Late-night comedy writer J.R. Havlan enters the 2015 WSOP World Series of Poker Main Event

J.R. Havlan won eight Emmy Awards writing for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and currently writes for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

His boss is on vacation for the week, and Havlan will try to earn some extra cash gambling in Las Vegas. As in millions of dollars in cash and a fancy bracelet at the Main Event of the 2015 World Series of Poker. His first day of action is today.

Havlan even made some fun videos before making the trek to Vegas, in a webseries he has called “POKER STORY.” In the first episode, he explains that he plays no-limit poker sparingly, but manages to cash out half of the time, mostly in Atlantic City. He won his seat in a charity event, and explains that in these videos, too. The second video describes his “WSOP Workout” to stay fit while sitting all of the hours he hopes to remain in play.

In earlier first-day groups on Sunday and Monday, actors Jennifer Tilly and James Woods managed to survive with chip counts to spare.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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