



A "Jeopardy!" contestant eked out an unlikely victory Tuesday after losing nearly all of his money on the last question.



Manny Abell, a naval officer from Lacey, Washington, was the first to answer Alex Trebek's question: “What country bordered the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf?"









Abell, the returning champion, lost $999 of his $1,000 with the incorrect guess "Iraq."



With just a dollar left, things looked grim for Abell. Luckily for him, both of his competitors would bet everything on "Azerbaijan" and "Tibet," respectively, wiping them both out. The correct guess was "Iran."



Abell isn't the first to win with just $1, but Trebek said afterward that it was the "smallest win in many, many years."



