James Holzhauer, age 35, is a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas who won over $2.5 million on the Jeopardy game show the past summer, and this time, he defeated 27-year-old Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher who ended his 32-game win streak back in June.
- Emma Boettcher is the only contestant ever to beat Holzhauer
- Holzhauer took two-day competition; total winnings $2.7 million
The epic rematch happened in the show's "Tournament of Champions" which started on Thursday with Holzhauer leading the race by almost $23,000 going into Friday's second game. Boettcher put up a good fight, but Holzhauer had made enough in the bank to snatch the title.
The final clue was "A dispute over Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri & Shikotan has kept these 2 countries from ever signing a WWII peace treaty."
The right answer was "Who are Japan and Russia?"
Holzhauer said after he won, "Luckily, it was a question about Japan, and my Granny can rest easy knowing that I haven't forgotten my heritage."
Boettcher was also able to answer correctly, but it wasn't enough to take the lead. Holzhauer's two-day total win of $76,923 outdid her $65,000. In the end, he took home the grand prize worth $250,000, and Boettcher got $100,000. Third place went to a 50-year-old high school physics teacher named Francois Barcomb for $50,000.
Holzhauer has won $2,712,216 so far on Jeopardy, the third most cash won behind Ken Jennings at $3,370,700 (over a record 74 straight regular-season victories plus tournament winnings in 2004) and Brad Rutter's $4,688,436.
Heading over to the Carribean Poker Party
Before becoming a pro sportsbettor and then Jeopardy champ, Holzhauer was an avid online poker player. He competed in his very first WSOP events this past summer. However, he wasn't able to cash in either the $1,500 tag team or $1,500 NLHE events.
Now that his latest Jeopardy game has finished, James Holzhauer has set his sights on playing some poker. He is a partypoker sponsor for the Caribbean Poker Party in the Bahamas which started on November 15.
He will be hosting a quiz night trivia game on November 18, Monday, for the attending poker players. Then he will put his poker skills to work the next day in the $10,300 partypoker MILLIONS World Main Event.
Sources:
https://www.cardschat.com/news/james-holzhauer-jeopardy-poker-partypoker-85545
https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/betting/las-vegan-james-holzhauer-wins-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-1894048/