Before stealing the national spotlight as the champion of 32 straight "Jeopardy!" games and becoming one of the top earners in show history, James Holzhauer was a professional sports gambler.
On Monday, he will return to his roots, albeit on a different stage.
Three weeks after his first and only "Jeopardy!" loss in 2019, an episode that drew 14.5 million viewers, the trivia sensation will make his debut at the World Series of Poker, the annual Las Vegas competition consisting of 90 different bracelet events.
That's according to Todd Dewey of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reported Friday that "Jeopardy James" will participate in two events at Vegas' Rio Convention Center on Monday, starting with a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty tournament at 11 a.m.
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"I decided to enter because (Poker Hall of Famer) Mike Sexton contacted me and offered to sponsor my buy-ins," Holzhauer told the Review-Journal. "I don't have any plans to enter another WSOP event beyond those two."
The 34-year-old Holzhauer, who has been betting on pro sports for more than a decade and appeared in two other game shows before his record-breaking "Jeopardy!" run, added that he "played online poker semi-professionally early in the 2000s" but doesn't "intend to make a career of it now" -- mainly because he's unsure if he'd be "good enough ... to justify forgoing other opportunities."
Fifty percent of any winnings he takes in at the WSOP will go to charity, per the Review-Journal. Holzhauer and his wife, Melissa, have reportedly donated about $300,000 of their $2.46 million "Jeopardy!" haul to various charities in the last month. The $2.46 million prize total stands as the third highest in "Jeopardy!" history behind just Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.
