This professor of accounting has played in the World Series of Poker, been mugged in France, trekked through the rainforest in Peruf, been barred from a casino for card-counting, and won more than $80k on the show Jeapordy!
Ikawa has been at Hillsdale for 15 years—a quarter of his life. Every year, Hillsdale’s accounting club holds parties where they watch tapes of his appearances on Jeapordy! in 1990.
“We all cheer for Dr. Ikawa and boo the other people,” said Professor of Accounting Michael Sweeney. “It’s kind of a ritual for the accounting club.”
Ikawa was first on the show in 1990 and won five times in a row—the most you could win at that time. The next year, he was called back for a “Tournament of Champions,” in which he lost his round by a few thousand dollars. Finally, Ikawa was brought back one more time for a game in which winners from three different decades competed. He said he didn’t do so well that time.
“It’s definitely a young person’s game,” Ikawa said. Almost as important as knowing the facts is having the reflexes necessary to beat other players to the buzzer, which Ikawa said involves more than most people see on TV.
“What people at home don’t know is that you’re not allowed to ring in until they signal you to. And that’s where the hand-eye coordination comes into play.”
Ikawa said he used his $86,619 of winnings to put a new roof on his house and buy a leather-bound encyclopedia. He also spent some of it on travelling and gambling.
He goes to Las Vegas about twice a year where he plays Blackjack and participates in poker tournaments. A ticket to the World Series of Poker costs $10,000, but you can earn an entry by winning satellite tournaments. Ikawa started at a $10 satellite tournament, won entry to the next level up, and from there progressed to a third tournament where he won his ticket to the World Series.
“I think it’s every poker player’s dream to play in the World Series. So I got to do that for $10,” Ikawa said.
Ikawa won his first round in the Series, but lost in the second round on a hand he still remembers. Ikawa said he ran it through a simulator later and found out his chance of beating his opponent on that hand had been 70 percent.
Last January, Ikawa was barred from playing blackjack at a casino in Las Vegas because he was counting cards.
“It’s not cheating,” Ikawa says. “It’s just playing well. But casinos are allowed to throw you out if they think you’re playing too well.”
“They’re games of skill, and the mathematical aspects appeal to me, but I think at heart, it’s probably the same reason anyone gambles. It’s fun to gamble. You do it without any expectation of making serious money. It’s just fun,” he said.
For that reason, he isn’t bitter about being barred from Blackjack. “The story is worth more than I could have won playing,” he said.
Ikawa enjoys telling stories, and has quite a few, like the time a faith healer in the Philippines used a magic stone to ease the pain of his ribs that had cracked when a Chinese masseuse had tried to walk on his back in Guam. The pain did not stop immediately, but who knows how much worse it otherwise would have been, Ikawa said.
Ikawa also enjoys food-eating challenges. A sports bar in California once offered patrons this deal: if you can eat 50 extra hot buffalo wings in one sitting without any water, the wings are free. Ikawa took them up on the offer—every Wednesday, which prompted the restaurant to discontinue the promotion.
His most recent food challenge was an attempt to eat a 2.5 lb burger in Jackson along with a pound of french fries. Had he completed the challenge, he would have won a T-shirt. As it was, he hit his ceiling with about an ounce of burger to go.
“I still love to tease him about it because I know it bothers him,” said Sweeney, who was there at the time.
Ikawa plans on returning to the restaurant and completing the challenge, after a bit of training. He will also be sure not to make the mistake he made last time: eating lunch first.
Originally from Indianapolis, Ikawa has lived in or near Pittsburg, Los Angeles, and Chicago before finally settling in the bustling city of Hillsdale. He still commutes to Chicago regularly to visit his wife, who still lives there and works for an airline.
Her job helps make travel easier for him. This summer, Ikawa spent a month in Paris and visited Thailand.
While in Paris, he had the unfortunate experience of being mugged. “The thieves took my fake Rolex,” he said. “They didn’t take my billfold, they didn’t take my iPad or iPhone; they took my fake Rolex.”
As far as Jeopardy! goes, he said it’s a good way to get cred with students. He only wishes the show back then had been more like it is today. Now, winners get twice the cash they used to, and they can stay on until they lose, instead of being automatically retired after five victories.
“In later years they gave these people cars too,” Ikawa said wistfully. “I didn’t get any cars.”
