Chris Moneymaker: The Man who Changed Online Poker

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What do you remember about the year 2003?

Maybe you remember President George W. Bush in a flight suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, where he gave the infamous speech declaring “Mission Accomplished” and proclaiming the war in Iraq was officially over.

Or maybe it was the news that Martha Stewart and her broker were being indicted for insider trading and obstructing a federal investigation.

Or perhaps you remember it as the year the largest hailstone ever recorded fell in Aurora, Nebraska.

No matter, for many poker players 2003 was the year then unknown Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the popularity of poker exploded. There’s even a name for this phenomenon; it’s called the “Moneymaker Effect.”

Chris Moneymaker was working two jobs at that time, enjoyed betting on sports and playing blackjack, though he admitted he sucked at both of them.

A friend introduced him to online poker and after six months of the usual up and down swings, he was actually beginning to make a little money at it.

One fateful day he was playing at online poker mega site PokerStars.com, had only $60 in his account at the time, and entered a single table tournament for $39 that he thought was a cash sit ‘n’ go for $39.

When the tourney was over, Moneymaker was actually upset because there was no money in his account for the win, only a notice on the screen indicating he had won a seat into a $615 super satellite for the WSOP, to be held the following week.

When playing in that satellite, he did everything he could to come in fourth, because 4^th place was good for $1000 cash, while the top three places won seats to the WSOP. Moneymaker wanted the cash, yet won a seat regardless.

Incredibly, the 2003 WSOP was Moneymaker’s first live tournament, being held at the time at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. The place was packed with spectators, though there were only a paltry 839 entrants into poker’s number one game compared with 7,319 for the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

All the top guns of poker were in attendance. Men Nguyen won a bracelet that year, as did Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Erik Seidel among others.

But none of these pros made the final table. Still, among the nine players Moneymaker faced in the Main Event were the 1996 Pot-Limit Omaha Champion “Sam” Farha, and Dan Harrington, who won the 1995 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship.

It came down to a heads up match between Moneymaker and Farha, with Chris eventually winning with a full house, pulling down a purse of two and a half mil USD.

His tale of entering for $39 dollars, in his first live tourney, taking on all best in the world and coming away with all that cash provoked a tidal wave of interest in poker all around the globe that continues today, seven years and a whole lot of hands later.

Chris Moneymaker is a member of Team PokerStars Pro

2003 WSOP Final table

Place          Name                            Prize

1st          Chris Moneymaker          $2,500,000

2nd          Sam Farha                            $1,300,000

3rd          Dan Harrington                   $650,000

4th          Jason Lester                   $440,000

5th          Tomer Benvenisti                   $320,000

6th          Amir Vahedi                   $250,000

7th          Young Pak                            $200,000

8th          David Grey                            $160,000

9th          David Singer                   $120,000