James Holzhauer’s run on Jeopardy! has been nothing short of incredible, as the professional sports bettor from Las Vegas has dominated the competition in a way no one has previously, winning north of $900,000 in 13 episodes.
He still has a ways to go to catch Ken Jennings’ record for prize money won ($2,520,700) and even longer to catch his record for consecutive games won (74), but that’s part of what makes this all so amazing. He’s on pace to catch Jennings’ prize money record in half of the episodes, thanks to his hyper aggressive strategy of wagering on Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy.
Holzhauer has smashed daily winning records on multiple occasions and seems unlikely to relent any time soon. His dominance has brought Jennings back into the forefront because he’s the only human that can speak from experience on what Holzhauer is doing, but also because he can provide some extra perspective on how ridiculous this run is. After Holzhauer posted yet another $90,000 winning day on Monday, Jennings took to Twitter to joke that he actually was doing the show a favor with his “smart, sensible wagers” over his win streak.
I don’t feel I get enough credit for making small, sensible Jeopardy wagers, which helped the show with its prize budget.
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) April 23, 2019
Jennings has gone on record saying he doesn’t have “the stomach” for the size of bets Holzhauer makes, but also says it’s the smartest thing he does because he’s often clearing 10s of thousands of dollars so early that no one else has been able to settle into the game. Holzhauer’s background as a sports gambler helps him with that.
Where most see Jeopardy! as an opportunity to make money and treat it as such, he sees it as opportunity to make serious money but isn’t concerned with the risk of losing. The same way few would be willing to put thousands of dollars on the line on sports bets, few want to roll the dice on Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy for fear of losing. For a pro bettor, that’s opportunity cost, but the belief in your systems to put you on the winning side more often than not (or, on Jeopardy!, in your knowledge) means the downswings that can happen won’t take Holzhauer out of his game.
It’s why, on top of apparently knowing just about everything, he’s so dangerous and also why Jennings knows he’d be in for quite the uphill battle if he were ever to take Holzhauer on in a dream matchup of legendary Jeopardy! champions.
