Jacob on Jeopardy!

Tuned in tonight to watch Jeopardy! in order to see Alex Jacob, the poker pro (or former poker pro) who is currently enjoying a massive run on the show.

Most in the poker world first met Jacob nearly a decade ago when he won that United States Poker Championship in Atlantic City in 2006, an event that was televised and thus got him some notice even though he’d already made final tables at the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker by then.

He’d continue to collect cashes up through 2012, earning over $2.6 million total. I feel like he never was a full-timer on the circuit, though, and over the last couple of years has been even less conspicuous, perhaps having stepped away entirely.

In any case, you’ve probably heard about him popping up again on Jeopardy! where he’s been crushing. Going into tonight he’d won five times in a row, winning $129,401 total with mostly dominating performances. At the start of this sixth try, host Alex Trebek noted how Jacob had gotten to Final Jeopardy four of five times with leads of greater than double the nearest competitor, meaning he’d already clinched the win.

I did watch the end of one of those shows and laughed at the end when during Final Jeopardy Jacob appeared to push “all in” by moving his hands forward when his final betting amount was revealed -- $0, actually. At the start of tonight’s show Trebek introduced Jacob as a currency trader, so I’m not even sure they’ve discussed his poker background at all.

Hearing about some of Jacob’s strategies -- e.g., not going top-to-botton with categories but jumping all around the board with his clue selections, and usually betting everything on the Daily Doubles -- I thought back to that fellow from about a year ago, Arthur Chu, who also got a lot of press and poker players’ attention during a run of 11 straight wins on the show.

Chu became known as the “Jeopardy Villain” because of both his unorthodox strategy and his humorous baiting of folks over Twitter during the time of his reign. Chu would also pick clues out of order and routinely go “all in” on the Daily Doubles. Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings wrote an article for Slate at the time discussing Chu, explaining how that latter decision to go for “true Daily Doubles” was correct.

“Like a poker player trying to increase the size of the pot when he has a good hand,” Jennings wrote, “Jeopardy! contestants should maximize their upside when the odds are in their favor.”

There was one other quirk Chu exhibited during Final Jeopardy. When leading but not having more than twice the “stack” as his nearest foe, he’d bet exactly enough to tie should his opponent bet everything and both players answered the clue correctly.

For example, if Chu had $12,000 and his opponent had $7,000, Chu would bet exactly $2,000 -- not $2,001, as some tend to do -- to end with $14,000 if he were to be correct and tie with his opponent if that player bet everything and was correct as well. In fact, one time that’s what happened and after tying both he and his opponent were able to return for the next show.

That strategy, as I understand it, makes it just a tiny bit less likely Chu could lose should his opponent happen not to bet everything but a lesser amount. In the above example, for instance, if he bet $2,001 and was incorrect he’d end with $11,999, and if his opponent only bet $5,000 even and was correct that player would have $12,000 and win by a buck.

I noticed someone retweeting Chu commenting on Jacob, in fact, interestingly bringing up his own poker playing as he did.

Getting back to Jacob’s performance tonight, Trebek introduced things by alluding to Jacob’s recent run, advising Jacob’s opponents Nikhil and Scott to “get him early, and then try to get him late, too.” Jacob ruled during much of the first round, though, quickly building a big lead before the others finally were able to buzz in and start notching some correct answers.

Then Scott got the Daily Double and with just $600 -- several thousand behind Jacob -- he surprisingly bet only $5. The questioned turned out to be an easy one for him and he won the $5, but it felt a lot like a player too timid to bet without a sure thing.

By the second round Jacob was well in front and in fact went a long stretch without buzzing in at all while the totals of other two went up and down. Scott got another Daily Double, and this time said “Alex is too good, I gotta do it... true Daily Double.” Alas for him he got a tough one about an Italian painter and lost his stack.

A little later Nikhil got the other Daily Double at a point when he had $4,200 and Alex $7,200. Betting it all and being correct would put him in the lead, but he chose only to bet $2,000. The category was “In the Dictionary” and the clue “Fittingly it means ‘Empty Orchestra’ in Japanese.” Nikhil guessed “What is kabuki?” but the correct response was “What is karaoke?” and Jacob’s lead increased again.

There was a clue about “Manhattan prosecutor Preet Bharara” -- he of Black Friday fame -- that perhaps got poker players’ attention. It got Jacob’s attention, too, as he finally buzzed back in to guess correctly that Bharara had vowed sweeping reform of Rikers Island.

Jacob then rattled off a few more correct answers, seeming at one point to pause unnaturally after buzzing in to answer an easy one about a Halloween TV special featuring a character who instead of candy gets a rock.

“Who is... Charlie Brown?” he said, and for a moment I thought he might have been stalling a little as the round was winding down. But he immediately picked back up the pace thereafter, and the trio was able to complete the entire board with Jacob sitting with $17,400, Nikhil $10,200, and Scott $3,600.

