Reigning Jeopardy! champ James Holzhauer seems to be on a never-ending winning streak. Another week has passed and still the 34-year-old sports bettor from Las Vegas has yet to be defeated. On Friday evening, he secured his 32nd win, adding $79,633 to his impressive overall winnings total. He’s now at $2,462,216 in total winnings, which is just $58,485 from breaking the record of highest total winnings set in place by former Jeopardy! star Ken Jennings.
Jennings came on the show in 2004 and lasted for a shocking 74 episodes. He made $2,520,700 before being defeated. If Holzhauer continues in the same pattern he has followed so far, chances are that he will finally break that record on Monday night’s episode, according to USA Today .
Yes, $58,485 seems like a far reach from just one game of Jeopardy! . However, given the fact that Holzhauer typically averages close to $70,ooo an episode, it shouldn’t be too hard for him to accomplish. Unless someone really gives him a run for his money on Monday night’s episode, he should be the new record holder moving forward.
“once” https://t.co/uCUoo4LgPF
— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) May 30, 2019
While Holzhauer is expected to surpass Jennings in total winnings, he’s still a long way away in comparison to him in terms of longevity. However, he reached $1 million and soon after $2 million, far quicker than his predecessor. This is because he typically gambles far more during the Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy. He is also always careful to snag the high priced questions on the board in the first few minutes of the game, often turning the game into a runaway within minutes of the show actually starting.
In the meantime, the show’s longtime host, Alex Trebek, has experienced miraculous success in his cancer battle. The 74-year-old was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer just three months ago. He has remained positive throughout the process and was ecstatic to learn that several of his tumors have already begun to shrink.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling. The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory…some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.”
He credits the millions of people praying for the progress that has been made.
“I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers. I told the doctors, this has to be more than just the chemo, and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this.”