We won’t know until next week if James Holzhauer will be crowned the Jeopardy! GOAT by beating Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament. But one thing that is absolutely clear is that the professional sports gambler is the Jeopardy! GOAT trash talker.
And it started on Twitter months before this tournament did.
But in addition to taunting Rutter mid-game the other day and teasing Jennings about never winning a Jeopardy! tournament, Holzhauer has been on fire on Twitter with his trash talk since this special tournament began Tuesday.
(Remember, this is all in good fun, and these guys are clearly joking with each other and having a good time competing. The two runners-up also get $250,000, so no one’s really a loser here.)
For this tournament, the first player to win three matches (made up of two regular Jeopardy! games) will be named the GOAT. So far, Jennings has won two — he won the first match Tuesday and the third Thursday — Holzhauer has won one and Rutter is still looking for his first match win.
Although Rutter — who has the record for most money won on Jeopardy! with $4,688,436 — has struggled this week, including missing several Daily Doubles after he and Jennings have followed Holzhauer’s lead to go all in every time.
But while Jennings has capitalized on the chance to double his totals, falling back to zero on Daily Doubles is a large reason why Rutter has consistently finished third each night.
And Holzhauer has had a little fun with that, honoring Rutter with a participation certificate.
Holzhauer is also still making jokes about himself, especially after Rutter got back-to-back Daily Doubles correct during Thursday’s episode.
During Holzhauer’s 32-game win streak on regular Jeopardy! in 2019, he employed some gambling moves when going all in on his Daily Doubles, which is how he’d regularly separate himself from his opponents by tens of thousands of dollars. He would often pretend to push all his chips in as a way of risking everything, and Jennings has since adopted that move.
However, Holzhauer had some hilarious criticism about that.
And to be clear, Jennings and Rutter have done a little trash talking on Twitter too, but they’re not at Holzhauer’s level.
The Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament continues Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
[jwplayer YgihEsh5-q2aasYxh]
