James Holzhauer, the professional sports gambler who became a national sensation when he won more than $2 million on “Jeopardy!” this spring, returned to his roots Monday when he made his debut at the World Series of Poker.
“I decided to enter because Mike Sexton contacted me and offered to sponsor my buy-ins," Holzhauer told the Review-Journal in an email. "I don’t have any plans to enter another WSOP event beyond those two. 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 told the newspaper he stopped playing online poker years ago.
“Honestly, my poker skills are so rusty that my main goal is to get lucky," he said.
In the immortal words of Joe Maddon, try not to suck. #WSOP pic.twitter.com/RrXyeJXlhx
— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) June 24, 2019
Former @Jeopardy champion @James_Holzhauer was playing a new type of game on Monday! ♥️♠️♦️♣️
— FOX5 Las Vegas (@FOX5Vegas) June 24, 2019
DETAILS: https://t.co/UbxRxwMfHN pic.twitter.com/R4dQYPRNx5
Holzhauer — who won $2.46 million on “Jeopardy!” before losing to University of Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher earlier this month — said he plans to donate half of his WSOP winnings to charity. Holzhauer recently donated $1,109.14 (a reference to his 4-year-old daughter’s birthday) to a pancreatic cancer walk in the name of “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Holzhauer said he and his wife have donated about $300,000 to charities.
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