Chris Moneymaker has dusted off his wraparound shades and is making a run at a second World Series of Poker Main Event championship.
He first turned poker on its head in 2003: coming from out of nowhere, winning the WSOP, earning $2.5 million, and inspiring legions of kids — including reigning superstars such as Tom “durrr” Dwan and Andrew Roble — to quit college and take up cards. Now, after a streak of bad years in which he was all but written off, Moneymaker ranks 12th out of 1,000 remaining players (the Series started with 6,650 entrants).
It’s particularly stunning because since Moneymaker’s 2003 victory, his poker tournament career has been lackluster. So much so that PokerStars, the online gambling sight that signed him to a sponsorship deal before he had even won the 2003 tournament, dropped him in December 2020.
“They finally realized that the Moneymaker ship didn’t sail,” Peter Alson, a player and author of “Take Me to the River: A Wayward and Perilous Journey to the World Series of Poker,” told The Post. “Moneymaker was never the greatest poker player and he would be the first to admit it. He is a good poker player who hit on all cylinders during his 2003 run. But that is what it takes to win the World Series.”
Moneymaker, now 45, earned his way into the 2003 Series after finishing first in a $40 satellite tournament — the prize was a $10,000 tournament seat — on the then-nascent PokerStars. He was in debt at the time and came close to selling off his entry. Instead, at 27, went to Las Vegas and became a legend.
But, even then, as he heralded in a new age of poker, Moneymaker did not exactly engender respect from big name guys like Doyle Brunson and Sammy Farha — who finished second to Moneymaker in 2003 and, still sore four years later, grumbled to this writer, “I was so tired I was practically in a coma.”
“People keep telling me I need to win another big tournament to prove that it wasn’t a fluke,” Moneymaker told me in 2003 when I interviewed him for Cigar Aficionado. “Right now I am more interested in holding onto my money.”
Whether or not the former accountant did the latter is uncertain. But he did not manage to win another major tournament.
“What’s significant is that Moneymaker put poker on the map,” said Alson, noting that his fantastic surname did not hurt. “It’s a high water mark to make another showing in the Main Event. There hasn’t been a repeat winner since Johnny Chan in 1988.”
Though Moneymaker had a lucrative deal with PokerStars and probably did not have to pay his tournament entries, the game was not necessarily kind to him over the years. He’s aced some $1.4 million since the 2003 windfall, but, according to Alson, if he had to pay his entry fees, “he would probably be a slightly losing player” — and that does not even account for travel expenses.
Moneymaker, who used to be known for partying and often having a bottle of beer within reach, admitted as much to ESPN: “Everyone sees the glamour side of poker, but it is very hard to come home to your wife after being away for a couple of weeks and then tell her you lost thousands of dollars,” he said. “It is very tough to share the ups and downs with your spouse.”
It’s amazing that he has a shot at shutting up the naysayers. “I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see Moneymaker up there,” said Alson. “If he makes the final table, which is still a long shot, it will be the biggest thing for poker since the last time Moneymaker won it.”
