Last week, James Holzhauer, a 34-year-old professional gambler from Las Vegas, became the first Jeopardy! contestant to earn six figures in a single episode, raking in $110,914 on April 9.
On Wednesday, Holzhauer demolished his own record by winning $131,127. It was the third time Holzhauer the now 10-time winner has topped six figures.
The previous record Jeopardy! single-game record was $77,000 set by Roger Craig in 2010.
After just his third episode, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek was already making a dubious comparison.
“Is it too soon to make Ken Jennings comparisons," Trebek remarked at the end of the episode. Jennings set the Jeopardy record of winning 74 consecutive episodes.
He is second on the all-time non-tournament money list on Jeopardy, earning $697,787. During Jennings' initial run, he collected $2,520,700. He has since topped $3 million after participating in various tournaments.
Like Jennings, Holzhauer has commanded the board, but unlike Jennings, has played a riskier game. Holzhauer has often gone for "true Daily Doubles" by signaling he is "all in" with imaginary poker chips. On Wednesday, he attempted the largest Final Jeopardy bet ever, and it paid off, although had he missed the question, he still would have won in a runaway.
