Jeopardy! champion Grace Biermann spoke out about her surprising wagers after she won. The librarian and writer took home $32,000, but that didn’t come without risky wagers.

When she found the first Daily Double, Biermann, from Valparaiso, Indiana, wagered $1,400 when she had $3,400. She got it correct, which brought her up to $4,800.

Biermann was still in the lead by the end of the round. She did not find the second DD, but she did find the third closer to the end of the game.

With $19,200 in her bank, she wagered $10,000. Biermann got the clue correct, which brought her up to $29,200. She ended the game with $30,000.

Her opponents were way behind her, so Biermann decided to go small in Final Jeopardy and wager only $2,000. Since she got the clue right, she ended with $32,000.

Biermann explained her wagers on Reddit. “I’ve seen a lot of people wondering about my wagering decisions (some more politely than others), and I wanted to give a little bit more context for them.  (Sorry this is a few days late—it’s been a pretty overwhelming week!),” she wrote.

For the first DD, she explained that she should have gone for the full $2,000, but was nervous. “Second DD in game 1: yes, this was the really big one.  I had $19,200 and bet $10,000 — my opponents had $7,800 and $7,000.  I was a little surprised by how controversial this wager has been, but then again, when I watched this episode on Tuesday I found myself wondering what I was thinking at the time and why I went *that* big.  I think there were a few reasons for this — as I said in the post-game chat, I spent some time before I filmed wondering why Jeopardy! dominance seems to be as gendered as it is, and one of my main guesses was that women aren’t as aggressive in their gameplay and wagering.  I’m naturally pretty anxious and pretty cautious, but I knew that was not how I wanted to play Jeopardy! I wanted to take big swings, have faith in my ability to answer almost every question on the board, and see what happened.  As I watched a lot of episodes in the days before filming, I would practice giving my own wager whenever a Daily Double appeared, and I always tended to aim high,” she wrote.

For Final Jeopardy, Biermann did not bet a lot because she wanted to keep most of her money and she was unsure about the category. The champion lost her second game to Dean Zach. For that game, Biermann wagered everything but $1 from her $14,400 total.

“FJ in game 2: I had $14,400 and bet $14,399 — my opponents had $2400 and $36,000.  I’ve seen Many complaints about this wager, and I can understand why people were surprised (and worse).  I think the main issue here is that I had a different priority at this point in the game than many viewers apparently did.  Most people have said, ‘You had second place locked up, so why throw that away?’ That’s true, but second place was not my main goal — if there was any chance of winning, I wanted to go after it.  And I thought there was a slight possibility of winning,” Biermann explained.

Jeopardy!, Season 43, September 2026, check local listings