I attended a talk by Gerald Tesauro, from the IBM Watson team. Watson is the computer that beat the human champions at jeopardy. A significant portion of Watson's success was attributable to Watson's superior strategy. Hunting for the Daily Doubles, mentioned in this article, is one of the strategies I remember. I was amazed at the time that human players weren't doing this already. On reflection I've spent a long time studying decision making problems and comparatively less time cramming on general knowledge. I might have a good idea on strategy but I'd probably get pwned on Jeopardy.
In the article, Ken Jennings references some of those stats and associated articles on them. [1]
> For example, they’re much more likely to be in the fourth row of clues (36 percent of the time, in recent years) than the second row (just 10 percent).
He also states that this was a factor in his defeat:
> I was converted to Daily Double hunting during my 2011 match against the IBM supercomputer Watson. During a practice round, Watson took the clues in order, like a good citizen; I won the game in a runaway. But during the televised match, Watson’s minders switched it into “game mode,” which of course involved smart strategies like hunting for Daily Doubles. This time, Watson roared into a huge lead.
