In his 11-game run, James Holzhauer has dominated Jeopardy! like no one before. That’s no exaggeration. He already holds the four highest-scoring games in the show’s history, and his $771,920 regular-season winnings surpass all but one player in the Jeopardy! firmament: Ken Jennings.

You remember Jennings. In 2004, he went on a 74-game, $2,520,700 romp, shattering Jeopardy! records along the way. No one since has lasted more than 20 games, and no one has come anywhere near as close to the money record, especially not this quickly. In fact, at this same point in his own streak, Jennings had accumulated less than half of Holzhauer’s haul so far. At this rate, Holzhauer will surpass Jennings by the end of May.

Statistically speaking, Jennings and Holzhauer are near mirrors. Jeopardy! home players keep tabs on what’s known as their Coryat score, named after two-day champion Karl Coryat. In a blog post written shortly after his 1996 appearance, Coryat suggested the best way to measure one’s progress was to exclude wagers—in Daily Doubles and the Final Jeopardy round, players can bet a portion of their winnings—from final tallies. Through 11 games, Jennings and Holzhauer have average Coryat scores of $29,127 and $29,400, respectively.

In the 15 years since his streak, Jennings has written books, launched a podcast, and cultivated a lively Twitter presence. WIRED spoke with the former champ about Holzhauer’s run, what makes a great Jeopardy! player, and what might happen when the two inevitably face off in some future Jeopardy! All-Star tournament. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

WIRED: As someone who has played more Jeopardy! than literally anyone, what are you seeing in James Holzhauer’s gameplay?

Ken Jennings: First of all, I’m just gobsmacked by James. It's absolutely insane what he's doing. Like, I thought I had seen everything on Jeopardy!. And this is something I would have thought was just impossible, these numbers. Statistically1, he’s playing at as high a level as anyone who’s ever played the game. And then he’s got these incredibly confident wagers. He’s maximizing money. He can make two or three times what any other player ever has with that same level of play, which again is top-shelf. He’s as good as anybody.

I’ve always wanted to see somebody play that way, you know? I remember as a kid doing the math and figuring out how much somebody could win on Jeopardy!, if they got every question, and got all the Daily Doubles last, and they bet everything on them. Like, wow, look at that number2. Did I actually think we would see someone try that? No, I did not.

Buzzy Cohen [the 2017 Tournament of Champions winner] said something similar: People know the Jeopardy! playbook. It’s just watching someone do it. And you had more chances than anyone to do that. I guess why—

Why not me?

Yeah, why not go as big3, given that you knew that was the way to do it?

James is maximizing outcomes, he’s maximizing winnings. It’s weird, but in hindsight that could not have been further from my mind. The fact that there was going to be a check, that didn’t seem real to me. I was playing a game show like I had on my couch. My top priority wasn’t maximizing winnings; it was to feel comfortable and have fun yelling answers at Alex [Trebek], like I do at home.