After being forced to fold his Jeopardy career just short of breaking Ken Jennings’ winnings record, James Holzhauer is prepared to go all-in on another game.
On Monday in Las Vegas, Holzhauer will try his hand at the poker tables during two events at the World Series of Poker.
The Jeopardy champ will compete in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty event and the $1,000 buy-in Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em event with 50 percent of his winnings going to charity should he cash-in at either event.
Of the $2.46 million Holzhauer won during his 32-game winning streak, about $300,000 has already been given to various charities by the Las Vegas resident and his wife Melissa.
The 35-year-old told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he is participating in the WSOP events at the invitation of veteran card shark 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. “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.”
Though he played online poker while attending the University of Illinois, Holzhauer said he hasn’t played high-stakes games since the government cracked down on illegal internet poker in 2011.
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