James Holzhauer ends win streak shy of Ken Jennings record

Professional sports bettor James Holzhauer has finally lost — ending his massive win streak just shy of Ken Jennings record.

James Holzhauer was poised to defeat Jeopardy! record holder Ken Jennings on Monday’s show, except instead of smashing the $2.5 million mark he ended up losing the game entirely, ending his long run on the show. He was less than $60,000 shy of the record.

Holzhauer still holds the second-longest winning streak in the show’s history (just behind Jennings) and was ranked just last week as the second player with the highest winnings in regular-season play. But that’s as far as the fan favorite will go.

There’s a new Jeopardy! champion … Emma Boettcher.

Ironically the professional bettor didn’t bet enough in Final Jeopardy and that’s what would do him in as both Holzhauer and Boettcher got the final answer correct.

“Emma dominated her warmup games that day, and I knew she would make an extremely tough challenger,” Holzhauer said (h/t/ Deadline). “I was still incredibly impressed by her courage on that ‘True Daily Double.’ I’m proud that it took a top-level player at her absolute best to eliminate me.”

He took it like a champ though and after the audience got over their shock Holzhauer approached Boettcher and gives her a high-five in congrats for her win.

In case you haven’t been following Holzhauer’s incredible run (who hasn’t, though?) his strategy is pretty genius. He goes for the highest-valued questions first, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in the first minute or so of the game.

Then, when he stumbles on a Daily Double (he always does), he risks it all and doubles his money making it virtually impossible for any contestant to come close to beating him in Final Jeopardy. Until Monday.

Holzhauer ends his run after 32 days. He walks away with a total of $2,462,216.

Boettcher will take over the throne and return on Tuesday’s show.

And somewhere Ken Jennings is probably smiling.