Teen loses 'Jeopardy!' tournament by a single dollar

Oh, the agony of defeat!

Alec Fischthal fell just one dollar short of winning the $100,000 “Jeopardy! Teen Tournament” prize on Tuesday night.

Fischthal and the two other finalists — Michael Borecki and Sharath Narayan — all answered the Final Jeopardy question about Early America correctly. Their totals were added to the previous day’s sum to determine the final winner.

Despite wagering nearly all his money, Borecki finished in third because he had zero earnings from the previous day.

Narayan played it safe, wagering $901. Fischthal went for broke, betting his entire $11,600. He doubled his money to $23,200 for a combined total of $39,700.

Sadly, that was just one buck short of Narayan’s two-day total of $39,701. With his safe but smart bet, the high school sophomore took home the top prize.

Watch the agonizing moment that Fischtal learns he lost by the narrowest of margins in the clip above or click here. The high school junior did everything he could; he just came up short.

“What a finish,” host Alex Trebek said at the end of the show. “The best one in a long, long time.”

Fortunately, Fischthal didn’t go empty handed. The runner-up earned $50,000, while Borecki took home $25,000.