Record-Breaking "Jeopardy" Contestant Dodges Bullet, Wins by $18

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“He is the most unlucky Jeopardy contestant in recent memory.”

“Who is Adam Levin?”

Levin, a 46-year-old Massachusetts native, had the misfortune of going up against the buzzsaw currently in the process of tearing through all of the show’s record books, James Holzhauer. During Holzhauer’s 18th appearance on the show, which aired Monday night, it took him until “Final Jeopardy!” to secure his win over Levin.

Both players had the correct response to the clue, which was filed under “Organizations”: “The oldest of these business booster groups, formed in Marseille in 1599, uses ‘de’ instead of ‘of” in the name.” (What is the Chamber of Commerce?)

Holzhauer finished with $54,017 while Levin racked up $53,999. It’s believed that’s the highest non-winning total in show history. With the win, 34-year-old Holzhauer extended his streak and pushed his winnings total to $1,329,604.

Levin, who was able to watch Holzhauer play five games in a row during a taping session before facing him himself, tweaked his strategy to give himself a chance to win.

“James is a super aggressive bettor,” Levin told The Boston Globe. “I don’t know if my natural instinct is to go all in on Double Jeopardy, but that’s the way I was going to win. In terms of picking and bouncing around to find Daily Doubles, I suppose I was trying to do that, but maybe I was following the lead a bit of what was happening of James’s strategy of bouncing around the board a bit. Watching him for five games, I knew the normal way of starting at the top and going to the bottom and one category at a time would not have worked. I did everything I could possibly do and the best I could, and I was a few dollars short, but I wouldn’t trade it.”

Holzhauer, who has been correct on 17 of his 18 “Final Jeopardy!” attempts, still has a long way to go to catch Ken Jennings.

Jennings holds the all-time winnings and victories records for Jeopardy after banking $2,520,700 over 74 consecutive games.