoe, a chemist from Modesto, C.A., Dave Widmayer, a trivia host and chemist from Portland, O.R., and Andrew Hayes, a law student originally from Tupelo, M.S. faced off on the Alex Trebek stage to compete at the high-level trivia competition.

Andrew walked in with one Jeopardy! win under his belt and, after a fierce fight, walked away with another. However, his win became history-making after he joined an elite status of players whose strategy and wit won them the game, rather than a sheer reliance on their correct answers.

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Andrew joined an elite 19 players to win, despite not ranking at the highest Coryat score. A fan on Reddit explained, “Our Coryat score is the total dollar value of the clues you got right, minus the total dollar value of the clues you got wrong. You count the Daily Doubles as just the value of their clue box. Final Jeopardy does not apply. The score is meant to measure your relative strength against yourself over time. There’s no way to accommodate how the other contestants did, and indeed, that’s not the point of the Coryat.”

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Andrew’s Coryat score was $11,600, which was far below Dave’s $17,000 score. Kat fell further behind with $5,400. Noticeably, these do not match their score going into Final! Jeopardy as Daily Doubles are calculated differently into the Coryat.

It wasn’t the Daily Doubles though that won him the game. Instead, it was strategic betting and a correct successful answer to the Final Jeopardy question. The hint was, “Located on Cromwell Road & home to more than 2.8 million objects, it bears in part the name of a cousin of a British queen.”

Andrew was the only one to answer correctly with “Victoria + Albert Museum,” bringing his $13,000 score to $20,201. The top slot contestant, Dave, fumbled, answering, “Royal Alexandrian.” However, Dave tried to be strategic with his betting and it fell flat. He wagered $5,801, which brought his total down to $14,399. Andrew’s betting ideas paid off since there was no possible way for Dave to come out on top after that, even if he went all in.

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Kat, unfortunately, dropped her $5,400 harshly. She ended the game with only $2 after guessing “Tate.”

According to a Reddit user, “Through 105 games, this is only the 19th time the person with the highest Coryat didn’t win. 13 of those (including today) were won by the middle Coryat.”