James Holzhauer

Reading children's books is more effective for Jeopardy preparation than using the internet.

I went to the children's section of the library and I picked a basic book on every subject that I had lots of pictures, kept the reader engaged... usually I'd read two or three books on every subject just to make sure I was covering all the basics. I thought that that kind of intro level interesting books really helped me more than like an encyclopedia [or the internet] would have.

Aggressive, large betting on Jeopardy is actually less risky than conservative play because it protects a lead.

I'm not sure this is correct, but the way I look at it is it's actually less risky to make big bets because if you think about it, if you have a big lead, you're pretty safe... if you don't have a big lead, the person who's behind you can hit a daily double... You need those big plays to win sometimes.

It is better to spend big on top-tier free agents than to sign middle-market players who hamstring a team's salary cap.

I think that it's often better to play at the top of the free agent market than in the middle. In the middle, the Tyler Chatwoods are the real signings that kind of hamstring the team in the long run. And, you know, you can't criticize Yu Darvish without also saying, Oh, John Lester, it's worked out great for the Cubs.

MLB is the hardest sport to beat in gambling because oddsmakers' models are now as accurate as the advanced stats.

Baseball, I think might be the hardest game to beat now because it's the one where the bookmakers have really caught up to the stats guys in terms of utilizing numbers to set their odds accurately. They're still making more mistakes on things like in-game betting and halftime lines.

The best strategy for in-game sports betting is to wager against the most recent momentum.

If I'm betting in-game, I'm often betting directly against the momentum. You know, I find myself, if a touchdown's just been scored, I'm probably betting the under, not the over, or, you know, I'm probably betting on the team that just gave up the touchdown... fans overrate the impact of a play that just happened.

Mastery of the buzzer is 60% of the game on Jeopardy when playing against elite contestants.

The buzzer becomes the most important factor at that point. And I think that I would say the buzzer is maybe like 60 percent of the game. And then there's another 30 percent that's your trivia knowledge and 10 percent maybe is the strategies.

The Golden State Warriors will win the 2019 NBA Finals.

Well, I have to say the Warriors. But, you know, as a fan, I'm rooting against it. But, you know, they're obviously the best team, so boring answer, but there you go.