James Holzhauer — the professional sports gambler from Las Vegas who is changing Jeopardy! forever — passed the million-dollar mark in just 14 wins earlier this week.
Much has been made about his strategy — going after the high-value clues first instead of starting with the easier, cheaper ones, and betting a ton on Daily Doubles. But the question everyone wants to get to the bottom of is just how he has a mental edge over his competitors. Why hasn’t anyone else like GOAT contestant Ken Jennings gone all-in with $10,000 on a Daily Double during a winning streak or bet $30,000 on Final Jeopardy with a win all but guaranteed?
In an insightful interview with the New York Times, Holzhauer was asked how his day job helped him with his Jeopardy run. He had this to say:
There’s a few things. The fact that I win and lose money all the time helps desensitize me, so I can write down $60,000 as the Final Jeopardy wager and not be trembling at the thought of losing that money.
And thinking: “This isn’t a trivia question. It’s a coin flip that’s going to land heads for me a lot more often than it’s going to land tails, so I’m going to bet as much as I can on heads.”
In other words, the pressure is off because of his gambling experience, which involves daily ups and downs … except it seems like there have been more ups than downs for him:
About half the sports books in town won’t take a bet from me. You hope you retain a good relationship with the other half. The other half know I’m a pro, too. I can’t bet as much as a random guy off the street at those places, but they’re willing to take some action from me, at least.
James Holzhauer is a legend.
