'Jeopardy!' superstar testing his gambling skills in the World Series of Poker

Fox News ^ | 23 June 2019 | David Aaro

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Jeopardy!" star James Holzhauer may have put down the buzzer, but now he's picking up his poker chips and heading to the Rio Convention Center in Las Vegas to test his luck in the World Series of Poker.

Holzhauer, 34, will participate in two events on Monday, the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em Super Turbo Bounty tournament and the $1,000 buy-in Tag Team No-Limit Hold’Em.

Poker isn't anything new to Holzhauer, who joked that he majored in the sport while enrolled at the University of Illinois, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. Holzhauer says he was convinced to enter by Hall of Fame poker player and commentator, 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 says he stopped playing online poker due to a government crackdown in 2011 and hasn't played in eight years.

[Keyhopper]

Just came back from a cruise in Alaska. I won a couple of hundred playing poker. First time I’ve ever came back from a vacation with more mo ey than when I left.

[Kickass Conservative]

Closest I ever got was 131 with the Money at 100.

I thought I would have a shot until they consolidated Tables. When I sat down at the new Table I realized I was the Short Stack with a Target on my back. Oh well.

If I only had the kind of Cards I had in the Qualifying Round the day before... If only...If Only...

Just last night I was only four numbers short of Winning Powerball. Oh well.

[zeestephen]

Re: To my uneducated eye, hold’em looks like a way to put luck back in the game.

Hold’em has been played in Las Vegas since the 1960s.

I think the “luck” factor is pretty much the same for all the popular poker games.

The difference between sports betting and poker is that all players in sports betting are assumed to have access to the same knowledge (unless they are cheating in some way).

In poker, it is essential to bluff and to correctly guess when you are being bluffed.

Catching the right card at the right time, or avoiding the wrong card at the wrong time, are essential, and, in my opinion, that depends very much on luck.

[TigerClaws]

First I remember seeing poker on TV was Gabe Kaplan.

Would love to see Stu Unger with a card cam. He was fearless. Would have been interesting to see also how he’d have to alter his style.

[EasySt]

"Holzhauer says he stopped playing online poker due to a
government crackdown in 2011 and hasn't played in eight
years."

I wonder if he was playing on our VGA fully automatic
multiplayer Texas Holdem tables in Second Life.

That's what stopped those.

[Garth Tater]

Luck is for amateurs.

[Terry Mross]

As they say “You don’t have to be the best player at the table. You just have to know who the best player is.”

[dsc]

“Catching the right card at the right time, or avoiding the wrong card at the wrong time, are essential, and, in my opinion, that depends very much on luck.”

Yes, that can’t be denied. However, through skillful play, a man can lose less when he doesn’t get the cards than he wins when he does.

[Graybeard58]

9-4 off suit? Toss that p.o.s. into the muck where it belongs!

[Graybeard58]

Being able to see all hole cards, makes a t.v. audience 100% experts.

[Keyhopper]

I love sitting down with these folks that get their game tips from TV.
They all do the same stupid crap.
I got better after my first million hands.

[Graybeard58]

For years I played Fri. nite 7 card stud with friends. We rotated houses where we played with the host providing snacks and soft drinks, if you wanted booze, bring your own. $3 limit plus 2 raises per card. Some decent pots and nobody got slaughtered financially.

Loved that game.

[Keyhopper]

We played at a local bar. 5$ to get in, 8 people to a table.
Pot was $20 and the other $20 went to the dealer.
We played for points county wide and had a tournament every 3 month.
Hit a straight flush to the king once
Odds for that hand like 300k to 1

[zeestephen]

Re: Luck is for amateurs.

In sports betting, I agree.

In poker, the professional game has become pure aggression played by 25 year old kamikazes.

If you don’t have good luck in contemporary poker, your finances won’t make it to age 26.

[Garth Tater]

Luck disappears as the number of hands dealt rises. With enough hands every player will find themselves on the "lucky" side of the deck just as often as they are on the "unlucky" side. Mathematicians call it regression to the mean. Poker players call it life and laugh at newbies on a roll that think that their particular spell of run-good is going to last. It can be a bit frustrating sitting through one of your own spells of run-bad but professionals know that over time making good decisions in tough situations, and not luck, is what matters. One of the signs of a pro at your table (and that you might want to ask for a table change) is his shrug and a grin when a two outer on the river snatches that big pot away from him and sends it to the other end of the table. A bad card on the river might look like bad luck to an amateur, but to a pro it's just a cost of doing business.

Young pros do tend to eat amateurs alive with their aggressive style of play, but that tactic becomes a money loser when they find themselves at the table with someone who knows how to counter it. Hint: it's not done with a higher level of aggression.

[zeestephen]

Ten years ago, before the New Wave of aggressive poker, I could name every over-40 elite poker player in the world.

Today, the only one I can think of is Phil Hellmuth.

Phil Ivey is past 40 now, but last I heard, he only plays in Asia since the two cheating scandals in London and Atlantic City.

Michael Mizrachi (Grinder) is 38 and still playing at a high level.

Bottom Line - the “old pros” like Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese do not exist anymore.

[Cvengr]

When in Vegas, always play the game with the best odds in your favor.

That’s why I always buy stock in the Casino.

[ops33]

Within a few days of James Holzhauer leaving Jeopardy the next group of contestants were back to the traditional top to bottom order of play and gutless wagers on Double Jeopardy. Boring as hell.

[VietVet876]

That’s because every gambling game other than poker is “negative expectation”. I.E., the odds are stacked in favor of the House. Poker is mano a mano where the house just gets a cut of the ante. James should prove to be an intimidating opponent.

[Hot Tabasco]

I never would have thought that poker could be a televised event.....but then again, with the right commentators, senior citizen BINGO could become a hit.