WSOP Jeopardy James update

(PRESS RELEASE) -- “Jeopardy” James Holzhauer was off to a great start in his first event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), but the Poker Gods didn’t cooperate and Holzhauer was eliminated just short of collecting prize money.

Holzhauer entered WSOP Event #56, a $1,500 buy-in Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em one-day tournament. The event featured 1,867 entrants creating a $2,520,450 prize pool. The winner will walk away with $260,335 and the WSOP gold bracelet, but unfortunately that won’t be Holzhauer.

Players started with 25,000 in chips and Holzhauer had played 14 levels of play while getting his chip stack up to 86,000 with some gifted play. However, trouble struck in Level 15 for Holzhauer. He looked down at a pair of sevens, and with forced bets at 2,000-4,000, Holzhauer raised to 8,000. A player behind him went all in and Holzhauer called. It looked like good news for Holzhauer as his opponent turned over a pair of fives, but the dealer dealt out the first three community cards and the first card seen was another five, giving Holzhauer’s opponent three of a kind fives and besting Holzhauer’s pair of sevens.

On the very next hand with Holzhauer’s chip stack crippled, he got the remainder of his chips in the middle of the pot holding king-jack. More good news for Holzhauer as he was ahead when his opponent tabled king-ten. However, once again the Poker Gods had other ideas and a ten on the board gave his opponent a pair of tens to eliminate Holzhauer.

Holzhauer finished in 454th place, with the top 281 places receiving prize money. Holzhauer did outlast more than 75% of his opponents, a very impressive showing for someone entering his very first WSOP tournament, but it was not enough to help is charity of choice, the homeless teen charity in Nevada called Project150. The top 15% of entrants in WSOP events earn prize money, meaning Holzhauer was just 10% away from some prize money.

However, Holzhauer’s spirits were high, saying “I didn’t expect to last this long. That’s poker.” He left one tournament room for another here at the cavernous Rio Convention Center at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and immediately went to join his teammate, Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton in Event #57, the $1,000 buy-in Tag-Team No-Limit Hold’em tournament, where Sexton started play for the team.