The Final Jeopardy question (11/2/2011), in the category “World Cities” was:

“A member of the Hanseatic League, this city with a 4-letter name was once known as the ‘Paris of the Baltic.'”

Three Jeopardy champs competed today: Charles Temple of Florida, the $100,000 winner of the Teachers Tournament; Jay Rhee from Maryland, a 5-time winner who used some of his Jeopardy! winnings ($109,203) to buy a sump pump and a Chanel bag; and Tom Nissley from Washington State, an 8-time winner ($235,000). Tom helped his wife in her handbag business with his winnings.

There will be 5 quarter final matches, followed by 3 semi-finals, then a 2-game final with a $250,000 top prize.

Tom got the lone Daily Double in the first round in “Reconstruction.” He picked up an extra $3,000 when he knew the right answer to “Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens were leaders of this ‘extreme’ Republican group.”

Tom ended the round in the lead with $8,000. Jay was second with $4,800 and Charles came in third with $2,000.

In Double Jeopardy, Charles was doing pretty well in “Roman Equivalents” but he missed the last clue costing him $2,000. That always stinks. Jay got the first Daily Double in “Men of Science.” He bet $2,000 of his $4,800. He knew the physicist that an Institute of Physical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen is named for, so now he had $6,800.

Tom and Charles got the next question wrong (which cost Charles all his money), so it went back to Jay who picked the second Daily Double in “Bad Heir Day.” They accepted his reply to “June 28, 1914 was the last day for this heir to a European throne,” although he left out one of the names.

Jay scooped up another $2,000 so he now had $8,800, just $400 less than Tom who had $9,200. He was up and down after that and by the end of the round, Tom had $16,400. Jay was second with $12,000 and Charles had a paltry $400. Alex said he was “still alive.” Mmm, barely …

but he didn’t bet it all in Final Jeopardy, nor did he have the right answer. Jay and Tom did.

“What is Riga”

The Latvian capital is sometimes still referred to as the “Paris of the Baltics” because of its Art Nouveau architecture.

Charles bet $115 and answered “Oslo.” He was left with $285.

Jay bet $4,401 and ended up with $16,401.

Tom bet $3.00, winning by two bucks with $16,403. Well, getting the semi-final spot is what counts, right?

We’ll have to wait and see if that $16,401 is going to get Jay anywhere near a Wild Card spot.