‘Jeopardy!’: Who Is $2 Million Winner James Holzhauer?

James Holzhauer, the current Jeopardy! champion, passed the $2 million mark during Friday’s episode of the long-running game show. He is only the second champion to ever pass that threshold.

After winning 27 consecutive shows, Holzhauer, 34, reached $2,065,535 after winning $75,400 in Friday’s episode, notes Variety. The only other Jeopardy! winner to hit $2 million was Ken Jennings, who earned $2,520,700 during his 74-game winning streak.

Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler who lives in Las Vegas. He was born in Naperville, Illinois and earned a BSc in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2012, he married Melissa Sassin, who coincidentally appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2014. They also have a daughter, born in 2014.

Holzhauer has figured out how to play Jeopardy! in ways few others have thought. Thanks to his strategies, he broke the single-game record in April by winning $110,914 and beat the record Roger Craig set in 2010 with $77,000. He managed to pass Craig’s marks thanks to big Daily Double bets and an odd Final Jeopardy! bet.

As Holzhauer explained in one episode, his Daily Double and Final Jeopardy bets that night were inside references to his family. The $3,268 bet matched his nephew’s March 26, 2008 birthday, while a $9,812 bet marked his Sept. 8, 2012 wedding anniversary. The $11,914 bet was his daughter’s Nov. 9, 2014 birthday.

When he bet $110,914 in Final Jeopardy last month, he added “Happy birthday booger!” after his response.
In an interview with Vulture, Holzhauer said he does believe his experience as a gambler helped him craft his aggressive gameplay.

“My theory is that you need to be betting very aggressively on Daily Doubles and in Final Jeopardy,” he explained. “A lot of people bet big when their backs are against the wall, but people don’t realize… everyone thinks, ‘Oh, I want to go into Final Jeopardy with some chance of winning.’ But that’s not the best strategy.”

He continued, “I bet on sports, and as an example, there comes a time in a football game where a team is down three points with a minute left, so they’re going to try a field goal to tie and go into overtime. But really the best chance of winning is to go all-out for the touchdown. Players need to be playing more aggressively when they get Daily Doubles in ‘regulation time,’ so to speak.”

Holzhauer later said, “If you don’t give yourself the best chance of winning, you’re going to kick yourself tomorrow. I’m used to gambling. To me, these are just points on the scoreboard and not actual dollars. That mind-set was very helpful for me.”

Some critics online said Holzhauer “broke” Jeopardy!, but he disagrees with that idea, noting that 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. I don’t foresee them changing the rules or anything going forward,” he told Vulture.

In an interview with his hometown Naperville Sun, Holzhauer said he gets some of his knowledge about subjects he does not find interesting personally by looking at children’s books.

“My big secret for studying subjects I find uninteresting is to check out the children’s section of the library,” he said. “The books there are filled with pictures and fun facts, and they’re a great way to learn the nuts and bolts of any subject.”

Thanks to all the extra attention surrounding Holzhauer’s performance, Jeopardy!‘s ratings have continued to climb. By the end of last month, the show averaged 12 million viewers, even beating Judge Judy as the top syndicated series.

Photo credit: Jeopardy!