Jeopardy! Contestant James Holzhauer Snags His 21st Win and Brings Earnings to $1.6M

Jeopardy! contestant James Holzhauer is on an unstoppable winning streak, the likes of which have only been surpassed by Ken Jennings.

Holzhauer, 34, reached the impressive milestone during Thursday’s taping by bringing home his 21st win in a row, officially making him the second-winningest contestant in the quiz show’s history.

However, the trivia wunderkind still has a long way to go toward beating Jennings’ record, which is set at a whopping 74 games. (Holzhauer is 21 games down, with 53 to go!)

What’s even more impressive than Holzhauer’s winning streak is the fact that he’s raked in a total of $1,608,627, which is the second highest amount ever won during regular season play.

Of course, for that record too, he also currently trails Jennings, who accrued $2,520,700 in winnings.

However, this isn’t the first time Holzhauer has made Jeopardy! history. The sports gambler absolutely obliterated the show’s previous record for highest single-day winnings by taking home $110,914 on April 9.

He later opened up about how his final earnings that episode were of special significance to him — his daughter’s birthday is November 9, 2014 (11/09/14).

But his daughter wasn’t the only family member given a subtle shout-out on the show.

The contestant told The Washington Post that each large wager he made was reference to “his wedding anniversary, the birthdays for his dad, nephew and daughter.”

“I said all along that I wanted to break Roger Craig’s one-game record and I did it,” Holzhauer admitted in a press release.

On a previous episode, Holzhauer revealed that his father also had a knack for trivia.

“James Holzhauer from Las Vegas, he’s our champion. Everybody has been very impressed watching you as the champ on the program,” said host Alex Trebek, 78. “But you were very impressed by your father’s skills with crossword puzzles, until …”

“Well, so my dad while growing up could always solve the whole New York Times crossword, and I was like, ‘That’s amazing. I wanna be that smart when I am old.’ And then when I was an adult, he confessed to me that he would look up all the pop culture answers because he uh, you know, he didn’t bother with that sort of trashy knowledge. But he told me he did memorize some of the ones that come up often, like rap star Dr. Dree,” he said with a laugh.

Watch Holzhauer return to Jeopardy! on Friday night’s episode. Jeopardy! airs weekdays (check local listings).

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