James Holzhauer, contestant "Jeopardy": the candidate breaks the record of the second longest winning streak in "Jeopardy!" l & # 39; history

The newest "Jeopardy!" sensation, James Holzhauer, broke another record on Thursday night: it now has the second-longest winning streak in the series history. Holzhauer won his 21st match, placing him behind Ken Jennings, who won 74 consecutive games in 2004.

Jennings holds the record for the highest amount won – $ 2.5 million – but Holzhauer, who bet high, has accumulated more than half that amount after just 21 matches.

Thursday's Holzhauer race reached $ 80,615, bringing its total of 21 days to $ 1,608,627. Holzhauer, who said his strategy was to lead early, was tied after the first round with another competitor. But he returned to the second round and even bet $ 9,812, his birthday, in the Daily Double. It frequently bets amounts that correspond to important dates.

And he correctly answered Final Jeopardy's answer by "The Glass Menagerie": "It is said that a character from this 1944 play is like a piece from his own collection," too fragile exquisite to come out of the "Shelf".

Holzhauer, a professional gambler who lives in Las Vegas, is known for his debut at the bottom of the table (high dollar amounts), looking for the Daily Double and his bets. In many of his matches he dominates early, but he had his closest match ever seen on Monday, when he won by only $ 18.