James Holzhauer

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About

James Holzhauer is a professional American sports gambler who grew to national fame after an impressive streak of victories on the trivia show Jeopardy! in the spring of 2019.

History

Holzhauer was born in 1984 and grew up in Naperville, Illinois.^[1] He first on the game show The Chase on September 2nd, 2014, setting a record of answering twelve questions in 60 seconds and eventually winning over $58,000 dollars. He also appeared on 500 Questions in a losing effort in 2015.

Jeopardy! Run

On April 4th of 2019, Holzhauer appeared on Jeopardy! and began a run of consecutive wins that as of May 6th, 2019, stands at 22 games and is ongoing. In his 4th episode, he set a Jeopardy! single-game earnings record with $110,000, over $40,000 larger than the previous record holder. He has surpassed the number held by the previous record-holder twelve times during his run, and set a second single-game record with over $131,000 on April 17th.^[2] As of May 6th, he has earned over $1.6 million, second only to Ken Jennings.

Holzhauer's style of play runs counter to most players, who tend to take a single category and try to answer the questions from easiest-to-hardest. Holzhauer instead immediately begins answering the hardest questions which are worth the most money, then bets aggressively on the Daily Double. Ken Jennings has praised Holzhauer's play, saying it's "absolutely insane," and called Holzhauer one of the best Jeopardy! players of all time.^[3] He and Holzhauer have had a friendly rivalry on Twitter.^[6] However, former champion Tom Nichols said Holzhauer's play iss "making the game unfair for his competitors and unenjoyable to watch for viewers."^[5] Holzhauer's run has helped double Jeopardy!'s Nielsen ratings.^[4]

Jeopardy! Loss

On the June 3rd, 2019 episode of Jeopardy!, Holzhauer lost to librarian Emma Boettcher, ending his streak of 32 consecutive victories and having him fall roughly $55,000 short of Ken Jennings' all-time winnings record.^[7] Coming down to the Final Jeopardy question, both Holzhauer and Boettcher guessed the answer correctly, but Boettcher bet significantly more money, winning $46,801 to $24,799 (WPRI video of the final question shown below). The tide of the game turned when Boettcher beat Holzhauer to answering a question, finding a Daily Double, and wagering all her money in a "true Daily Double." Holzhauer stated in an interview with the New York Times,^[8] “I lost to a really top-level competitor. She played a perfect game. And that was what it took to beat me.”