{"id":25959,"date":"2021-01-08T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=25959"},"modified":"2024-02-28T09:52:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:52:37","slug":"what-ever-happened-to-chris-moneymaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/what-ever-happened-to-chris-moneymaker\/","title":{"rendered":"What Ever Happened To Chris Moneymaker?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chris Moneymaker may not be the greatest poker player to have ever lived in terms of results, but there is hardly a more important name in poker history<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was his unprecedented victory in the 2003 WSOP\nMain Event that set off a chain of events that created what\u2019s known today as\nthe \u201cpoker boom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legendary win over Sam Farha<\/a> in the final heads up skirmish of the Main Event created the famous \u201cMoneymaker effect\u201d, giving hope to millions of people worldwide that they, too, could replicate his success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an unknown accountant from Tennessee to win\nthe staple poker tournament and pocket $2,500,000 in the process was a dream\ncome true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, to make it all even better, Moneymaker\ndidn’t pay $10,000 for the privilege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He won his seat in the Main Event via an $86\nsatellite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Norman Chad, the legendary poker commentator<\/a>, who perhaps best described it after the final hand was over and Farha was eliminated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is beyond fairy tale. It’s inconceivable!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, for the time, it truly was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only after Moneymaker\u2019s epic success that armies of wannabes started flooding online poker sites<\/a> looking to make their dreams come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Moneymaker knew that his life would\nchange at that point, but he probably had no idea how much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He probably couldn’t have imagined he’d become\nan icon of sorts, the man that many would look up to in the years to come,\nlooking to replicate his success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what ever happened to Chris Moneymaker?\nWhat has he been up to after playing his role in helping pull poker out of\nobscurity and turning it into a global phenomenon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was It Destiny?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before moving on to what happened after, it\u2019s\ninteresting to look at before and a story about Moneymaker\u2019s success that not\nmany poker fans know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future Main Event winner indeed won his\nseat through an $86 satellite on PokerStars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, what’s not widely known is that Chris\ndidn’t actually want to win the seat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talks about this in his book that describes\nhis journey to victory. Namely, after going through the $86 event, he found\nhimself in a $650 tournament awarding seats to the Main Event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the event got four-handed, there were\nthree $10,000 tickets up for grabs while fourth-place finisher would take home\n$8,000 in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moneymaker needed money (no pun intended), and he\nplanned to simply give his chips away and bust out, locking up the cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only because of his friend who talked\nhim out of it and promised to give him $5,000 for half of the action in the\ntournament that Chris had changed his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering how impactful Moneymaker\u2019s victory\nwas and how big of a role it played for the expansion of poker, it\u2019s hard to\nescape the feeling that destiny had somehow been involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had Moneymaker thrown away his stack, he wouldn\u2019t have been there for the 2003 Main Event. There would\u2019ve been no epic heads up battle against Sam Farha, and the term \u201cMoneymaker effect\u201d (and all that it entails) would have never been born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Image: YouTube<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The friend never delivered on his promise, but\nit was too late for Moneymaker to change his mind. He’d already secured his\nseat in the Main Event, and there was no turning back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, he got his father and another friend to\ninvest $2,000 each. With that money, he financed his trip to Las Vegas, and the\nrest is, as they say, history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poker Success And Personal Struggles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 win was huge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t just the money he won in the\ntournament but a host of other opportunities that suddenly started to open up.\nHe was soon signed by PokerStars and became one of the room\u2019s main ambassadors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His lifestyle had pretty much turned\nupside-down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He traveled the world and played in poker\ntournaments, with his buy-in and travel expenses often covered by PokerStars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris enjoyed it very much \u2013 not just the\nplaying part but also everything that came with it: traveling, partying, and\nenjoying life to the fullest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife at the time wasn\u2019t nearly as happy,\nthough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her, the sudden lifestyle change was simply\ntoo much. She couldn’t keep up with all of it, and, eventually, the two decided\nto go their separate ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moneymaker admits that he was perhaps enjoying\nthe lifestyle a little too much – but who could blame him? It was a dream come\ntrue that no one could have prepared him for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the divorce cost him quite a bit, it\nwasn\u2019t too hard for Moneymaker to get back on his feet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his PokerStars sponsorship and all sorts\nof endorsement deals coming his way, he managed to rebuild his finances and\nnever had to stop playing poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning A New Page<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years after his epic victory,\nMoneymaker met his new wife, Christina Wren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christina knew what she was signing up for marrying a high-profile professional poker player<\/a>, so their relationship was set on different foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Chris struggled to find a good balance\nbetween his professional and private life, and the new marriage wasn’t without\nits hiccups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after a few years of this lifestyle,\nMoneymaker was ready to turn a new page. He wasn\u2019t going to stop playing poker,\nof course, but he decided that the life of partying and going out almost every\nnight was simply too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2018 interview with ESPN, Moneymaker\nexplained that his priorities had been much different for nearly a decade.