Regular Play[]
| Game No. | Air Date | Final score | Cumulative Winnings | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | June 3, 2019 | $46,801 | $46,801 | She ends James's 32-day win streak. |
| 2 | June 4, 2019 | $24,600 | $71,401 | Emma’s first runaway game and becomes the first giant killer to win more than a single game after an upset of a superchampion. |
| 3 | June 5, 2019 | $25,601 | $97,002 | |
| 4 | June 6, 2019 | $5,199 | $98,002 | Brendan Roach ends her streak and goes on to win one more game. |
On June 3, 2019, Holzhauer was defeated by her, falling short of Ken Jennings's regular-game winnings record by $58,484. one day ago, some station accidentally aired the Final Jeopardy! round from Holzhauer's last show. Over the weekend, video clips of that fateful Final Jeopardy! circulated over the internet. James and Emma did not answer any clues incorrectly in the entire game, and Jay Sexton only gave one incorrect response; however, she found both daily doubles in Double Jeopardy, wagered aggressively, and answered them correctly, ultimately going into Final Jeopardy with a lead over James ($26,600 compared to $23,400).
She wagered $20,201 to cover James, while James wagered $1,399 to lock out Jay ($11,000), securing second place and assuring a win if She was wrong and presumably wagered a large sum. All three players ultimately answered Final Jeopardy correctly, ending James's streak. Coincidentally, he stepped down a day before Ken Jennings's first appearance date. Also, since the champion at the time was a graduate of the University of Illinois, she unintentionally beat a senior at the same university.
She tied MacKenzie Jones who won eight games in February 2020 as the highest-winning female contestant in a single game in regular play with $46,801, surpassing the $46,600 Maria Wenglinsky set on November 1, 2005 (The current record is $71,200 set by Amy Schneider on January 20, 2022). Unlike most contestants who upset long-running champions (10 or more wins) and go on to finish in last place in their next episodes, She won three games and a total of $98,002.
Tournament of Champions[]
She was granted a wild-card invitation to the 2019 Tournament of Champions, in part because 2018 Teachers Tournament winner Larry Martin died before reaching the tournament. If it had been the case, Dave Leffler ($100,102), who had 4-time Champ, would have had to attend, but the crew broke the convention and invited her to the ToC. And when she finished runner-up after a close encounter with James, the crew proved that they had made the right choice.
In the fourth quarterfinal, she faced with 7-time champion Josh Hill and 4-time champion Eric R. Backes, answered twenty-three responses correctly but only one wrong. In the final, she is only right and wager enough to make it to semifinals.
In the first semifinal, she faced with College Champion Dhruv Gaur and 7-time champion Kyle Jones, answered twenty-one responses correctly but only one wrong and advanced to the finals.
The highlight of her runner-up was that she defeated seven-time champion Josh Hill in the quarterfinal and Kyle Jones in the semifinal[1]. She advanced to the finals, where she faced off Holzhauer in a rematch along with 2019 Teachers Tournament winner Francois Barcomb. As a result of the match, she finished as the first runner-up behind James, who earned a total of $76,923. The $65,000 she won in this showdown is the most in second place before the finals.
In particular, it was her contribution to the exciting ToC that could have ended without much emotion due to James's solo system.
Reference[]
- ↑ The round also featured other tournament winners, with College Tournament winner Dhruv Gaur reaching the semi-finals on her own, and fellow James and her fellow Francois Barcomb become 7th finalist and 3rd place in ToC from other tournaments.