Cris Pannullo has been the ruler of the board for the past few weeks Jeopardy! board. Pannullo, according to another contestant means business both on and off-screen. Here’s what Sean Holloway had to say about the latest Jeopardy! super champ.
Sean Holloway Was ‘Afraid’Before the game started
On September 30, Cris Pannullo began his Jeopardy! streak. With his lightning fast game play and daring betting strategies, the former professional poker player from Ocean City in New Jersey was able to unseat David Sibley, the reigning champion. He’s now won 11 games—taking home $356,702—and will return to defend his streak as soon as the Jeopardy! Second Chance Competitionand the 2022 Tournament of ChampionsYou have reached the end.
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In a New interview with Central Recorder, one of Pannullo’s fellow competitors dished on the latest super champ. Pannullo was defeated by Sean Holloway on the October 4, broadcast. Holloway, a software engineer from Kansas City, walked away with $7,000—an impressive sum considering Pannullo has made it hard for his competitors to buzz in.
Holloway said that Pannullo was immediately noticed. “By the time we got to rehearsal, I think we [the other contestants] knew he was returning champion,” Holloway recalled. “He was very nice, very polite but he did sit separately from everyone else… He was quiet and it was hard to get a read on him.”
Evidently, Pannullo is serious about his pre-game time. “He just sort of was off on his own, across from our section of seating, at the other end of that section of seating,” Holloway illustrates. “I don’t mean to paint him as distancing himself, I think he just was in the zone, as a lot of us were.”
Cris Pannullo uses Specific Strategies
Pannullo was able to accumulate so many winnings because he seamlessly used some long-standing techniques Jeopardy! strategies. Pannullo is often compared to another fan Jeopardy! James Holzhauer was a high-roller and also had a long history of professional gambling. Both Pannullo and Holzhauer adopted a certain stance—arms crossed for faster access to the buzzer. The stance was heavily touted in Fritz Holznagel’s The Buzzer’s Secrets?, Jeopardy! Holzhauer’s strategy book.
However, his stance isn’t the only strategy Pannullo’s relied on. Since he’s able to dominate the board with his fast buzz-in times, he sets out on hunting down the Daily Doubles. This way, he’s able to put his betting skills to use, setting high bets and raking in the winnings. Yet, we can’t dismiss the fact that None of this would be of any use if Pannullo didn’t have the trivia prowess to back it up.
Pannullo has an impressive accuracy rate of 94 percent. He can set new records if they play their cards right. But, he could lose his streak if he makes a bad bet. With legions of other Jeopardy! fans, we’ll be tuning in to see just how far Pannullo will go.