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Answer: What is the worst time to finally make it on Jeopardy!?

People have been telling Megan McLeod she should be on the long-running game show since her Reach for the Top days at Nepean High School. She didn’t know she would be competing against “maybe the best player who has ever played the game.”

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In an episode that was shot in February but aired Monday, McLeod went up against streaking pro sports gambler James Holzhauer who has a take-no-prisoners style of play honed by rigorous training. Holzhauer mines the bottom of the board for the most valuable clues, switching from category to category to unearth the Daily Double clues that let players wager their winnings. Then he bets it all.

“You can tell by my face — I was in shock,” McLeod, 41, said Wednesday at the ByTowne Cinema, where she’s general manager.

“I guess I’m part of Jeopardy! history — just not for the reason I hoped.”

McLeod finished third with $1,000 to second place finisher Kevin Bohannon, a Michigan cell biologist, who won $2,000. Holzhauer crushed them both, winning more than $45,000 in that game. Going into Thursday’s episode, he’s won nearly $567,000 in just nine games. He’s now behind only Ken Jennings for total prize money, who amassed more than $2.5 million in 74 straight victories.