Quit rooting against James Holzhauer’s must-watch ‘Jeopardy!’ run. Appreciate greatness.

Cotton

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By Norman Chad
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June 2 at 12:40 PM

I cannot stop watching James Holzhauer. I cannot stop thinking about James Holzhauer. I cannot stop dreaming of James Holzhauer.

Originally, I planned on writing about the NBA Finals today. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This will be my only mention of Warriors-Raptors this week:

Holzhauer has changed the game of “Jeopardy!” like Stephen Curry has changed the game of basketball.

His numbers are staggering. Through last week, he had won 32 straight games, almost all runaways. The previous one-day earnings record was Roger Craig’s $77,000 in 2010; Holzhauer is averaging $76,944 per outing, with a high of $130,137 in the 10th game of his streak.

He has $2,462,216 in winnings. The all-time “Jeopardy!” record holder, Ken Jennings, accumulated $2,520,700 over his 74-game win streak in 2004.

Holzhauer’s response accuracy is 97 percent. He has thrown 11 perfect games — in which he never gave a wrong answer — including three in a row in Games 22 to 24; he also had back-to-back games of 44 for 44 and 43 for 43. He is 71 for 75 on Daily Doubles and 31 for 32 on Final Jeopardy.

I implore the rest of you to tune in to “Jeopardy!” while Holzhauer is still pursuing game-show immortality. It’s a Monday-to-Friday delight.

What, you expect me to watch Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz instead?

Sure, I know it’s not sports, it’s better than sports, and every game is over in 30 minutes.

It’s amazing how Holzhauer always brings his ‘A’ game. He’s like a pitcher throwing all heat, no change-ups — 105 mph on the black, again and again.

[Would MLB teams actually hire ‘Jeopardy!’ champ James Holzhauer? ‘Absolutely, yes.’]

Holzhauer, a 34-year-old sports bettor from Las Vegas, apparently has no weaknesses. He is unstoppable on sports, pop culture, world geography, singers, planetary stuff, U.S. history, potpourri and art from any century. And he’s virtually unstoppable on everything else.

Remember when they decided to “Tiger-proof” the Masters by lengthening Augusta National to make it harder on Tiger Woods? I’m not sure how you could “James-proof” “Jeopardy!” — maybe, just maybe, if the clues were all in pig Latin, it would slow him down.

They threw two lawyers up against him one day — I thought one of them was going to serve a court order barring him from the “Jeopardy!” lot — but it turns out they were just a couple of middling ambulance chasers run over by Holzhauer’s brilliance.

Another day, one of his opponents was Jim Bob Williams, a therapeutic humorist from Saint Albans, W.Va. I’m sorry — and he seemed like a smart fella — some guy named Jim Bob is going to beat the Jonas Salk of “Jeopardy!”? I think not. He actually took the early lead, but then it was over in a blink of Alex Trebek’s eye.

Indeed, once in a while, you think, “Oh my, he’s met his match today.” And then 10 minutes later, Holzhauer’s would-be slayer is game-show roadkill.

Some people, particularly longtime “Jeopardy!” viewers, are now rooting against Holzhauer. This is preposterous. We’re supposed to begrudge him because he plays the game at the highest level ever? You want to see his genius disappear?

Would you root against Einstein en route to him figuring out e = mc²?

Would you root against Ponce de León when he was sailing toward the Fountain of Youth?

Would you root against Ben or Jerry when they were endeavoring to concoct New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream?

[James Holzhauer is the face of ‘Jeopardy!’ He’s also the new face of sports betting.]

“Jeopardy!” is taped in Los Angeles, so I considered going by the studio to get a glimpse of greatness. But I decided that’s a bad idea — better to gaze at our big-screen stars from afar than know too much about them.

Yeah, I’m talking about you, Charlie Sheen.

Holzhauer lost a little luster last week when he missed a question about Babe Ruth, and it was an easy one.

Clue: “Babe had this player leadership position for only six days before being stripped of it for going after a fan in the stands.”

Holzhauer: “What is manager?” No!!!!! What is captain? Jeez.

Boy, if I run into Holzhauer and Sheen together, I am going to be really worried.
[HR][/HR]
Those numbers are incredible.
 

P_T

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Dude has an idedic memory... he's scary good. I hope he breaks the bank.
 

boozeman

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It is not just his memory. He psychs most contestants out with the way he aggressively attacks the game.
 

Cotton

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It is not just his memory. He psychs most contestants out with the way he aggressively attacks the game.
Yep. He also uses that strategy as a method to get as much money stockpiled as he can before he hits a Daily Double. That's how he banks so much each game.
 

boozeman

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Yep. He also uses that strategy as a method to get as much money stockpiled as he can before he hits a Daily Double. That's how he banks so much each game.
He deliberately chooses the harder questions to start off the game and if he gets the answer, he gets ahead quickly and then starts to bury opponents when he hits the Daily Double. It also discourages people when then go into a thousand dollar hole right away if they are too aggressive. He is also faster with the clicker than many are as well.

I haven't watch the show with any regularity for years, but now I watch it specifically.
 

Chocolate Lab

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Spoiler alert:






















Didn't he supposedly lose? Post or someone got leaked footage.
 
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boozeman

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Watching the episode now and after the first round, it sure looks like he threw it. He wasn't even clicking on obviously easy questions. That was where he would bury people, gave up at least a couple thousand in trash time. Nobody missed a single question in the first round. And the person that beat him supposedly did some research on a model to beat the game.

His final round bet was basically him saying he gave up. The shit was rigged.
 

Cotton

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Watching the episode now and after the first round, it sure looks like he threw it. He wasn't even clicking on obviously easy questions. That was where he would bury people, gave up at least a couple thousand in trash time. Nobody missed a single question in the first round. And the person that beat him supposedly did some research on a model to beat the game.

His final round bet was basically him saying he gave up. The shit was rigged.
For once I agree with you on something you say was rigged. Not once has he ever bet so little on Final Jeopardy. It sure as hell seemed rigged to me.
 

boozeman

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For once I agree with you on something you say was rigged. Not once has he ever bet so little on Final Jeopardy. It sure as hell seemed rigged to me.
“I knew I could only win if Emma missed Final Jeopardy, as there was no way she wouldn’t bet to cover my all-in bet, so my only concern was getting overtaken by third place, and I bet just enough to make sure of locking him out," he said. "Betting big would have looked good for the cameras, but now I turn my straight bet (Emma misses) into a parlay (Emma misses, and I get it right).”

The bet really is not indicative of a fix. Him sitting there and not being anywhere near as aggressive as he has been was more of a sign to me. Oh well, now to back to not giving a shit about this show.
 

jsmith6919

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Cotton

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:lol
 

P_T

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He had a few slow starts in previous weeks... what got him was hitting the DD too early in SJ, and Emma getting both DD in DJ (not to mention going "all in" on the first).

If he was going to "take a dive", why do it just $60,000 shy of Ken Jennings total? Plus, Emma's not too shabby herself.
 
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