Five months after she ended his 32-game winning streak, James Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher faced off again on “Jeopardy!” — this time, with the gambler beating the librarian.
Holzhauer, the $2 million “Jeopardy!” juggernaut from Naperville, won the show’s Tournament of Champions, taking down Boettcher — the University of Chicago librarian who broke his winning streak — and a third contestant.
Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher were among the 15 all-stars participating in the tourney that started airing Nov. 4 and ended Friday with Holzhauer taking the $250,000 grand prize.
He upped his total “Jeopardy!” winnings to $2.7 million and cemented himself as the third-highest-earning game show contestant of all time — behind two other “Jeopardy!” winners. Boettcher came in second in the tournament, taking home $100,000.
“I’ve said all along that Emma is an all-time great player, and I’m proud it took that level of competitor to defeat me,” Holzhauer said in a news release, praising Boettcher and the third finalist as contestants who “certainly proved that they belonged in the final three.”
A professional sports gambler based in Las Vegas, Holzhauer used aggressive strategy to win $2,462,216 last spring until Boettcher shut down his 32-game streak on June 3.
They competed against players who won the most games since the last Tournament of Champions, as well as the most recent Teachers Tournament and College Championship winners.
