Jeopardy Winner A Naperville Native

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Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter could be joined by a Naperville native in the realm of great Jeopardy champions.

Naperville North graduate James Holzhauer has taken the show by storm after stringing together several dominant performances.

Record-Breaker

That includes earning the single-day winnings record by taking home $110,914, smashing the previous mark of $77,000 from 2010.

Even more impressive is that Holzhauer could have made more in Final Jeopardy, but he wanted his total to match his daughter’s birthday, November 9, 2014.

Special Messages

Holzhauer has been using Final Jeopardy to give a nod to family members on each episode.

In a written statement to NCTV17, Holzhauer said, “I wanted to shout out to as many relatives as I could, but which ones got shouted out were largely a matter of convenience: whose birthday is numerically closest to the maximum I can get away with betting at this juncture?”

A Winning Strategy

Holzhauer is a professional sports bettor living in Las Vegas. Part of his strategy reflects that, as he’s routinely bet big on Daily Doubles.

Holzhauer said his secret was studying in the children’s section of the library, where books engage the readers with fun facts and pictures that make it easier to remember.

Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.