Top 84 Quotes & Sayings by James Holzhauer
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American celebrity James Holzhauer.
Last updated on September 19, 2024.
It was always my plan to go big on 'Jeopardy!,' and I'm glad I was able to stick to the plan under pressure.
I want to not lose what makes me be me.
My daughter learned to say, 'They're not even trying to cover!' before her second birthday.
Fame came at me a lot quicker and stronger than I imagined.
As a general rule, the less time a bookmaker has to set his odds the softer the odds are going to be.
If you believe in yourself, you don't have to do things the same way everyone else is doing it.
There were times in school where I would say, 'I should go to class.' But I could make $100 playing online poker if I didn't go.
Like Dave Mustaine, I ain't superstitious.
It's really funny seeing all these media depictions of me as an intellectual because I'm a connoisseur of low culture.
My parents read me some typical children's books: 'Green Eggs and Ham,' 'The Little Engine That Could,' 'Peter Rabbit.' But I quickly developed a preference for nonfiction books about baseball and math, by the likes of Bill James and Martin Gardner.
Lots of people recognize me now.
I was always good at video games like 'Guitar Hero,' which require the player to press buttons at precise times.
I hope that my 'Jeopardy' run helps destigmatize sports betting because I have certainly dealt with some stigmas.
I figured, maybe one in five, one in 10 people would recognize me. But no, it's everywhere, especially in Las Vegas. I think the city's kind of embraced me which is good.
Anytime you learn something new, you're just trying to file it away - might be useful one day.
The aggressive betting on the daily doubles is one of my trademarks.
There are big advantages to having a lot of chips early on in a poker tournament. You can make plays that other people can't.
Easily the hardest 'Jeopardy!' categories to study in the kids' section are the so-called 'trashy' pop culture ones.
I think if you're talking about 'Jeopardy' style, I'm not afraid to throw the deep ball, even if it might get picked off, so Deshaun Watson I think would be the best comparison.
In Chicagoland, they had afternoon 'Jeopardy!' and afternoon Cubs games when they were at home, so that was basically what I would watch and it's what got me interested in Jeopardy! and sports statistics at an early age.
Ryne Sandberg was my favorite player growing up.
It's one thing to skip class to play poker, but if I'm learning how to think in the real world playing poker, then maybe that's more valuable than a college education could've been.
I'm used to gambling.
I spent almost no time studying categories like geography and sports, even though they came up frequently on 'Jeopardy,' because I'm already strong in those subjects.
I kind of didn't look at anyone else's strategy for 'Jeopardy!' I thought, I'm going to build this from the ground up... If I had never seen a 'Jeopardy!' game played before, what would I have to do to play it to maximize my winnings, maximize my chances of winning?
I know life goes on if you make a big bet and you lose. But if you don't give yourself the best chance of winning, you're going to kick yourself tomorrow.
I'm from Naperville.
I first got into gambling because it was a way for me to leverage my love of baseball statistics. For the first few years, that's all I would focus on.
The 'Classics Illustrated' series was an excellent primer in literature, and I also really enjoyed Zachary Hamby's mythology books for teens.
When I was a kid, I would turn on the television as soon as I got home from school.
I sketched out what I believed to be my optimal strategy for 'Jeopardy:' Play fast, build a stack, bet big, and hope for the best. In my mind, playing a seemingly risky game actually minimizes my chances of losing.
I went to Illinois. Most people think I went to Princeton or something. But I was never a diligent student.
There's times in a football game where a team goes for a big TD pass. If you don't take a risk like that, you're not going to win.
The fact that I win and lose money all the time helps desensitize me, so I can write down $60,000 as the Final Jeopardy wager and not be trembling at the thought of losing that money.
Nobody likes to lose.
There are times when you'll only have one or two seconds to decide if you're going to bet on something and you need to be decisive. You need to do math quickly in your head.
The best bet I made that won was on the Tampa Bay Rays - who had never had a winning season in franchise history - to advance to the 2008 World Series.
I think most people who bother to study 'Jeopardy!' game theory are going to arrive at similar conclusions about how to best play the game. Not everyone is going to take that step, of course.
The first bet I remember was on the Chargers in Super Bowl 29 with my classmates. I lost a lot of weeks' allowance.
I often see sports teams playing to force overtime instead of trying to win in regulation, and it makes me shake my head.
There's a lot of attention on me which can be good, it can be bad. Sometimes my daughter's acting up in public and I really wish I could become anonymous for a few minutes.
My perception of a professional gambler has always been a positive one.
I'm a pro sports gambler. You have winning days and you have losing days. But you know if you've got the right strategy, you're going to get it in the end.
Parenting is much more nerve-wracking than 'Jeopardy!'
In gambling, you usually start to go wrong when you deviate from your pregame strategy.
Getting onto 'Jeopardy!' was a pet project my whole life, so it was something I was willing to work really hard on.
Jeopardy!' is a bigger deal than I realized.
I've learned more about animals just by reading to my kid than I ever did studying.
It definitely helps that I can bet big with ice water in my veins.
When I watched 'Jeopardy!' as a kid, I would primarily watch with my grandmother. She was the most beautiful person the world has ever seen. Her first language wasn't English, so she couldn't follow along well, but she wanted to share this experience with me since she saw it was something I really liked.
I have doubted myself on several Daily Double answers.
I did want to lock each game up before Final Jeopardy, to avoid losing to a bad bounce in that round.
I've already begun giving to children's nonprofits in the Las Vegas area.
I've found that in an adult reference book, if it's not a subject I'm interested in, I just can't get into it. I was thinking, what is the place in the library I can go to to get books tailored to make things interesting for uninterested readers? Boom. The children's section.
I don't involve personal biases in my handicapping or wagering. I bet against the Cubs in the 2016 World Series, which tainted the victory a little. It was still incredible to watch.
My source of income is sports betting. I have some investments also.
I think there's a mental block for betting big amounts that doesn't exist for me but it does for other people.
I really underestimated how many people are paying attention to 'Jeopardy' and what's out there.
The last real job I had I was 16-years-old slinging fried chicken in my hometown of Naperville, Ill.
As a sports fan, I like the one-and-done playoff setups of the NFL and NCAA, but a best-of-seven gives the favorite a much better chance of prevailing in the end.
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