WSOP Main Event runner-up Steven Jones set to compete in Squid Game

The former 2023 World Series of Poker runner-up Steven Jones is in a very different game this November as he takes on 455 other players in a battle to be the last one standing.

Steven Jones shocked the poker world in 2023 when he made it all the way to the heads-up battle to become the world champion. Up against Daniel Weinman, Jones fell just short of immortality, winning $6.5 million as runner-up while Weinman walked away with $12.1 million, a record score as winner of the Main Event in poker history. Now, Jones has the opportunity to become over $4.5m richer and he doesn’t even have to deal with the pain of set over set.

The long-time poker professional will be a key player in November’s second series of the Netflix show Squid Game: The Challenge. While the Squid Game drama ended definitively when its third and final series was broadcast earlier this year, the reality TV game show of the same name has only been broadcast once, almost two years ago. Back in 2023, the winner walked away with $4.56 million, and that prize is on the line again, if Jones can outsmart, outlast, and outthink his 455 rivals to become champion.

The initial series was a huge success and saw 220 million people watch the action in the first three weeks of it being on screen. The Arizona-born Jones will doubtless be a big threat in mental and emotional games, as the players battle to negotiate each challenge in the same manner that the fictional Seong Gi-hun did in the original Netflix series of the same name.

A new challenge

Back in the first series of Squid Game: The Challenge, many British players took part in the action, eventually falling before the dramatic finale saw the winner decided on an amusingly twisted version of rock, paper, scissors. The second series promises more deception, bigger shocks, and more drama than the first series — all things Jones will be a natural at dealing with.

While no poker player has yet competed on Squid Game: The Challenge, the realm of reality TV is becoming populated by dozens of famous poker players. Not only did stars such as Alex Jacob crush Jeopardy!, Jean-Robert Bellande was great on Survivor, as was Garrett Adelstein. The king of them all, however, might be ‘Boston Rob’ Mariano, who has set a record for taking part in Survivor on the most occasions and also appeared in the U.S. version of The Traitors.

You can watch the trailer for Series 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge right here.