‘Jeopardy! Masters’ Season 4: Yogesh Raut Makes History With Back-to-Back Win

Yogesh Raut has done something no one else had accomplished before: He won Jeopardy! Masters for a second consecutive year.

The Vancouver, Washington, specialist in applied cognition defeated Victoria Groce and Andrew He in the two-game Season 4 finale on September 8, securing the $500,000 grand prize, the Alex Trebek Trophy and another place in Jeopardy! history. Raut also earned $100,000 for his chosen charity, Direct Relief. Groce finished with $250,000, while He took home $150,000.

The championship came down to the final clue of the night, with Raut holding only a narrow lead over Groce heading into Final Jeopardy!. But while all three contestants faced the same clue, only Raut found the correct response.

Raut Takes Control in Game One

The first of the two championship games began with Raut holding the advantage.

Groce, a writer and speaker from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found the Daily Double late in the opening round. With 2,400 points, she wagered everything on a clue in the category “A Trip to the Valley.”

The clue asked for the location of the Timbisha Shoshone Village at Furnace Creek. Groce responded “Sun Valley,” but the correct answer was Death Valley, sending her score to zero.

Raut finished the round with 7,800 points, followed by He, a stay-at-home dad from San Francisco, California, with 3,400. Groce had 400.

Groce quickly turned things around in Double Jeopardy. She found the first Daily Double with 5,200 points and added another 1,200 after correctly answering a clue in “Before, During, & After.”

She then found another Daily Double on clue 10. This time, Groce risked all 8,000 of her points on a clue about elite Ottoman troops whose name means “new soldier.”

Her response, “Who are the Janissaries?” was correct, putting her at 16,000 and giving her the lead over Raut.

The battle remained close from there. Raut eventually finished Double Jeopardy with 19,800, just 1,000 points ahead of Groce’s 18,800. He trailed with 7,800.

Final Jeopardy Gives Raut the First Win

The Final Jeopardy category was “The Internet.”

The clue concerned a small Caribbean territory that had begun generating nearly half of its revenue from domain-name sales following a technology boom.

He correctly answered Anguilla and wagered 7,777, finishing with 15,577.

Groce also knew the response but wagered nothing, leaving her at 18,800.

Raut had the correct answer as well and made the biggest wager of the three. His 10,000-point bet pushed him to 29,800, giving him the first-game victory.

With the scores from both championship games combined to determine the overall winner, the title was still very much up for grabs.

Game Two Changes Everything

The same three contestants returned for the final game, and Groce immediately looked determined to erase Raut’s advantage.

She found the first Daily Double on clue three and wagered all 1,000 of her points.

In “The 20th Century,” she correctly identified the breakup of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the Czech Republic as the “Velvet Divorce,” doubling her score.

Groce ended the opening round in first place with 6,200. Raut had 5,600, while He was third with 1,400.

The momentum shifted again in Double Jeopardy.

He found the first Daily Double on clue 12 but wagered all 4,600 points and could not come up with the response. He dropped to zero.

Raut, meanwhile, found the second Daily Double on clue 19. With 10,000 points, he risked 5,000 on a clue about Noam Chomsky’s 1959 criticism of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior.

Raut correctly answered “Who was Chomsky?” and moved to 15,000.

Groce still held the advantage, however, with 17,000.

By the end of the round, Raut had pulled ahead again with 19,000, while Groce sat just behind him at 18,600. He had 2,800.

That left the championship hanging on one final clue.

One Final Clue Decides the Champion

The Final Jeopardy category was “Supreme Court Decisions.”

The clue read:

“This 1944 decision frequently cites Hirabayashi v. U.S., decided 18 months earlier & upholding a conviction for violating curfew.”

He responded incorrectly and wagered his entire 2,800 points, leaving him with zero for the game.

Groce also missed the clue. She wagered 4,400, leaving her with 14,200.

Raut was the only contestant to provide the correct response: “What is Korematsu?”

He wagered 7,201 points, bringing his score for the second game to 26,201.

Combined with his 29,800 from the opening game, Raut finished with 56,001 points overall. That was more than $30,000 ahead of Groce’s combined total and enough to secure the championship.

A Historic Second Title

With the victory, Raut became the first contestant to win Jeopardy! Masters twice.

He previously claimed the Season 3 title in 2025, making his return to the tournament especially significant. According to Jeopardy!‘s official records, Raut entered Season 4 as the defending champion and already had more than $1 million in career winnings, including tournament play.

His latest victory adds another major accomplishment to a postseason career that already includes a 2024 Tournament of Champions title and a first runner-up finish in Jeopardy! Masters that same year.

For Groce, the result marked a $250,000 finish after another deep run in the tournament. He placed third with $150,000.

The Season 4 finale aired September 8 on ABC, with the tournament hosted by Ken Jennings.