The Untold Truth Of Jeopardy! Champion James Holzhauer

This game show contestant is known for his 32-game winning streak on Jeopardy! Who is James Holzhauer? The American gambler is the third highest-earning game show contestant of all time, winning a total of $2,464,216 on Jeopardy! and falling just shy of Ken Jennings $2,520,700 record for the highest cumulative cash winnings on the iconic game show.

“For 15 years, I have thought somebody was gonna make a run at this record,” Jennings, who set the record in 2004, told Good Morning America in May 2019 during Holzhauer’s winning streak. “… What I did not expect was that somebody could make a run at the cash record in like a third [of] the time.”

Holzhauer has made a name for himself as a modern game show genius, and for good reason. At the age of 4, the mathematician was featured in the Chicago Tribune as a child prodigy. His teachers told the outlet that he could add two-digit numbers in his head without batting an eye. According to the New York Times, Holzhauer was taking fifth grade math at age 7 and skipped the second grade entirely. But, despite his innate ability for academics, Holzhauer was not exactly a model student and often skipped class to play internet poker. “There were times in school where I would say, ‘I should go to class,'” Holzhauer noted. “But I could make $100 playing online poker if I didn’t go.” Keep scrolling for more details about the Jeopardy! legend.