Stevie Ruiz, of Montauk, comes up short in 'Jeopardy!' three-peat

Stevie Ruiz's wagers during the final rounds of "Jeopardy!" have been small, but they have been paying off big time for him. After two consecutive wins, the hotel assistant front office manager from Montauk had amassed winnings of $35,987.

But on Thursday's show, Ruiz met with some tough competitors from our metropolitan area. Joining him on the episode were Lisa DiLeo, a business support analyst from Garwood, New Jersey, and fellow New Yorker Dave Bond, a retired grant writer from the Rochester suburb of West Henrietta.

The first round of "Jeopardy!" was pretty much a back-and-forth with all three players neck and neck. But during the Double Jeopardy round, Bond (who found the first round's sole Daily Double but gave the wrong answer for the clue), leaped ahead of the competition, winning the second Daily Double clue in that round in the category "Geographical Name Changes": "After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, it was good night, Saigon & good morning, this new city name." "What is Ho Chi Minh City?," Bond correctly responded, adding $7,000 to his then-total of $7,800 and surpassing Ruiz's $8,400 lead. DiLeo and Ruiz also answered several clues correctly during the round, but going into Final Jeopardy, Bond's $25,200 total was enough to top the Montauk champion's total of $12,000 without having to correctly guess the last clue.

The final category, "Brand Names," managed to keep it lively with the clue: "They've been described as having the unique scent of "slightly earthy soap with pungent, leather-like undertones." 

Although none of the contestants answered correctly, it was Ruiz who came closest to getting it right, as host Ken Jennings noted, with his answer: "What are Play-Doh?"

Ruiz, who had wagered $4,799, was left with $7,201.

Bond, who guessed: "What are Birkenstocks?," was also wrong, but with his wager of only $200, was crowned the new "Jeopardy!" champion. 

Jennings, who said the correct response was a brand from childhood but not the one Ruiz had chosen, finally revealed the answer: "What are Crayola Crayons?" He said the company had described the scent of the beloved kids' coloring tools that way when filing the application to trademark the name.

DiLeo ended the competition in third place, with $2,000. Ruiz's total was deleted and he was awarded $3,000 for second place, bringing his three-day total to $38,987.

On Wednesday's show, Ruiz, who earned $18,000 and could not be caught by his fellow contestants going into Final Jeopardy category “The 20th Century,” came up with the correct response, "What is Poland?," to the clue "This country's national radio launched in 1925; 14 years later it fell into a long silence following a piano nocturne." Naturally, he didn't bet anything.

On Tuesday's episode, Ruiz racked up $17,987 by only gambling $413 (the number on his lunch order in the studio commissary, Jennings revealed on Wednesday) on the Final Jeopardy clue. It was a risky move considering he had only a $3,300 lead over the previous night’s champion, Seattle software engineer Evan Jones, at that point.

Ruiz’s fate hinged on the Final Jeopardy clue in the category “19th Century European Literature,” which read, “An early version of this novel was first published as a serial under the title ‘The Year 1805.’ ”

Third-place finisher Luca Gerace, a chef from Toronto who went into the final with $2,000, only risked $20. After incorrectly guessing “What is ‘A Farewell to Arms?,’ ” Ernest Hemingway’s novel set during World War I, he was left with $1,980. Next was Jones, who wagered $3,300 hoping to top Ruiz’s total by $1. Unfortunately, they responded wrongly as well with “What is ‘A Tale of Two Cities?,’ ” referring to the Charles Dickens classic set during the French Revolution that began in 1789.

Ruiz made it three wrong guesses in a row with another Dickens title: “What is ‘Great Expectations?’ ” After revealing that the clue referred to “War and Peace,” which was set during the Napoleonic Wars — host Jennings asked Ruiz “Did you go big?” When Ruiz’s $413 bet was revealed, Jennings said: “That was the right wager! What a great game!”

Of course, had Jones responded with the title of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, Ruiz would have met his own Waterloo.

Earlier in Tuesday's show, Ruiz revealed that in addition to his job in the hospitality industry, he also owns a Haitian food pop-up named for his grandmother. “Right now we’re doing Haitian patties, but I have some other things in the works going forward, and exciting things to come.”

When Jennings asked if his grandmother was a great chef, Ruiz responded: “She was and is. She’s 90 years old.”