Before James Holzhauer, we were not the biggest Jeopardy! fans. Now, we record the game show and can’t wait to watch James perform his magic. Holzhauer has changed the way Jeopardy! is played and has taken the show to a whole new level.
We caught one of the first shows that James was on and have been hooked ever since. Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, and he is exceptionally brilliant. He quickly takes over the game board, playing from the bottom up in order to amass a large amount of winnings before he uncovers a Daily Double. He has an uncanny ability to hit the Daily Doubles and usually makes it a true Daily Double by betting the entire amount.
James doesn’t miss very often, so it was pretty spectacular when Don knew a correct answer tonight that none of the contestants knew! We feel super smart when we can guess an answer, or rather a question, and in this case it wasn’t just James that he beat. What is a pergola was the correct question that the real Jeopardy! contestants didn’t guess.
So far, James has won well over two million dollars. He is averaging $77,756 per game and holds the top 13 spots for highest single game wins. So far his daily record is $131,127, and he came close to tying that yesterday. If James keeps playing like this, he will pass up Ken Jennings who set the Jeopardy! record in 2004, winning $2,520,700 in a total of 74 games.
James has a quirky smile, a funny sense of humor, unique ways of writing his name each show, and a gambler’s smarts. Add in his genius level intelligence and he has captured the hearts of many Americans. Jeopardy! is enjoying a huge boost in ratings thanks to Holzhauer.
We can learn a lesson about not giving up from James. He tried out online for Jeopardy! six times before he was selected. He was also rejected after auditioning twice – once for Jeopardy! and once for Sports Jeopardy! – before being selected this time around. James has tenacity, a quality that we think is one of the most important traits of success stories.
Stay tuned to see if it is possible for anyone to beat James Holzhauer. We don’t think anyone can beat him. If he does eventually lose, he will do so by beating himself.
