Jeopardy! Winner James Holzhauer's Smile Becomes a Thing: 'James Holzhauer still doesn't know how to smile'

Jeopardy's $1.4 million winner James Holzhauer is on his way to becoming one of America's greatest game show winners of all time. Weeknights, when the popular game show airs on TV, the Internet buzzes with searches and information about Holzhauer, a 34-year old professional sports gambler from Las Vegas.

Fans want to know about his net worth, his professional gambling background, and his appearances on The Chase. But they also want to know about James Holzhauer's unique smile, something that has become a thing among some on social media and a popular search phrase, while also delivering some criticism.

"James Holzhauer still doesn't know how to smile," tweeted the Jim and Sam Show in late April, about the time Holzhauer crossed the $1 million plateau in winnings.

It's become a Holzhauer trademark on Jeopardy!, the broad upper-lip smile forced open to show all teeth with a stiff bottom lip flashed after each win that has garnered attention on social media and beyond.

"If his Final Jeopardy category was about smiling, he'd probably lose," tweeted Forty Years of Fine Tuning.

"The smile that so many have commented on reaks of smugness," commented Jeff Hunt on CBC.ca. "I will not watch again til he is gone."

"Enough of this contestant already I feel sorry for those competing against him he makes them feel like losers," tweeted bsm_1130. "He (JH) has a horrible smile make it stop."

Such criticism undoubtedly comes with the territory of becoming an American game show star. Comparisons between Holzhauer and Jeopardy's all-time champion Ken Jennings, a fan favorite, are inevitable. Some fans hope he catches Jennings' record of $2.5 million in winnings, smiling all the way to the record, while others hope he falls short.

Holzhauer has likely already made enough of a name for himself to find plenty of success beyond Jeopardy. Previous game-show greats including Jennings have found book deals and speaking tours and other sources of income. Holzhauer, also, plans to keep up his career as a professional sports gambler – focusing more on football and basketball wagers.

"When I started 14 years ago, the biggest edges were in baseball, and that's what I focused on," Holzhauer told The New York Times. "But the market's really caught up with advanced statistics, and they take bigger bets on games like football and basketball, so I'm focusing more of my attention there. Hockey I've been trying to work on lately. You can find some inefficiencies in team totals (how many goals will be scored in a game) and the puck line (betting that a team will win by a certain margin)."

A former student at Illinois who said he reads children's books to gain knowledge, Holzhauer has both an intellect and a game show style – including that famous smile – that makes him competitor, said former Jeopardy! champion Michael Rooney.

"Holzhauer keeps his buzzer steady on the lectern, with no wasted motion: You can barely notice him ringing in," Rooney wrote in a column for The Conversation. "The more experience he's gained with the buzzer, the more of an advantage he accrues. Each new opponent needs to get accustomed to the buzzer; by the time they do, the game is already out of hand."