I have been fascinated by James Holzhauer and his betting strategy. So fun and amazing to watch!
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/23/entertainment/james-holzhauer-jeopardy/index.html
H and I have been watching every night. He is a fun contestant and a real gambler.
Yes. Interesting smile. I caught part of a radio interview with him. Cannot recall his college, but James stated that he spent most of his time in his dorm room working on an app that he created. Also said that he uses children’s books to get him interested in different disciplines.
We watch Jeopardy every night in our house but we missed last Friday’s show with James. It’s been great to watch, unless you know one of his opponents! We were saying last night, this could go on for a while. I’m so curious, how long has he done sports gambling and what is his average yearly winnings?
" Holzhauer graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in classics and classical languages, literatures and linguistics and then completed her master’s degree in classics and classical languages at Brown University."
https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/james-holzhauer-jeopardy/
^^ I think this is his wife Melissa’s bio.
Holzhauer graduated from University of Illinois-Math major.
“Completed ‘her’ masters? Is this a male or female contestant?
How much has he won already?
I looked it up and it says he has won $851,926 to date.
Show has been on for 35 seasons and he holds the 6 highest single day win totals. Amazing to watch. Averaging $72.5k/win over 13 wins. Single day record was $77k before him. Not sure how many shows had a winner with more than $70k but he is averaging more than that. Jennings averaged about $34k/win (though over 74 wins).
Its also interesting that Alex has publicly stated that he does not like the way James plays (the Forrest Bounce – going from category to category and starting at the bottom rather than starting at the top of a category, running down the questions in that category and then picking another category from the top). Alex has not publicly said anything directly about James but just about his style of play (used by other contestants):
Alex seems to be impressed during this run on the actual shows. Hard not to be. James was off to a “slow” start late last week, looked briefly like maybe it wouldn’t be his game and he ended up with $80k.
The $851k was before last night’s show. He added $90k to his total
Post 4…that education is his wife’s, I believe. It’s in the section of the article that talks about her.
Who cares what Alex thinks about his style of play?
Years ago, I saw Alex compete in some trivia/knowledge kind of celebrity game. Let’s just say he’s not as smart as the contestants on his show…
His wife graduated from the University of Washington. Got her masters at Brown. Works as a tutor. She was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire & won over $28,000.
James is from Illinois. He appeared on the game show The Chase.
To date, James has won slightly over $942,000 on Jeopardy. I believe that James has the top 6 highest winning totals on Jeopardy.
OOPS! Well, a very educated family!
He plays the way he does because he is trying to get as much money as possible so that if he finds the daily doubles he has more to bet. I like the way he plays. I hate players that always start at the top of the category even when time is almost up and there are high dollar questions remaining.
Yes, James Holzhauer is a UIUC graduate. His brother was interviewed on the radio (WGN) and he told some funny stories about his brother. He said his brother was a C student in high school…he used to get A’s on exams, but didn’t complete homework assignments…and barely got into U of I. He said he was always impressed with the speed at which his brother could do things…and could do long division in his head to several decimal places.
The brother also said he and his wife had pizza at Lou Malnati’s with James and wife and they didn’t tell him he was going to be on Jeopardy and win a lot of money. The brother said the only clue was when the check came and James wouldn’t let him pick up the tab.
His brother also said James would love to work for the Cubs…(Hey, Theo, are you listening?)…and one of his dreams would be to sing the 7th inning stretch at a Cubs game. I have a feeling he’ll easily get his latter wish. Lol.
Edited to include a link to the interview…hope I didn’t get anything wrong with my recollection from yesterday. https://wgnradio.com/2019/04/22/jeopardy-record-breakers-brother-and-attorney-ian-holzhauer-my-brother-has-always-been-the-smarter-one/
A radio interview aired two days ago. Was interesting. Explained how he got his bankroll to start a sports gambling career. I was unloading the SUV so I missed most of the interview.
Also did an ESPN interview yesterday. Boring. The ESPN host did not ask interesting questions.
Ken Jennings eventually lost to someone who got beat in her next game. James will eventually lose too, probably when he doesn’t land on the Daily Doubles or when his “all in” betting strategy backfires on him.
I hope that it isn’t tonight because I would like to see him break the million dollar barrier.
I wish that Jeopardy would publicize the top 10 prize money winners. I like lists & I would enjoy watching James move up to the top.
P.S. After Jeopardy, James Holzhauer could probably make a fortune selling sports betting tips.
I started watching last week. He is from my local area and has generated a lot of excitement around here. I heard the radio interview with his brother, too. It was so interesting.
I can’t imagine having a brain that not only holds so much trivia knowledge, but is also able to recall it so quickly.
Tonight’s episode just ended. Another good one!
^ this, that he’s so quick!