What is Crushing? Former New Jersey Poker Pro Completes 10th ‘Jeopardy!’ Victory
Poker players have scored big on Jeopardy! in recent years. Cris Pannullo, of Ocean City, New Jersey, has become the latest and has racked up 10 wins on the popular game show.
Pannullo has earned more than $313,000 so far. The run has also brought the poker player a spot in the Tournament of Champions.
Friday becomes Pannullo’s 11th appearance and he’s moved into the top 11 players ever on the show in regular play. Can the winning continue?
‘Jeopardy!’ – high roller style
Like some other poker players appearing on the show in recent years, Pannullo uses an aggressive style. That involves “high roller style wagering” that has him dominating play.
Some observers compare his play to former champion James Holzhauer, also a poker player. He recorded 32 wins in 2019 for a total of $2.5 million in regular-season winnings.
Pannullo’s skills also seem similar to another big poker player and Jeopardy! winner, Alex Jacobs. He has $2.6 million in poker winnings and more than $400,000 on the game show.
Event host Ken Jennings took notice of how Pannullo plays. Jennings asked the Garden State player if he was even going to use Holzhauer’s “all-in” motion.
Pannullo responded: “I’m not as good as James Holzhauer.”
That remains to be seen.
Poker room to game show set
Poker players seem to have figured out how to perform well in the popular trivia competition.
“It’s crazy that the last two years have given us a number of long streaks,” Jeopardy! fanatic and Nerdthusiast.com writer John Brenner says. “ What impresses me about Cris is his aggressiveness on Daily Doubles. I guess it makes sense that he’s a poker player.”
Beyond his aggressiveness and large wagers, Pannullo’s extensive trivia knowledge obviously helps as well. This isn’t his first game show rodeo, however, and he may be a little more relaxed than the other contestants because of some previous experience. In 2018 he appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
That run wasn’t as successful as his current streak . He still won $5,000 on the show after missing a $7,000 question.
The dominance of his Jeopardy! performance now has Pannullo on the verge of entering into the top 10 players of all time. But for now, the former poker pro is working to beat the season’s best players at the Tournament of Champions later this year.