Although poker prepares you well for TV shows like Jeopardy, Barry Carter explains why audiences rarely want to see them compete.

Alex Jacob

Former poker pro Alex Jacob’s reign as Jeopardy champion came to an end this week, with him winning six times for a total prize amount of $151,802.

There are several interesting facets to his story, not least that a young poker player could have so much general knowledge. There is a misconception that professional poker players live in a bubble, but Jacob has proven that poker attracts very intelligent and knowledgeable young people.

The other interesting thing about his reign was how frustrated some people were watching him. Lots of fans commented on social media that they didn't like his style of play. Jacob had a solid strategy to win Jeopardy, one which clearly demonstrated his poker prowess. However, the typical Jeopardy contestant (or any Game Show contestant, for that matter) doesn’t arrive with anything like a game plan, which is usually more entertaining for mainstream audiences.

Good strategy is not always pretty

Arthur Chu

I first became aware of this specifically with Jeopardy last year when Arthur Chu also used an understanding of poker and game theory to become an 11-time Jeopardy champion, winning $298,200 in total. Jacob and Chu both used similar strategies, and both came in for a lot of heat from armchair Jeopardy fans who were oblivious to the fact that winning was sometimes not pretty.

A key strategy employed by both men was to jump from category to category, in the middle and bottom end of the board. Typically contestants would start at the top (Low value questions) and gradually work their way down one question at a time in the same category. However, this game theory strategy both increased their chances of getting Daily Doubles, while simultaneously forcing their opponents out of their comfort zone.

Jacob has also been accused of stalling in his answers to specifically put his opponents on tilt. Chu famously constructed a bet in one of his final rounds that would force a tie game, a rarity in Jeopardy, to guarantee he would come back the next day to play for more money – something reminiscent of bubble play in poker.

Entertainment, not education

Deal or No Deal

It is tactics like this that make poker players brilliant competitors on Game Shows. It is also for this reason that you don’t often see them get invited to participate on them.

A great example is the show Deal No Deal, which has variations around the world. This is a show where a poker player would thrive, because there are 24 unopened boxes all of different values, and as boxes are eliminated a cash offer is made to the contestant which is influenced by the remaining boxes. This is a perfect example of Expected Value, a concept which is critical in poker. While we have no way of knowing what is in our own box, we can calculate the average value of a box and if the offer is close to that, we should take it.

But that makes for a boring show, it would essentially be a maths lesson. The contestants that make it past the lengthy audition process are typically superstitious and bubbly. They tend to ‘have a feeling’ about a certain box and let that guide their decisions. This is frustrating to watch as a poker player, but mainstream audiences love the drama of it all (Check out the video below for the most extreme example of that).

The truth is that poker players, economists, traders, statisticians, mathematicians etc rarely will make it beyond the audition process of these shows. I’ve spoken to several staff at Game Shows myself (in some cases, for my own failed auditions) and people who understand game theory apply all the time. It’s not because people don’t like winners (though generally, they don’t) but simply that a solid strategy does not always make for an entertaining show. We see it all the time even within poker, as the best-known faces of the game are often just the most animated, rather than necessarily being the best at the felt.

What Game Shows would poker players crush? Have you ever been on a Game Show? Let us know your views in the comments.

Barry Carter Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. Twitter

Google+

Share this with your friends