JEOPARDY! contestant Long Nguyen won over the internet and could have won Tuesday's episode if not for one gutsy misstep.
He went all-in and missed the last Daily Double of the game which was painful to watch since beating a 6-day champ was on the board.
Reigning champion Stephen Webb faced Jessica Ashooh, a policy director from San Francisco, California, and Long, a retired engineer from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Stephen is a data scientist from Longmont, Colorado, who returned after Mayim Bialik's three-week teen tournament concluded on Thursday.
Ken Jennings, 48, has also returned and will be hosting until April 28th, at which point the sitcom star will finish out the last four months of the season.
Since Stephen's first game back, he's stayed winning and now has a 6-day total of $155,281.
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However, that was almost not the case had new contender Long played it safer.
Long hilariously shared during his Q&A segment that he once lost bar trivia to another Las Vegas resident, James Holzhauer- and "three of his friends".
Things were looking upset-worthy as he had $12.4K to Stephen's $17.6K when he landed on the game's last Daily Double.
He had been sweeping the category "Scrambled U.S. History" up to that point.
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The special clues allow a contestant to bet from their existing scores, and in true Vegas style, Long bet all the chips.
Ken told Long before he chose his wager amount: "You are in the process of making a run at Stephens' lead."
Long responded: "You know what I'm from vegas let's bet it all," and flung up his hands as the crowd gasped.
"Wow," the host said; "your old nemesis James Holzhauer would be proud!"
The clue read: "1820s announcement: No Credo Needed."
Long sadly just stared and could not unscramble it for "Monroe Doctrine."
The momentum-gaining player held his forehead in dismay and looked so disappointed as his score dropped to zero.
Stephen entered Final Jeopardy with a runaway of $18,000, whereas Jessica had $6,000 and Long had $400.
Long and Jessica were correct on the last clue whereas the reigning champ wasn't but the earlier move rendered it moot.
Host Ken even admitted: "Long Nguyen, you played a strong game but hit that tough Daily Double."
"Today the luck of the Daily Doubles was on his side," Ken then slightly shaded about Stephen.
'I REALLY WANTED LONG TO WIN!'
Jeopardy! fans were not shy in saying they wanted the upset victory as one wrote under a YouTube clip: "Oh, I really wanted Long to win."
"Yeah, that Daily Double loss was heartbreaking!" wrote another.
"Too late in the round to bet it all!!!!" roared a third.
"Aww I feel bad for Long. I wouldn't have minded him dethroning Stephen. He had so much gusto," a fourth even sided with the rival and wrote.
"I respected Long for his risk," wrote a fifth as others congratulated the ongoing winner for living to fight another day.
"Few would have the sheer gumption to go all in like that. Nothing but respect," tweeted a sixth viewer.
STEPHEN SEASON
Stephen, 38, has already qualified for the 2023 Tournament of Champions (which right now only has male contestants).
He's the second contestant to do so in a week along with High School Reunion Tournament winner Justin Bolsen, 18.
According to the Longmont Leader, Stephen has been a Jeopardy! fan for 25 years “but he never imagined that he would be on the other side of the television.”
Stephen took an Anytime Test – the official qualifier exam – in 2020 because his wife: "kind of noticed that I knew all the answers."
Stephen’s win on February 17 saw him miss what many viewers thought was an easy Final Jeopardy.
The selected category was “National Parks” and the clue was: “It’s named for a river indigenous people call MI TSE A-DA-ZI, translated by French-speaking trappers as ‘Pierre Jaune.'”
Stephen failed to guess “Yellowstone,” leaving Ken to knock, “That’s literally what ‘Pierre Jaune’ means in French.”
That said, the champ, who has a PhD in physics and works for a fin-tech company called Emburse, per Longmont Leader, redeemed himself final-wise on March 13th's episode.
He doubled up on the final clue and that's how he clinched his fifth win against Roy Camara which was an impressive coffin nail of a moment.
Stephen dished on Reddit: "After this game, I had to sit down in the restroom in the contestant changing area for a few minutes until I stopped shaking."
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Stephen was also clocked by fans watching yesterday's episode for responding to a clue with "is that" instead of the classic "What is".
He posted to Reddit: "It's phrased in the form of a question, they accept it. You'll probably bring down the full wrath of the internet if that's your normal mode of response-giving, but I'm not willing to test that hypothesis."