\nAfter busting out of a tournament or wrapping up play for the night, he prefers\nto go to his room to watch Netflix, study some poker, or play video games with\nhis son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same interview, he shared that the\nhardest part of being a professional player and a family man was coming back\nhome after weeks, only to let your spouse know you\u2019d lost thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s very hard for most people to wrap their heads around this notion, and without being a player themselves, they simply can’t understand how brutal variance<\/a> can be, especially in tournaments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, Moneymaker has managed to work it all\nout. Today, he lives in Tennessee with his wife Christina and their three\nchildren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moneymaker\u2019s Results After 2003<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Chris Moneymaker\u2019s impact on poker is\nundeniable, his actual skills as a player have often been questioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many, he was the one-hit-wonder, a\n\u201cluckbox\u201d that managed to find his way to the prestigious title somehow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His official results don’t say too much to\ncounter this hypothesis, as the $2,500,000 win remains by far his biggest score\nto date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his entire career, Moneymaker has\naccumulated $3.9 million in live tournament cashes, so $1.4 million over the\ninitial $2,500,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His second-largest score was $300,000 for the runner-up finish in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Image: YouTube<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When he qualified for the Main Event, Chris\nwasn’t a professional player. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a full-time, stay-at-home accountant\nwith a passion for the game. There is no doubt that his run in the Main Event\nwas very lucky, but that can be said for every Main Event winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re not going to win in a huge tournament\nunless your luck is in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of those who know Moneymaker, including\nthe fellow-player and the Main Event champion Joe Hachem, maintains that people\ntend to underestimate how good Chris really is at poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the man himself, he doesn\u2019t seem to care\ntoo much either way. Moneymaker is well aware of his reputation, and he knows\nthat for some, he\u2019ll always just be a \u201cluckbox.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t change the role he played in the\npoker expansion, and he believes it often helps him at the tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until very recently, he was still a member of the PokerStars Team Pro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room’s roster has experienced quite a few changes in recent years, including parting ways with Daniel Negreanu, their biggest and best-known ambassador, and now Moneymaker has also left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Man Of The People<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chris may have struggled with his new position\nduring the first few years, but he never let the poker fame go to his head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he got to spend time with some of the\nbest players and has certainly learned a lot about poker over the years, his\nattitude towards the game has never changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the World Series, he\u2019s often found in\nsmaller daily events. While many players, especially Main Event winners, would\nsee this as something below their status, Chris seems to enjoy it a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although buy-ins are much smaller than those\nfor bracelet events, he says the overall atmosphere is much more relaxed, and\npeople who come to play seem to enjoy the game much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, with the lower level of competition, he recognizes there is still a lot of money to be made in these tournaments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Image: YouTube<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whatever his real motivation might be, by doing\nthis, Moneymaker continues to play his role as a poker ambassador. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many players playing in these tournaments,\nit must be a great pleasure to sit next to such a famous pro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It goes to show that poker isn\u2019t just about the\nmoney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, big prizes attract players, but\nfinding a good balance between the money you can win and the actual enjoyment\nyou can get from playing is just as important for those who make poker their\ncareer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hall of Fame \u201cControversy\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You’d think that the man who played such an\nimportant role in poker’s growth would be a member of the Poker Hall of Fame,\nbut you’d be wrong. Moneymaker is still waiting his turn, and, as the rules\nstand right now, he might never get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was nominated in 2016, but his nomination\ndidn\u2019t get enough support. Instead, Todd Brunson and Carlos Mortensen were\ninducted that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with Moneymaker’s induction is that\nhe’s different from all other players. Looking at his results, they’re quite\nmodest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, many other names seem more deserving in the\nplayers’ category \u2013 players who have been around for much longer and have had\nmuch better results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, he\u2019s never been a\n\u201ccontributor\u201d as such. His contributions came as a byproduct of his play. So,\nhe doesn\u2019t quite fit in that category, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moneymaker himself doesn’t have a strong\nopinion on the topic either way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, he’d be happy to receive such an\nhonor, but he’s aware that he’ll forever be a part of poker history no matter\nwhat. His legacy is simply too big and significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering all this, perhaps the nomination\ncommittee should come up with the exception of some sort to officially make\nMoneymaker\u2019s name a part of that history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t think too many people would mind it as\na one-off, and I believe it could only be good for poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Is Chris Moneymaker Now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Chris
Image: YouTube<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On New Year’s Eve, Moneymaker announced via his Twitter that he’d be parting ways with PokerStars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2020 has been a year. Sad news. Thanks for everything \u2066@PokerStars<\/a>\u2069 pic.twitter.com\/tT1rZ12QGr<\/a><\/p>— Chris Moneymaker \u2b55 (@CMONEYMAKER) December 31, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>