| James Holzhauer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | James Holzhauer |
| Born: | August 6, 1984 |
| Birth Hometown: | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Occupation: | Sports gambler |
| Years active: | 2019-present |
| Known for: | His appearances on Jeopardy! and The Chase |
James Holzhauer (also known as The High Roller) (born August 6, 1984) is a sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada[1] who is best known for becoming the second-highest money-winner in regular play on Jeopardy! behind Ken Jennings (and third-highest overall behind Jennings and Brad Rutter – both on Jeopardy! and on game shows overall).
Early Life[]
James appeared on the U.S. version of The Chase on September 2, 2014. In the Cash Builder round, he answered 12 out of 13 questions correctly. In the Final Cash round, he faced challenger Mark Labbett, whom he faced in the previous round, and beating him 26 to 9. He won $58,333.33 on that show.
He appeared on 500 Questions on May 22, 2015. He was unable to dethrone Steve Bahnaman, the incumbent champion, and therefore didn't receive any winnings.
Jeopardy![]
The Chase[]
He appeared on the American version of the quiz show The Chase on September 2, 2014, internationally produced by ITV Studios. In his first round, a one-minute round called the Cash Builder, he correctly answered 12 questions out of 13 posed by host Brooke Burns, the last question was asked just before time expired and was quickly passed on by Holzhauer. His score set a record for the Cash Builder that was never surpassed during the show's run.
In his second round, he faced Mark Labbett to determine whether he would advance to the final round and add money to the team prize pool. Holzhauer had a choice of three amounts to play for: $60,000 based on his score in the Cash Builder, $30,000 to reduce the difficulty of the round, and $120,000, which would increase the difficulty. He chose to play for $60,000, after the show he said that the odds did not favor playing for the maximum amount and that it was not worth the gamble.
The Chase was played head-to-head, with the players using hidden buttons to select multiple-choice answers. Holzhauer advanced to the finals and added to the prize pool with a score of five right and one wrong. Labbett scored a perfect five, with his final answer not revealed since Holzhauer had already achieved the necessary points to win the round.
In the Final Chase round (as team leader with two other contestants also participating), Holzhauer's team defeated Labbett by a score of 26 to 9, earning him a $58,333.33 share of the $175,000 team prize pool. By answering 19 questions correctly for his team, he set a Final Chase record, This record still stands today.
Bob Boden, the producer of The Chase, was impressed by his performance and had Holzhauer audition to join the show as a colleague of Labbett. In July 2020, Holzhauer and several other famous game show contestants were said to be in negotiations to become chasers for a potential reboot of The Chase, which would be produced for ABC. The reboot starring Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter premiered January 7, 2021 on ABC. Labbett still refers to Holzhauer as the toughest opponent he’s ever faced on any version of the show.
Shows appeared[]
Trivia[]
Jeopardy![]
- The point is that the score and DD wager are different from others. Usually, in the case of DD, the bet is in units of $1,000, and the final score ends with $0 or 1, whereas in his case, the last digit comes out in various ways. In particular, the DD wager also mentions a specific date. Among them, 9812 and 11914 are often used. 9812 is the wedding anniversary date, and 11914 is the daughter's birthday. In particular, his prize money record also includes $90,812 and $110,914, the latter of which said he wanted to win with these points. However, after GoAT, this trend tends to disappear.
- He has a seven-year-old daughter named Natasha, though he is quite fond of calling her “Booger.”
- He is the first and only contestant to ever win $100,000 or more in a single episode of Jeopardy.
- He also holds the regular play record for largest Daily Double bet, with $25,000.[2]
- The longest standing record he broke was the record for largest successful Daily Double wager - prior to James, the record was set by Bob Beers in 1988, with a pre-doubled $20,000. James equaled or surpassed this record five times, one of which was during the GOAT tournament.
- By the end of his 32-game streak, he had correctly responded to 32 Final Jeopardy clues, which is the highest game/right response ratio on the show. The only game in which he got the question wrong was his 6th.
- He is the fifth player to be at the top seed of the ToC leaderboard to win the ToC following Chuck Forrest, Dan Melia, Dave Abbott, and Dan Pawson. He is also the third and last ToC winner following Mike Dupée and Dan M. from Group 3 when the 15-member system was played.
