James Holzhauer

James Holzhauer is known as an American gambler and game show contestant. He is most famous for his appearances on the game show, Jeopardy!.

Background and Age

James Holzhauer was born in July 1984, in Naperville, IL. Holzhauer showed progressed scientific abilities and started taking fifth grade-level math at age seven. Despite the fact that he joined the math group in high school and got high grades in the subject, he produced average evaluations overall since he got into the propensity for missing classes to gamble on the web.

He ended up helping his high school win a state championship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a member of the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Team. In 2005, he graduated from UIUC with a degree in math.

Career and Net Worth

In June 2019, James Holzhauer was finally defeated on the popular game show, Jeopardy! after a long run. James Holzhauer came surprisingly close to breaking the records of the legendary contestant, Ken Jennings. James met his match in a contestant named Emma Boettcher. Boettcher fixed her triumph during Final Jeopardy, taking off over an uncommonly small last wager from the normally forceful bettor. Holzhauer, thus, strolled over to high five her the moment a shocked Alex Trebek declared her triumph.

Holzhauer won $2,464,216, just $58,484 shy of famous Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings, who is known for having the longest series of wins on the show's history with 74. With his noteworthy successes, Holzhauer helped the show's ratings take off and buzz started to surround him. He flaunts the biggest single-game payout on the show with $131,127.

Boettcher has been trying out for Jeopardy! since high school. She broke down almost 22,000 hints from the show trying to decide if hard and simple signs are formed in an unexpected way. Like Holzhauer, who arranged for his own appearance with an improvised catch, Boettcher clicked a pen while watching the show for training. She gobbled up both Daily Doubles on her episode against James, and wager hard on both. That eventually permitted her to go into Final Jeopardy with more cash than Holzhauer and enough to make an astonishingly huge wager on that last hint.

Marriage, Husband, and Kids

James Holzhauer got married to Melissa Sassin in 2012. His wife likewise participated in the game show circuit, winning $28,800 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2014. They have one baby girl from their marriage.