James Holzhauer wins Jeopardy! Masters in razor-thin finish as gambler is pushed to the brink by fie ·

10 Jan 2024, 00:00

JAMES Holzhauer has won Jeopardy! Masters after playing his cards right in a nail-biter finale.

Mattea Roach was leading going into a crucial triple-stumper Final Jeopardy but James pulled through with a safer bet, winning $500,000.

After three weeks of can't-miss matchups, Jeopardy! Masters has crowned its winner but it was no clean sweep.

Mattea - who uses they-them pronouns - James, and Matt Amodio emerged as the finalists and James won by a mere 2100 combined points.

On Wednesday, May 24, the trio competed for the title in two last lashes, or a two-game total point affair- with the 24-year-old putting up huge numbers against the formidable James.

Hosted again by Ken Jennings, the finals saw the previous standings wiped clean with the $500,000 grand prize, "Trebek Trophy" and masterful bagging rights just barely going to the pro gambler.

'WE'VE GOT A GAME'

Match 1 began with James finding and missing the first Daily Double, in an unusual start he was in the red- but not for long.

"James in the red is an odd way to start the game" one Redditor wrote.

Mattea then found Match 1's last Daily Double, mimicked James' "all-in" and got it correct as the crowd went wild jumping to 16000.

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"We've got a game," Ken announced- "good form," James admitted.

Going into the first Final Jeopardy James had 22400, Matt 6000 and Mattea 16800.

Under "Africa" Final Jeopardy 1 read: "A Major Seaport and formerly a world capitol this city has a name in Arabic for House of Peace."

All three got it as "Dar Es Salaam" with James ending at 34,314, Matt at 12000, and Mattea jumping to 24600.

"Let’s see if Mattea can squeeze a win in round 2" another worried they should have bet bigger: "Mattea playing for 2nd. Need to play to win."

FINALS MATCH 2 - 'TO THE LIMIT'

In game 2 the scores from the first match rolled over so underdog Mattea and James were both looking especially well poised.

James once more found the Daily Double immediately, Ken joked: "I give up." - but once more, he didn't get it losing 1000.

Mattea then found Double Jeopardy!'s first Daily Double- got it and was in the lead.

Matt kept the last Daily Double from James and got it wrong, but regardless, he put Mattea in an extremely good spot.

Mattea had 22800 before Final Jeopardy having gone into overdrive, while James had 9600- he clapped knowing they might have been outplayed.

Final Jeopardy under "Latin literature" read: "A work by this 15th century English Writer quotes the phrase Rex Quandam Rexque Futurus."

Matt joke-wrote: "Who: Will win?" wagering 0 ending with 15200 total.

James was wrong with "TH White" and ended up with 43275 total.

Mattea was incorrect as well with "Chaucer" as it was looking for "Thomas Mallory" - they bet 5,915 -ending with 41685 total.

James bet a little more shrewdly - just 119 - and by a hair, James won.

"They tested you to the limit, but you are our first-ever Jeopardy Masters champion," Ken told James.

James whispered "Your dad would be so proud of you" and went over and hugged Mattea before he was given the Trebek Trophy.

'WHAT A FINISH'

"Wow what a finish. Great series! #JeopardyMasters," one fan wrote on Twitter.

"Omfg James immediately telling Mattea that their dad would be proud of them after he won…. I was not prepared for that," wrote another.

"What an outstanding competition! Kudos to all three and congratulations to my all-time favorite, Jeopardy James!!" wrote a third.

"@mattearoach pushed him to the absolute limit and is handsomely rewarded — so too is @AmodioMatt ! Congratulations to all three of them!" wrote a fourth.

"I figured it would go to @James_Holzhauer cause he's, you know, James. But wow oh wow, did @mattearoach not give him a run for his money. Brilliant." wrote a fifth.

"I think that’s the closest anyone has been or ever will be to getting James- Ken not included," wrote a sixth internet user.

"James winning on the rare conservative wager, crazy," wrote another.

"Unbelievable drama in the @Jeopardy Masters final tonight. Respect to Mattea for taking James to the edge. What a tournament."

"SOOOOOOO CLOSE!!! Mattea will always be my #JeopardyMasters champ!!!!" wrote yet one more fan.

MASTERFUL STEP FORWARD FOR JEOPARDY!

Jeopardy! Masters is the brainchild of experimental new executive producer, Michael Davies, and is the first producer-picked tournament since 2020s $1M GOAT tournament.

The idea of Masters is for it to be annual and crown the best overall yearly player in Jeopardy!- fans think the gambit paid off.

Beloved fan-favorite Sam Buttrey and 40-time winner Amy Schneider were eliminated as the two lowest-ranking players who just couldn't "bring it" in the quarterfinals.

Then, in the semi-finals, Mattea eliminated Andrew He after a wild tie between their standings came down to their number of correct responses overall as the tiebreaker.

But a huge draw of Masters has been the rapport between the well-known players, buzzer-fast gameplay aside.

When Mattea beat Andrew (quite the opposite happened in the 2022 Tournament of Champions) they sweetly shared a hug.

The moving moment came after Mattea, near tears, revealed the sudden loss of her father at 57 which took place while filming the tournament.

Phillip Henry Roach died of a brain aneurysm on May 2, 2023 at his family home in Canada while Mattea was "at the set of Jeopardy!," they revealed on stage, dedicating their performance to him.

Andrew for his part also celebrated welcoming his first son, Everett, with his partner, mid-filming, which he also revealed on stage.

When Matt earlier eliminated Sam (the opposite happened in the 2022 ToC as well) they also hugged.

Matt said he was the "dearest friend [he's] made in all of Jeopardy!"

And of course, another huge draw of the special has been frontrunner James' rapport with Ken as the pair had only faced each other as contestants until Masters.

James has trash-talked and WWE-posed his way to the top going 9/1 on matches, making for great TV.

James told Ken to "keep it in your pants" during one NSFW moment, and also challenged the host to a "rematch" in a joke Final Jeopardy response- hosts competing is against Jeopardy! rules, sadly.

The prize money for Jeopardy! Masters is:

1st Place – $500,000 and the "Trebek Trophy" (James)
2nd Place – $250,000 (Mattea)
3rd Place – $150,000 (Matt)
4th Place – $100,000 (Andrew)
5th Place – $75,000 (Amy)
6th Place – $50,000 (Sam)

Canadian Gen-z contestant Mattea is the sixth-highest-earning Jeopardy! winner of all time with $560,983 in regular gameplay earnings from their initial 2022 23-game run at just 23 years old.

Matt is a 38-time winner and is the only contestant to have beaten James in a Masters match. He is the third highest-winning contestant ever with $1.5M.