“Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer is on his way to another winning streak once again.
The 35-year-old professional sports gambler, who gained notoriety for winning 32 straight games earlier this year, returned to the “Jeopardy!” stage for the “Tournament of Champions” Wednesday night. And Holzhauer, unsurprisingly, dominated his opponents.
The Las Vegas native, nicknamed “Jeopardy James,” bested his competition, fellow season winners, Lindsey Shultz, a physician, and Alan Dunn, a software development manager. Wednesday marked the third matchup of the game show’s two-week-long tournament.
Right from the beginning, Holzhauer utilized his now-infamous strategy of going for the higher-paying questions early on and had more than a $19,000 lead going into Final Jeopardy.
“‘Jeopardy James’ did what he did so often in his initial streak,” host Alex Trebek said, before revealing the Final Jeopardy Clue. “He turned the game into a runaway. There is no way he can be caught.”
Despite his lead, Holzhauer bet a small amount for the final round, only $326. Ultimately, he bested his opponents, racking up $30,635, while Shultz ended up with $14,000 and Dunn, only $1.
Holzhauer has won the second-most consecutive regular-season games, right behind Ken Jennings’ 74 victories back in 2004. Although Jennings has over double the number of wins as Holzhauer, the latter’s total non-tournament winnings of $2,464,216 were just shy of Jennings’ record of $2,520,700.
After his victory Wednesday night, Holzhauer will move on in the tournament and play again next week. Holzhauer, who is the married father of 4-year-old Natasha, might possibly get the chance at facing off against Emma Boettcher, the librarian from Chicago who ended his original winning streak on June 3.
The winner of the “Tournament of Champions,” the competition which happens every year, comes home with $250,000.
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