With a winning streak of 32 games, which often included daily winnings of $77,000, succeeding Jennings’ daily average of $33,000, the 34-year-old champion and professional sports gambler from Las Vegas has already accumulated $2,462,216 and broken records for the highest single-day winnings in Jeopardy history.
Holzhauer’s winning streak came to an end when he competed against Chicago-based librarian Emma Boettcher during his 33rd game.
Boettcher’s winning game began when Holzhauer picked a clue worth $1,200 from a category with clues about capitals. The librarian buzzed in before Holzhauer and answered correctly.
Boettcher told The New York Times that she hadn’t heard of Holzhauer going into the taping of her episode. (Episodes are prerecorded, often months ahead of airing.) “It was weird to be a daily watcher of Jeopardy! and somehow there’s this phenomenon that I’d never heard of.”
Holzhauer’s winning streak continued to be put in jeopardy when Boettcher chose a Daily Double. She was behind the reigning champion at that point, so she wagered everything and earned the points to put her in the lead.
Boettcher remained in the lead when they reached Final Jeopardy. The last clue was the line “A great reckoning in a little room” in As You Like It, which is usually used to refer to the author’s premature death. Both Holzhauer and Boettcher, as well as the third contestant, answered correctly: “Who is Marlowe?”
“I don’t think I felt like I won until [host] Alex [Trebek] said so,” Boettcher told The New York Times.
Read more HERE.
