James Holzhauer (born August 6, 1984) is an American game show contestant and professional sports gambler.
At age seven, Holzhauer was moved up to a fifth-grade math class, and skipped second grade at his mother's urging.
[17] Despite high marks on individual tests, Holzhauer was a C student overall, as he often skipped class and homework on the grounds that he could use the time more "productively", such as playing online poker.
Holzhauer memorized obscure baseball and professional wrestling statistics, prompting his parents to reprimand him for "wasting his life" learning about sports.
[14] Holzhauer was a member of the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Team that won the state competition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; he contributed by taking first place in physics and second in math.
Labbett scored a perfect five, with his final answer not revealed since Holzhauer had already achieved the necessary points to win the round.
[22] Bob Boden, the producer of The Chase, was impressed by Holzhauer’s performance and had him audition to join the show as a colleague of Labbett.
[25] 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.
[26] The reboot starring Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter premiered January 7, 2021, on ABC.
[29] Holzhauer appeared on 33 episodes of Season 35 of the American quiz show Jeopardy!, from April 4[30][31] to June 3, 2019.
[34] During his 33 appearances, Holzhauer exceeded Craig's single-day total 16 times (see table below), including a new all-time record set on April 17, when he won $131,127.
[38] His $298,687 total winnings across his first five days[39] surpassed the five-day record set by Frank Spangenberg in 1990 before the changes in the values of the clues.
On May 24, 2023, Holzhauer won the Masters tournament, edging out Mattea Roach and Matt Amodio to earn the $500,000 grand prize.
[68] While aggressive betting is disadvantageous if a player responds incorrectly, Holzhauer was correct on 72 of the 76 Daily Doubles he hit (94.7%).
[68] He credited reading fact books written for children, with their heavy use of infographics, with allowing him to learn vast amounts of information in an easily digestible manner.
[78] Labbett, meanwhile, recalled Holzhauer's The Chase appearance as "the worst beating I've ever had", adding, "I've got to give Jeopardy!
and sister program Wheel of Fortune combined generate approximately $125 million in profit)[83] would allow them to absorb the increased payouts.
Production staff notified interested media organizations in advance that Holzhauer would lose on June 3, but asked them to agree to an embargo until the show aired.
[86] Sports Illustrated credited the spoilers with creating buzz, counteracting the conventional wisdom that people would not tune in without the element of surprise.
[87] Even if the result had not been spoiled, Holzhauer was on pace to break Jennings's regular-play record that day had he won, which might also have had a part in the increased ratings.
The twice-a-week club quickly turned into a five-day-a-week home poker game with a 10-cent ante and $2 maximum bets.
The poker game is where Holzhauer began gambling but he grew his sports betting bankroll in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Holzhauer says he has built predictive models for baseball, NFL, and college basketball, but now focuses largely on in-game betting.
[92] Holzhauer ultimately was knocked out as a solo contestant in round 17 of the tournament, with his most notable prize win being a $600 profit for finishing 92nd out of 1,867 on a No-Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty game.
[97] He is also a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs; he has said his dream job is a front-office position with the team and has actively sought employment in Major League Baseball.
On both of those shows, he has notably used the taunts of Randy Orton, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho.
The Greatest of All Time in November 2019, he made a public statement identical to Scott Steiner's famous "Maths" promo, replacing Kurt Angle with Brad Rutter, and Samoa Joe with Ken Jennings whilst stating he had a "141+2⁄3% chance of winning" the event.
[103] In mid-2019, Holzhauer donated $1,109.14 (representing his daughter's birthday) to the 2019 Naperville Pancreatic Cancer Reach Walk in Illinois, in Alex Trebek's name.
[104] On June 24, 2019, Holzhauer began participating in World Series of Poker events in Las Vegas.
He plans to donate half his winnings to the Las Vegas nonprofit Project 150, which helps homeless, displaced and disadvantaged high school students.