James Holzhauer of "Jeopardy!" Win again while the "boring" series hits 16

When it comes to titans "Jeopardy!", The game recognizes the game.

James Holzhauer, a professional player from Las Vegas, Nevada, won his 16th consecutive game "Jeopardy!" Thursday night.

Although the series itself is important – it's the fourth longest since the iconic TV game has removed its five-game limit in 2003 – that's the amount of money earned by Holzhauer who is hallucinating. He pocketed $ 1,225,987, an average of more than $ 76,000 for each 30-minute episode.

Thanks to aggressive betting, accurate timing and encyclopedic knowledge, Holzhauer now holds the highest total of Alex Trebek's eight individual 35-year games. Four of his totals in one night are in six figures – including the current record, $ 131,127, which he raised on April 17.

"That's the way we all said we wanted to play and we never did," says Austin Rogers, a bartender from New York, NY, whose tousled hair and clumsy behavior have earned him millions of fans in a series of 12 games in 2017. "Get a good piece, then get the Daily Double, bet everything and crush everyone in the submission."

The other champions of "Jeopardy!" Are also excited about the newcomer to their ranks.

"There is not much else to say that it's really good," says Brad Rutter, actor and producer in Los Angeles, California, whose $ 4.6 million in winnings earned him rank first in the all-time ranking of the series. (Ken Jennings, a computer scientist-turned-writer from Seattle, Washington, holds the record for the longest winning streak with 74 wins.) Holzhauer is "a general elite in the knowledge base and signaling device, and he's betting to a whole new level. "

Rogers adds that his friends send him a text message after every game, marveling at Holzhauer's prowess. "I'm just going to write back," GOAT, "he says, using the shortcut for" the best of all time. "

"I think it's great," says Roger Craig, a machine learning consultant in Arlington, Virginia, whose meager $ 77,000 was the record for a pre-meadow day. -Holzhauer. "The series gets better ratings, it educates and excites people."

Not everyone is so excited about Holzhauer's race. Some are particularly sorry for his opponents, many of whom could have stood out if they had not faced a juggernaut in their early days.

Others, including Rogers, believe that Holzhauer's dominance took away the pleasure of the series itself. "It's perpetually fascinating, but the games are boring," Rogers said. "It's like watching a 3-point attack from Steph Curry and it's a 131-98 match. What is the purpose of this? "

The game of Holzhauer is characterized by its big bets on the daily doubles, which allows the candidates to take the risk of any total. These have (so far) allowed him to gain insurmountable leads by going to Final Jeopardy, where he regularly places another considerable bet, in a case bringing him over $ 60,000 on a single index concerning literary characters of the twentieth century.

For his part, Holzhauer seems to have overcome a psychological barrier that haunted even some of the greatest. "You can go in with a plan to bet like that, but pull the trigger, it's like: 'Do I really want to do that?'," Says Craig, whose "True" double consecutive daily – which allowed him to quadruple his score in just two clues – helped him to win the 2011 Tournament of Champions.

Myself, a successful competitor – I won the College Championship title in 2003 and was invited to participate in several tournaments – I can testify to this phenomenon. In my last game, I briefly considered risking all of my $ 12,800 on a Daily Double regarding chemistry, which I considered to be one of my best categories. While Trebek was waiting for my decision, I realized that such a large bet would be unheard of, so I deflated and fetched $ 4,000 – and ended up losing as a result.

It may seem counterintuitive, but these big bets probably increase Holzhauer's chances of winning. "He sees this as a sports betting mentality," said Rutter, who added that he had not personally bet on the sport. "He achieves it from the point of view of the percentages of gains."

Since my last appearance, the game has evolved a little and some strategies, previously rare, are gaining in efficiency – methods that Holzhauer has used to his advantage. Like many successful players, including Arthur Chu, the famous 11-part champion, Holzhauer has given up the user-friendly approach of following a single category from top to bottom. Instead, he moves down the table to try to make quick money and find the very important Daily Doubles.

He also follows in the footsteps of players like poker pro Alex Jacob, who has also taken the habit of betting everything to try to increase his earning potential. When Holzhauer throws himself into a Daily Double, he even pushes an imaginary pile of poker chips toward the camera.

In short, Holzhauer does not do anything new. it just links existing strategies in a way that has yielded unprecedented results.

"He plays almost perfect, or as close to perfection as anyone," says Craig.

All future competitors of "Jeopardy!" Can not and should not follow his example, warns Rutter, citing Holzhauer's exceptionally deep knowledge base as essential to his overall strategy.

"He has attracted a lot of attention for his big bets," said the champion of all time. "But if you do not have the goods, it will not do much for you."