James Holzhauer has become a household name as of late due to his recent success on the popular game show, ‘Jeopardy!’. The player amassed $2.46 million while playing on the game show and will now be taking his talents to the poker table to compete in two World Series of Poker events.

WSOP:

After doing quite well on ‘Jeopardy!’, the gamer has set his sights on another challenge. Holzhauer will compete in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty tournament and the $1,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em event.

Holzhauer is no stranger to the game of poker as he played all the time while at the University of Illinois. He actually played semi-professionally in the early 2000s online but stopped when the government crackdown took place in April 2011. He has not played professional since that time. The Las Vegas poker tournament series will be the first major attempt at a poker tournament for the player in quite some time.

According to Foxnews.com…

Holzhauer decided to play in the WSOP for quite an interesting reason. Mike Sexton, a poker pro and respected figure in the poker industry, contacted him and offered to sponsor the buy-ins for him to compete. The gamer will compete in the two events above and has stated he doesn’t have any plans to compete in any further events.

He is friends with poker pro Ben Yu, who has pointed out that the ‘Jeopardy!’ star has a ‘phenomenal gambling mind.’ Holzhauer joked that Yu wants him to play in the WSOP just so he can take his chips! The two are close friends and Yu is one of many friends who has encouraged Holzhauer to compete in the WSOP.

Donating Winnings:

The WSOP competitor is smart and also charitable. He already donated around $300,000 from his stint on ‘Jeopardy!’ to charity and plans on donating 50% of his WSOP winnings to charity as well.

The 2019 World Series of Poker kicked off at the end of May, set to continue through July. The Rio All-Suite Casino and Hotel plays host to the yearly poker tournament with 89 event on the schedule this year.