The Final Jeopardy category was “Book Reviews” and the clue was an easy one (I thought) -- “A 2008 review of this novel, later filmed, compared it to ‘Battle Royale’ & said it’s ‘a future we can fear.’” -- although I guess it might not have been easy if I hadn’t read The Hunger Games.

Nikhil missed it, though, while Jacob got it correct. He bet $3,001 -- meaning he did not choose the Chu approach -- and ended with $20,401 to bring his six-day total close to $150K.

To be honest, while it’s probably safe to say Jacob is using some of the same skills and strategic thinking he honed at the poker tables while playing and winning at Jeopardy!, there wasn’t that much in his play that obviously recalled his poker background. In fact, it was the timidity of the other two players that made me think more of poker, as well as a kind of “tell” from Scott when he declared he didn’t like one category as he was selecting it.

I guess, though, at the very end of the show I was reminded again that Jacob played poker. “Smile, Alex... smile!” said Trebek to Jacob who remained stoic even as the audience applauded his victory. He reminded me of a seasoned player who has just won a big pot and who has trained himself not to show emotion afterwards.

Jacob may be a “currency trader” now, but he still has that poker face.

2010 WSOP, Day 38: The Last of the Preliminaries

Yesterday I helped cover Day 3 of Event No. 54, the last of the open-field, $1,000 buy-in, no-limit hold’em events, and one of the last of the preliminary bracelet events. They played from 47 players down to the final nine, a process which took only eight hours or so there in a relatively quiet section of the Amazon Room.

When we arrived yesterday, there were only a couple of players some folks might have known before who were left in the field. Jesse Rockowitz, who just last week won Event No. 45 ($1,500 No-Limit Hold’em), was still with chips, but he busted in 33rd.

And Alex Jacob was still in. Of the field, Jacob was the only guy who’d had any serious screen time before, having won the U.S. Poker Championship in 2006 which was televised and come third in a 2007 WSOP preliminary event which was also aired on the tube, I believe. He additionally had a runner-up in a 2006 WPT event, too, and his wild hair makes him somewhat memorable.

But Jacob busted in 27th, meaning there weren’t really any familiar faces among the field from that point forward.

They became familiar to us, though, as the day wore on, and it will be interesting today to see how the final nine fare. The final table is actually scheduled to be played over in the Pavilion Room -- perhaps the only time all summer that a tournament will be completed somewhere other than in the Amazon Room. (The final table of Event No. 56, the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event, will also be in the Pavilion today.) I hope the table is situated in a place where I’ll have reasonable access to report on it. I’ve been told I might actually be alone on this one, if it is decided to pull Bruno, my blogging partner, off of the event to go help with the Main Event coverage.

More than that, though, I hope the table is located in a spot where players’ family and friends can root them on. This is a big deal to them, and I’d like to see them accommodated somewhat, if possible.

There was a moment yesterday when I was watching the last two tables and I noticed the two dozen or so people leaning over the ropes to see the action. They were positively enthralled, and in my mind I ran through possible reasons for their excitement.

I wondered if maybe that guy with the kind of spellbound look was the brother of one of the players, watching as the kid with whom he grew up and loved was edging towards a possible $500,000-plus payday in a friggin’ poker tournament. The players all seemed pretty cool and collected, but for those on the rail every hand appeared to trigger all sorts of emotions.

I got our photographer to snap a photo of the rail and included a brief post in the blog making reference to them. Nothing too profound, but I wanted to make that part of the story if I could. I know few people are caring much about this Event No. 54, but I want to do what I can to make the coverage of it something worthwhile.

As I say, today I’ll be back on the final table for this one while the poker world’s attention will be focused over on Event No. 57, the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship, a.k.a. the Main Event, Day 1a of which gets started in just about half an hour.

I guess I do feel a bit like I’d rather be right there in the thick of things as the ME kicks off. But one can only play the hand one is dealt. And I’ll join the ME coverage eventually, being there for much of the latter part of it.

Incidentally, I have no real inside dope regarding ME numbers as yet, so no idea as yet how many players will be at the Rio for this first starting day of the ME. I have heard more than 1,000 were registered by the morning hours. Last year the number for Day 1a was 1,116 and I guess I’d be somewhat surprised if there were considerably more than that there today.

One schedule change this year has players who survive Day 1a and Day 1c coming back for Day 2a (on Friday, July 9th), and those who make it through Day 1b and Day 1d coming back for Day 2b (on Saturday, July 10th). That’s different from the past when those playing the first two starting days and surviving would play the first of the two Day Twos, and those lasting through Days 1c and 1d would play Day 2b.

What that means is everyone picking a starting day now has a couple of choices to consider. One is your preferred day, but the other is how many days off you’d like to have between your first two days of play (two, three, or four days).

All eyes, of course, will be on that Day 1d and whether or not the WSOP has successfully managed things so as to avoid last year’s fiasco when hundreds came to play and were shut out of the Main Event. (I will be blogging on that day, which should be an especially interesting one to cover.)

I hope everyone had a fun Fourth of July. And that perhaps you’re enjoying a day off today to relax, read blogs, and check the WSOP coverage over at PokerNews.