Chris Moneymaker
Chris Moneymaker is the
aptly named (yes, that’s his real name) winner of the
2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. He is largely
credited with helping to start the online poker and
World Series of Poker mania. Moneymaker exemplified the
everyday poker-playing dreamer who is long on hopes but
short on money and experience. The fact is that Chris
had absolutely no live tournament experience walking
into the WSOP and instead walked out a poker World
Champion. The first of the Poker Stars trio of Champs,
Moneymaker turned a humble $39 satellite at the online
poker site into a $2.5 million win at the Main Event
against a then-record 839 players.
His WSOP win was so monumental because the “sport” had
largely been dominated by the pros up until that point.
To TV viewers, Chris was an average guy… just like them.
By winning the biggest poker tournament in the world,
Chris set off a barrage of amateurs who wondered, “If
Moneymaker can do it, why can’t I?” His win was one of
the major reasons new poker players flocked to the game
(especially online games) and dreamed about poker
immortality and huge prizes. We’ve seen online poker
grow to enormous status in our society and watched the
WSOP turn into an absolute spectacle with massive fields
and prize pools.
An accountant by trade who earned about $40,000 per year
until the WSOP, Moneymaker has a Masters Degree from the
University of Tennessee and he later recalled those days
as some of the best in his life on FSN’s Poker
Superstars. You can credit his grandmother’s bridge
games, his father’s love of blackjack, and the film
Rounders with introducing him into the game. With a
casino cardroom hours away from him home, he turned to
Poker Stars as a new poker player. The rest is history.
I give Chris a lot of credit for his accomplishments. He
discusses his first World Series of Poker experience as
a mixture of excitement and self-consciousness, but not
nervousness. After all, this was his first live
tournament. He remained collected on the first couple of
days of the Big One. Probably starting from Rounders,
one of Chris’ poker heroes was Johnny Chan. By Day 3 on
the Main Event, Chris made it to an ESPN-featured table
and was mortified when Chan had to remind him that it
was his turn in a hand because he was taking too long.
Of course, he goes on to win the event capped with a
beautiful bluff at the final table against seasoned
veteran Sammy Farha.
Even though everyone viewed him as a lucky amateur, the
fact is that he played an excellent week of poker and is
a talented player. Since his win, he’s done quite well
on the major tournament circuit finishing at the final 2
tables in 3 major events in 2004. The fact is that Chris
Moneymaker probably would’ve been a successful
tournament player in his own right given the opportunity
to do so. The 2003 WSOP gave him that opportunity. From
interviews and TV coverage, he seems like a soft-spoken
everyday guy who’s taking his celebrity status in
stride.
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