- He also holds the record for most consecutive correct Final Jeopardy responses, with 28.[3]
- He has the fastest time to win $1 million (Game 14) and $2 million (Game 27) in regular play. He is also the second person to achieve both of those milestones.
- He has the largest average WPS (winnings per show) on Jeopardy, totaling $74,673.
- He is also the first person to surpass an average WPS of $40,000 to $70,000.
- He is often affectionately referred to as “Jeopardy James.”
- He is 3rd for American game show winnings records.
- Among the champions who have won more than 10 consecutive wins, the first broadcast date is Thursday.[4]
- Due to his success in Jeopardy!, Sony sister program Wheel of Fortune had only 3 won Bonus Round from April 22, 2019 to June 7, 2019.[5] It is speculated that the bonus puzzles became more difficult due to him causing Jeopardy! to become so severely overbudget that Wheel's budget began to suffer as well, though this is never confirmed.
- James Fraser, who will participate in SCT in 2022, was originally going to participate in the episode where Holzhauer was active, but the same first name could cause confusion, so the appearance date was postponed to March 10, 2021.
- His grandmother was Japanese and unfortunately passed away before he appeared in Jeopardy.
- He is female participants often showed a weak side. When he met Emma Boettcher, who stopped his winning streak, again in the ToC final, Emma did well in the second half, so she almost gave up the championship. At the Masters, Mattea struggled in the semifinals and finals, and would have lost if Mattea didn't answer in FJ.
- Strangely enough, Emma, who stepped down as champion, was a librarian from the University of Illinois, and as a result, he handed over the championship to a junior at her alma mater. Of course, since we are alumni, we have maintained a good relationship even after the confrontation.
- By winning the ToC, he became the only ToC winner to beat all of his opponents in a regular game from Unlimited Era[6].
- He was the first ultra champion (10 or more wins) to go on to win their respective Tournament of Champions, and remained the only one to do so until Amy Schneider (40 wins) won the 2022 ToC. Also, the record for the longest winning streak among ToC champions was passed by Amy, but the record for the most money earned among ToC champions is maintained. In addition, these are the winning champions among 16 super champions and 15 consecutive champions who have accumulated more than the ToC championship prize money in the S21 system.
- According to thejeopardyfan.com, he was making an average of $21,430 per game through DD alone. (For reference, the average combined score of his two opponents throughout the entire game was $11,322).
Other Game Shows[]
- On his appeared on The Chase, he Got all but one of the 13 questions correct. The last Question could not be solved due to timeout.
- Additionally, his team got a 23-step run away from the Beast, with James contributing 19 answers. This is the largest head start by a team and the largest number of answers contributed by a single person.
- He has broken 14 show records across Jeopardy and The Chase, the most of any contestant in game show history.
- He is co-hosting a revival of The Chase with Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. His nickname is “The High Roller.”
- 2022 August in Vegas people can take a game show boot camp with Brad Rutter.
Other[]
- He has a six-year-old daughter whose name is unknown, though he is fond of referring to her as “Booger.”
- His last name, Holzhauer, is German for “woodcutter.”
Additional Pages[]
Link[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ He was living in naperville when he appeared on The Chase.
- ↑ Broadly speaking, that's the $25,600 raised in his last match of the Masters Qualifier.
- ↑ From the first appearance, Ben ingram, who answered 12 questions in a row, is the best record.
- ↑ Monday: Julia Collins, Seth Wilson, and Jonathan Fisher / Tuesday: David Madden, Arthur Chu, Austin Rogers, and Mattea Roach / Wednesday: Ken Jennings, Matt Amodio, and Amy Schneider / Thursday: Ray Lalonde / Friday: Matt Jackson, Jason Zuffranieri, Ryan Long, and Cris Pannullo.
- ↑ Also all 20 Bonus Rounds are lost on the weeks of April 29, 2019 through May 20, 2019, this is the longest known losing streak in the Wheel's history.
- ↑ In order for this condition to occur, it can be said to be a difficult condition as you must finish second in the last regular competition and the opponent who beat you must perform well, or win the CWC and advance to the ToC together, and then both you and your opponent must advance to the finals. For reference, before that, S22's Bill MacDonald and S29's Keith Whitener came close to this case.