'Jeopardy!' star James Holzhauer to play in World Series of Poker
James Holzhauer is suddenly $2,464,216 richer after the “Jeopardy!” win streak that captivated the nation. Now, the 34-year-old is going for even more money at home in Las Vegas.
From ‘Jeopardy!’ to the World Series of Poker
Holzhauer is set to participate in two events at the World Series of Poker on Monday, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. First, he’ll compete in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty on Monday morning. Hours later, he’ll enter the $1,000 buy-in Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em event.
Despite his “Jeopardy!” riches, Holzhauer apparently won’t even be paying his own buy-ins thanks to his tag team partner, Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton:
“I decided to enter because Mike Sexton contacted me and offered to sponsor my buy-ins. I don’t have any plans to enter another WSOP event beyond those two,” Holzhauer told the Review-Journal in an email. “I played online poker semi-professionally in the early 2000s, but I don’t intend to make a career of it now, as I’m sure I wouldn’t be good enough at it to justify forgoing other opportunities.”
Holzhauer reportedly plans to donate 50 percent of any winnings to charity, one of which may be a pancreatic cancer cause given his past donations in support of "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek.
Even though Holzhauer is known for excelling in “Jeopardy!” to a historic degree and previously paid his bills as a professional sports gambler, the Illinois native is no novice when it comes to poker.
He once joked that he “majored in online poker” at the University of Illinois, though Holzhauer told the Review-Journal that he hasn’t played big-stakes poker since the federal government cracked down on illegal internet poker sites in 2011:
“I stopped playing online poker due to a combination of the UIGEA legislation and realizing that I could make more money with less effort by betting sports,” he said. “Honestly, my poker skills are so rusty that my main goal is to get lucky.”
We’re going to go ahead and guess Holzhauer’s definition of “lucky” is similar to what he used to find those Daily Doubles. With him, there’s always some math involved.
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