Great article @maya54 . Thanks for posting.
So did he win again Tuesday 4/30. Jeopardy was preempted here. 
Yes.
Here is the link to the article about James Holzhauer in the Detroit Free Press. Hopefully link works, I have an account so not sure. Also, I don’t know how accurate the info is.
“I don’t see how just having a version of the buzzer helps. The key is buzzing in at just the right time - when the lights around the board go out (something not visible to viewers at home). Until he was actually there, he couldn’t have prepared for that.”
I found that if I waited to see the lights illuminate on either side of the category board I would be too late with the button. After a shaky start I began winning and then dominating by ignoring the lights and instead concentrating the rhythm of Alex’s reading of the clue and endeavoring to hit the button a tiny microsecond after the buttons were enabled - basically to get into the same timing as the guy activating the buttons. It was sort of zen button pushing - you strive to BE the button. 'I don’t think I even noticed the lights anymore after about the first half of the first game.
This strategy worked well for me in the regular season and the TOC, but when I came back more than a decade later to play in the big Ultimate TOC I couldn’t get the rhythm back and lost.
Thanks to all the tests you have to pass, I estimate that on an average show ALL THREE players will know the correct answers to about 80-85% of the clues. Only on the hardest clues does knowledge start to sort the players out.
In these linked articles about James it says that the “lock-out” period on the button for ringing in too soon is a quarter of a second. Back in my day they told us it was half a second. Whatever the case, it seems like an eternity in Jeopardy-land. When you know the answer but your button is disabled you are really hurting.
From the article linked in #123:
“3. Knows the buzzer
And, third, Holzhauer understands the technology in a way other contestants don’t. Put simply, it’s all about the buzzer.”
It is incorrect to suggest that other players don’t understand that it’s all about the buzzer. Pretty much every Jeopardy player knows this. It’s been a key part of Jeopardy lore since the beginning. If a player somehow doesn’t know this they will soon figure it out about two minutes into their first game.
Having a vast landfill of useless knowledge is required to get you on the show. Button technique will determine whether or not you win.
How did ‘Eddie’, the blind contestant and 5 day winner, do it if he had to ‘see’ the lights? I know for him the one adjustment they made was there were no pictures with the clues and no video DD, but other than that there were supposed to be no adjustments. Well, the also gave him a card in braille with the catagories but he said he didn’t need that. He was also excellent in knowing which clues were used and off the board, even if the other players jumped around.
^^Eddie Timanus played the the same way I did - by following the rhythm of the reading of clues, not by looking at the lights. It worked for him and it worked for me.
What amazed me about Eddie though was that he could do so well without being able to read the clues for himself. I always tried to quickly read the clue ahead of Alex and decide whether I knew the answer and thus would try to ring in when Alex finished reading.
ok, thanks @Scipio ; I was catching up on this thread and I was wondering - and about to ask - if contestants on the show were able to read the answer like we do at home or do you only have Alex to listen to. I see from your last post that contestants are able to read the answer as (or before) Alex reads it, so you have an idea of when he will finish.
It is obvious that James has superior buzzer skills, but I am constantly amazed at many of the questions that he knows the answers to… as I sit here exchanging glances with my wife going… “What?” In other words, I think he has superior knowledge as well. It does you no good to make big bets on double jeopardy if you get it wrong.
@NJres - Yes, contestants do see the clues there in the studio, but they are harder to read than at home. At home the clue fills up your entire TV screen. In the studio the players read them off of the category board which is about 30 - 40 feet away. You really need to have your glasses prescription up to date or you are going to be squinting to see the clues. And the bright studio lights shining in your eyes from all directions don’t help either.
In addition to deciding whether I knew the correct response, I also liked to read to the clue ahead of Alex in order to focus on the last word in the clue - to help with anticipating the correct time to hit the button.
Since Jeopardy is filmed two months before it is aired James accomplished all this but no one knew other than the studio audience. I wonder if he was still gong strong when filming was suspended for the summer break?
I thought I read somewhere that there are about 80 shows left in this season. If James runs through that he will have broken Ken Jennings streak.
I’m surprised that no one in all the studio audiences blabbed that there was a wunderkind on future shows. And if he loses before the break then the studio audience that day would know yet there have been no leaks.
The range of his knowledge is amazing. And he must have a photographic memory. And he’s so darned quick. SMH. It’s crazy. And, I hate to say it, but it’s getting boring. What if this guy “breaks” Jeopardy? LOL.
One prediction I will make is that since James has said that children’s books were his key source material, you will now see legions of Jeopardy hopefuls suddenly visiting the children’s sections of book stores and libraries.
I’m leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend so not going to watch and decided not to bother to record. He’ll probably lose because I’m not watching.
Me and my H stopped watching after NFL draft took the TV spot of Jeopardy. Can you tell me what’s his winning right now? I should start watching again. I cannot imagine anyone outdo him, though.
They should hire private investigators to find out his weakest link. (or category)
I think he’s close to $1.4 million, iirc.
Last Friday he didn’t find any Daily Doubles but still managed to a large final score. He didn’t have a runaway game on Monday. You never know when someone will catch him.
Over. He passed that 4/30 $1,426,330