…and now, for big second-place comebacks

In the first part of this post, we looked at situations in which third place came back to win on the final day of a two-day total-point affair – from any deficit. That’s happened just 7 times (and that’s counting Brad Rutter’s tied-for-second comeback in the UTOC).

As you might expect, the player in second after the first day has had more success. Still, that’s happened only 19 times, according to games in the J! Archive*, not including the aforementioned Rutter performance.

Still, that means the player in the lead after the first day has won 51/77 times – nearly two-thirds of all tournaments.

Until Jeff Xie won the 2014 Teen Tournament – also on a tiebreaker – the previous second-place player to win was Patrick Quinn, who trailed by all of 211 points heading into the second game of the 2012 Teachers Tournament.

Here are the seven times a player came back from a deficit of at least 10,000 (in current values) to win the tournament.

*I know Amanda Goad also came back from second (3,600, pre-doubled) to win in a tiebreaker; I also pulled off the feat (down by a whopping 711), so the actual total is at least 21.

Frank Spangenberg, Tenth Anniversary Tournament

Trailed Tom Nosek by 13,000 (needed to lead by 6,500 on Day Two) – that’s 26,000 in today’s amounts!

Note that Leslie Frates trailed by 13,500, and had control of her destiny in Final Jeopardy!. I’ll look into situations like this in a future post, as hinted at previously.

	Frank Spangenberg	Tom Nosek	Leslie Frates
D1 Pre-Final	7,600	6,800	6,800
D1 Final Wager	7,000	6,800	6,700
D1 Total	600	13,600	100
D2 Pre-Final	8,100	4,000	13,000
D2 Final Wager	8,100	4,000	8,601
D2 Total	16,200	0	4,399
Grand Total	16,800	13,600	4,499

David Walter, 2007 Teen Tournament

Trailed Ben Schenkel by 25,800 (needed to lead by 12,900 on Day Two)

It didn’t matter what Ben wagered on Day Two, despite having just 1,400 – he was totally at the mercy of David’s response.

	Stephen Fritz	Ben Schenkel	David Walter
D1 Pre-Final	11,000	22,800	22,200
D1 Final Wager	5,537	17,200	8,000
D1 Total	5,463	40,000	14,200
D2 Pre-Final	10,000	1,400	23,400
D2 Final Wager	9,997	1,400	5,300
D2 Total	19,997	2,800	28,700
Grand Total	25,460	42,800	42,900

Joey Beachum, 2008 College Championship

Trailed Danielle Zsenak by 14,800 (needed to lead by 7,400 on Day Two)

	Joey Beachum	Andrew Chung	Danielle Zsenak
D1 Pre-Final	7,600	18,000	15,000
D1 Final Wager	7,600	6,002	15,000
D1 Total	15,200	11,998	30,000
D2 Pre-Final	24,400	10,400	13,000
D2 Final Wager	6,800	10,400	3,000
D2 Total	31,200	0	16,000
Grand Total	46,400	11,998	46,000

Michael Falk, 2006 TOC

Trailed Vik Vaz by 13,400 (needed to lead by 6,700 on Day Two)

	Bill MacDonald	Michael Falk	Vik Vaz
D1 Pre-Final	5,200	15,400	17,400
D1 Final Wager	5,200	2,000	13,400
D1 Total	0	17,400	30,800
D2 Pre-Final	10,400	23,600	9,200
D2 Final Wager	10,001	8,201	9,200
D2 Total	399	31,801	0
Grand Total	399	49,201	30,800

Andrew Hutchings, 1998 College Championship

Trailed Alex Weathers by 5,400 (needed to lead by 2,700 on Day Two)

Andrew still needed an incorrect response from Alex to win.

	Alex Weathers	Shane Underwood	Andrew Hutchings
D1 Pre-Final	7,400	9,600	4,000
D1 Final Wager	6,000	7,100	4,000
D1 Total	13,400	2,500	8,000
D2 Pre-Final	7,500	1,000	8,800
D2 Final Wager	4,701	1,000	300
D2 Total	2,799	2,000	9,100
Grand Total	16,199	4,500	17,100

Russ Schumacher, 2004

Trailed Tom Walsh by 10,100 (needed to lead by 5,050 on Day Two)

	Arthur Gandolfi	Tom Walsh	Russ Schumacher
D1 Pre-Final	7,200	16,700	13,200
D1 Final Wager	7,200	3,000	3,600
D1 Total	0	19,700	9,600
D2 Pre-Final	6,200	8,800	17,600
D2 Final Wager	6,200	3,000	10,250
D2 Total	12,400	11,800	27,850
Grand Total	12,400	31,500	37,450

Jeff Xie, 2014 Teen Tournament

Trailed Alan Koolik by 10,000 (needed to lead by 5,000 on Day Two); won on a tiebreaker

	Cooper Lair	Alan Koolik	Jeff Xie
D1 Pre-Final	5,600	19,200	17,000
D1 Final Wager	5,400	5,800	2,000
D1 Total	200	25,000	15,000
D2 Pre-Final	15,600	14,600	19,600
D2 Final Wager	15,400	14,600	19,600
D2 Total	31,000	29,200	39,200
Grand Total	31,200	54,200	54,200