What's a "Jeopardy!" shocker? James Holzhauer struck by Chicago librarian | national news

The professional sports player from Las Vegas ended his career with Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher, the woman who beat him.

"I really had the impression of playing with the house money, so I was not too upset to see my race end," Holzhauer said in an interview by mail. electronic. He said he met "a great opponent playing perfectly."

The series has made Holzhauer a well-known name and has earned him ratings at once, "Jeopardy!" need a raise after the announcement by host Alex Trebek that he was suffering from cancer.

Holzhauer nearly doubled the series' previous record of one-day winnings by earning $ 131,127 in his tenth game, and he leaves with the top 16 scores in a day of series history . The game has been released in its current form since 1984.

He combined a knowledge of the learned world with a mastery of the ring, which allowed him to defeat his opponents and add the coolness instinct of a player to bet big. Often, in the first round of the series, he quickly accumulated as much money as possible, then bet everything if he landed on a Daily Double that allowed him to choose the amount of money to risk.

In the end, he met a woman who was willing to be as daring as he was. Boettcher tackled the last issue of the series with a lead over Holzhauer and bet $ 20,201 to make sure he could not beat her.

"What a game!" Said Trebek. "Oh my God."

The final hint of the show was: "The phrase" a big account in a small room "in" As You Like Like "is generally used to refer to the untimely death of this author".

Boettcher and Holzhauer correctly answered, "Who is Christopher Marlowe?"

Holzhauer had earned $ 2,462,216 until Friday's episode, which left him just over $ 58,000 ahead of Ken Jennings' record of earnings in 2004. Holzhauer was not midway through Jennings' 74-game winning streak.

"I was surprised to see James fall, considering how unbeatable he looked, but that shows just how" Jeopardy! "Is fragile, streak is," Jennings said Monday. "The end is always just a bad breakaway."

Jennings said that it was a fantastic race. "I do not know if we'll see anything like this again," he said.

Holzhauer, who rarely buzzed with wrong answers, said he was proud to never fight. "It took incredible performance to knock me out," he said.

The intimidating domination of Holzhauer has become so routine that a "Jeopardy!" Long time. observers lamented that it was getting boring. Holzhauer himself seemed subdued in his last victories. He said that there was an explanation: last week's episodes were recorded immediately after Trebek announced his cancer diagnosis, which could have affected his mood.

"I do not think I've ever tired of playing," he said. "I enjoyed the experience very much."

The word that the Monday episode could prove special for "Jeopardy!" Fans quickly broadcast with a late broadcast this weekend a video of the last minute of the show. An exhibition representative did not immediately answer questions about the leak of this material.

Holzhauer himself offered a cryptic tweet a few hours before most of the country had seen the episode, stating that he "knew that I should not have invited @Drake to be there. recording on @Jeopardy ". Well-informed sports fans will recognize the reference to a supposed curse that the rap star brings to the teams for which he has roots.

Holzhauer developed an active presence on social networks during his stint in the series, a sign of which he could be heard again. He said: "I currently present very interesting offers and I still have a lot of phone calls to come back."

Jennings was already seeing questions Monday to find out if "Jeopardy!" would bring him together with Holzhauer for an epic championship match.

"It would be hard to refuse, but I would feel as if the old man with weapons was challenged by the young man his age," he said. "The good day, I'm sure I could always take it, but it all depends on who took the breaks."

Herb McCann of Chicago, associate editor of the Associated Press, contributed to this report.