James Holzhauer Off to Hot Start in Rematch With Emma Boettcher

Holzhauer finished Thursday's game with $37,412 compared to Boettcher’s $13,200

James Holzhauer Off to Hot Start in Rematch With Emma Boettcher
TV personality James Holzhauer at the 2019 NHL Awards. (Bruce Bennett/Getty)
Getty Images

Vegas gambler James Holzhauer is off to a good start in avenging his loss to the Chicago librarian who snapped his 32-game winning streak on Jeopardy!.

In the first leg of the show’s Tournament of Champions, Holzhauer dominated Emma Boettcher and third contestant Francois Barcomb, finishing Thursday’s game with $37,412 compared to Boettcher’s $13,200 and Barcomb’s $7,800.

While amassing his sizable lead, Holzhauer used his familiar tactic of going for the highest-priced questions first and got 23 correct answers prior to Final Jeopardy! (which he also got correct).

One question that he missed, as did Boettcher and Barcomb, was an $800 clue in “Lawyers, Law & Legality.”

The clue from host Alex Trebek: “This lawyer’s star rose while repping Stormy Daniels but fell after he was accused of trying to extort millions from Nike in 2019.”

Answer: Michael Avenatti.

Holzhauer and the rest of the field’s non-answer led to some pretty funny reactions in the Twitterverse.

Though Holzhauer is up big, the game is far from over, as all three contestants will compete again tonight in the Tournament of Champions finale. Whoever finishes with the most money tonight following the two-week competition will go him with the $250,000 grand prize.

By Holzhauer’s standards, that’s pocket change as he earned $2.4 million during his epic winning streak over the summer, just short of Ken Jennings’ Jeopardy! earnings record of $2.5 million.

Hopefully, he’s being sarcastic …

Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.