Naperville native James Holzhauer has just passed $1m in winnings on Jeopardy! after only 14 episodes. He now owns the top 7 single-day records and is averaging $77k per win (Ken Jennings averaged less then half of that over his record 74 wins).

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fun fact (unconfirmed)... he's the son of the press your luck guy who memorized the board and won $100k way back when

Jennings and Rutter were both more impressive to me but it's great to see someone playing this aggressively for a change. I think Ken could still beat him if and when they do another all-star event, but Brad was looking pretty washed up at the last one and only won due to having by far the strongest teammates and sniffing out daily doubles before Ken in the final. Of course, I hope any future event where champions are brought back actually raises the difficulty level unlike the gimmes that were featured a few months ago.

The nature of his domination raises the question of whether the show will increase the difficulty of the questions in general (Daily Doubles in particular) to keep the games closer.

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It could. Difficulty seems to ebb and flow through the years. If you go back and watch late '80s Jeopardy, it's much more academic. Late '90s/early 2000s Jeopardy was super-heavy on pop culture. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it get a little tougher again and reward deeper knowledge, but it's not as if James is playing super-easy boards (or he is and I'm playing along well as an idiot).

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Sometimes you just luck out and get a category you're more or less an expert in. Like the "Foods that start with the letter 'Q'" in White Men Can't Jump. Sure, thats fantasy, but it can happen. For example, imagine that Holzhauer's dad was a gun collector and a category about 1800s firearms came up. He'd probably run the category, and if a daily double happened to be in there, he'd probably risk everything.

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He's a professional sports gambler. Mac and Parkins should have him on one day.

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On his first show when Alex mentioned his occupation during the interview portion, James tried to get him to bet on the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup.

He's already been on.

And won that day's version of Jeopardy iirc.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Oh, I figured he was under media blackout until his run finished up.

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22 in a row, over $1.6m won. I think he owns the top 12 or 15 single day totals ever.

They are now taking two weeks off for a teachers tournament.

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Jennings impressed with his all-category knowledge, but Brad and James have the buzzer timing locked down. The opponents often are seen trying to ring in, and he's already got it.

His style is sure more aggressive, and gets more so with the big bank. While in the past he seemed to take 20% of the board off to keep the others in the game, Thursday night I think he had all but three answers on the Double Jeopard board, after the other guy ran a category in Single.

Kind of an odd duck, as my old man would have said.

Knowing math is like knowing some smart person's foreign language.

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Resumed right where he left off...another 88k won. He now owns the top 13 daily totals of all time.

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I thought these shows were for old shut ins before the evening feeding of rice pudding.

by the way, I have seen a couple of articles where anonymous front office people say he has a future in baseball. Is he going to hire Pete Rose as his assistant?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

was just thinking he sounds like a sabermatrician who figured out how to beat the game and ruined it in the process.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Holzhaur looses.
Trebek dies.

Which happens first?

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

He's just a sharp dude with huge balls, he keeps pressing his bets.

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He has preternatural hand-eye coordination to beat everyone to the buzzer time after time. There's a ring of lights around the gameboard that you don't see watching at home. They light up the moment Alex finishes the clue and that's your cue to buzz in. If you jump it, you get locked out. That's why you see everyone furiously mashing their clicky-pens trying to get back in. They used to have one person running the signals and Ken Jennings got really good at syncing to their rhythm. Now they rotate people to throw off returning champions, yet James still beats everyone. Remember that once contestants have passed the online test (something like 20% of the people who took it) and the in-person auditions (like 12% of that 20%), everyone up there basically knows everything, it's simply a matter of performing. It's that he's so quick on the trigger that he does so well. Untold numbers of people know just as much as he does but have poorer reflexes or are simply unpresentable.

You should always go all-in on Daily Doubles if you think you'll get it right. To do anything less is to leave money on the table. Think of how many times you've seen someone hit a Daily Double, wager like $2,000 on a score of $10,000, and answer without missing a beat. Dumb! They're untimed, you can take as much time as you need to dig it out of your brain as long as you don't fall for Alex getting you to give up. And if you start at the bottom like James does, you can build up such a bank and take so much money off the board that an early Daily Double can make a runaway of the game before they've even gone to break. Huge balls on this guy.

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Robin Quivers has said that timing the buzzer was the hardest part of playing.

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Nice point! Excellent post!

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

He gone

If the (can’t believe I’m typing this) Jeopardy spoiler is true, that seems a really uncharacteristic way for him to lose.

Since it's been spoiled...

He actually got every question correct, but the winner found both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy, which killed him. He also did not have quite the buzzer success as usual.

His Final Jeopardy bet was sound. He was losing by a few thousand dollars, and knew she would bet a substantial amount to stay ahead, so he needed her to miss the question. His bet ensured that he would stay above the other constestant and win if the leader got it wrong and he (James) got it right or wrong.

It's kind of a bummer that he lost on the day he was set to become the all-time money winner.

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Between this analytical approach to the game & Trebek leaving, this will kill the show imo. Holzhauer's legacy.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I agree. Unless the format of the game is fundamentally changed (different dollar values, more rounds, etc.), Holzhauer has been about as close to perfection as you can get (he owns the top 15 daily scores of all time). I feel the same way I did years ago when watching bowling on Saturday afternoon ABC in the 90s. A guy named Bob Learn bowled four games with scores of 300, 270, 280, and 279 to set (smash) the all-time four-game record. In the 48 frames, he had 44 strikes. I felt there was no longer any need to watch again, since his record would likely never be broken.

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