‘Jeopardy’ Champ James Holzhauer Speaks out on Devastating Loss

Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer was so close to reaching the record Ken Jennings set during his own historic run, but fell just shy in the episode airing Monday. Holzhauer said he was “very proud” of what he accomplished on the beloved game show.

“Nobody likes to lose,” Holzhauer told The New York Times. “But I’m very proud of how I did, and I really exceeded my own expectations for the show. So I don’t feel bad about it.”

Many fans thought Holzhauer would eventually beat the $2.52 million mark Jennings earned during a record 74-game winning streak in 2004. However, Holzhauer fell just $58,484 shy of the mark. In his 33rd game, Holzhauer lost to Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher.

“What a game!” the famously reserved host Alex Trebek said after Boettcher won with $46,801. “Oh my gosh!”

Holzhauer, 34, later gave Boettcher a high-five.

“Knew I shouldn’t have invited [Drake] to the [Jeopardy!] taping,” Holzhauer tweeted after the loss, referencing the sports curse that says everyone loses whenever rapper Drake is around.

While Holzhauer’s win total was shy of Jennings’, it takes nothing away from his remarkable run. It took Jennings 74 games to hit his mark, but Holzhauer was only a player on 33 games. He won an average of $77,000 per game, double Jennings’ rate. He gave the right response 97 percent of the time. He usually entered Final Jeopardy so far ahead that no other contestant could come from behind to beat him… until Monday’s episode.

Boettcher beat Holzhauer at his own game, thinking just as strategically as he did. Holzhauer said in past interviews that you have to take big, calculated risks, and Boettcher did just that. She made a huge Final Jeopardy wager of $20,201. Holzhauer only bet $1,399 and came in second place.

“I lost to a really top-level competitor,” Holzhauer told the Times. “She played a perfect game. And that was what it took to beat me.”

Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler living in Las Vegas. He earned a BSc in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and frequently referenced his family through wagers on Jeopardy!. For example, one $11,914 bet was his daughter’s Nov. 9, 2014 birth date, and a $9,812 bet celebrated his Sept. 8, 2012 wedding anniversary.

Some critics thought Holzhauer “broke” Jeopardy!, with his analytical, risky strategy, but he told Vulture it is a “great game that could never be broken.”

“It didn’t get broken, I just found a way to play that fit well with my style,” Holzhauer told Vulture. “I don’t foresee them changing the rules or anything going forward.”

Photo credit: YouTube/Jeopardy!