A fortnight away from the Jeopardy! buzzer certainly didn’t seem to hurt James Holzhauer. The reigning Jeopardy! champion returned after a two-week absence for the show’s annual Teacher’s Tournament, and he wasted no time returning to form against a pair of opponents that didn’t simply stand a chance.
We’ve talked a whole lot about Holzhauer while he was away, but what’s so impressive about his run on the show — now at 23 games and more than $1.7 million — is how ordinary the pro sports bettor has made a huge game on the show. Holzhauer had $49,229 heading into Final Jeopardy, snagging all three Daily Doubles and setting up another runaway victory and a chance to add a huge number to his win total.
Before the episode aired, Jeopardy put up a video on YouTube featuring some former champions, including Ken Jennings, and basically none of them seriously thought they could take him down.
One reason why is that Holzhauer has entered some insanely impressive territory with the win. Holzhauer added $40,000 in Final Jeopardy, good for a win that added $89,229 to his total. That win, as pointed out by a few superfans, gives him a daily average of $77,401.61. That’s an average of more than the highest ever single day win on the show before Holzhauer became a contestant.
Holzhauer is dominating, but he’s not playing against schlubs here, either. Unlike when Jennings was making his Jeopardy! run, everyone gets buzzer training before they hit the stage. And as Alex Trebek noted during Monday’s show, the first Jeopardy! round featured zero mistakes from anyone on the show. It’s just that Holzhauer answered more questions and, as usual, didn’t give anyone a chance to catch up.
It’s hard to know what will happen to Holzhauer on the show, and if he can be beat when he misses a big bet. But Holzhauer’s return to Jeopardy! made it hard to imagine that moment comes anytime soon.
