Quotes from James Holzhauer

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.

I bet sports all the time and very rarely get in a spot where someone offered me even money on something I'm going to get right five out of six times.

I think the best way to quickly describe my personality is that I'm a maximizer rather than a satisficer, i.e. I want to squeeze every drop out of an opportunity rather than settle for 'good enough.'

As a gambler, I hold myself to an especially high standard of honor, and it disgusts me when people try to cheat at games.

I get mad at football coaches who are afraid to call for a big play early in the game, you know, because they want to still be in the game at the end, and then it turns out they have no chance but a Hail Mary or something similar to that at the end.

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 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.

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.

I wouldn't recommend sports betting as a career. It requires a ton of effort and mastery of many different skills, and successful bettors are unwilling to teach you because you would be their competition.

It is exciting for me to see the stats guys winning the battle and getting into MLB front offices.

If I can really work in any sport, I wonder if the Golden Knights have an opening in their analytics department?

Anytime you learn something new, you're just trying to file it away - might be useful one day.

I really like not having to justify my decisions to anyone else, as well as the freedom to vacation whenever I want.

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.

You need to pick your spots and bet big when you identify them. That's basically my 'Jeopardy!' strategy in a nutshell.

In gambling, you usually start to go wrong when you deviate from your pregame strategy.

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.

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 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've already begun giving to children's nonprofits in the Las Vegas area.

My family and I were already living our best lives before 'Jeopardy!' called, so we mostly want to continue that while also giving back to the children of the Las Vegas community.

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.

It definitely helps that I can bet big with ice water in my veins.

I've learned more about animals just by reading to my kid than I ever did studying.