Chris Moneymaker
"First-prize at the World Series of Poker is a million bucks. Does it have my name on it? I don't know. But, I'm gonna find out." was a quote by Mike McDermott in the movie Rounders. It looks like one particular person took that to heart, Chris Moneymaker.
Chris was an accountant when he won a $86 Pokerstars online satellite tournament in 2003, earning him a chance to get into the WSOP Main Event. He finished top three in the subsequent satellite tournament, which granted him entry into the WSOP main event. The entry cost $10,000, and there were 838 other entrants he would be competing against in the largest poker tournament held by the WSOP. First-prize wasn't a million dollars anymore; it was two and a half million.
It was a big shock that Moneymaker made it to the final table as the chip leader. He was an amateur player; this tournament was his first-ever live poker tournament. He already outlasted pros such as Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, and Phil Hellmuth, but he would still need to contend with more professionals. Amongst his final competitors were a previous WSOP winner Dan Harrington, and Amir Vahedi, who won No-Limit Texas hold'em player of the year in 2001.
Eventually, Chris and another pro, Sam Farha, were the final two players. But, unbelievably, Chris took home the grand prize. He became the first online poker player to win the World Series of Poker.
Social Media
Quotes
This is beyond fairy tale, It's inconceivable!
Chad Norman
I’m just a guy who got a little lucky and played really good poker for one week. And I picked the best week in history to do that.
Chris Moneymaker
References
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Is Chris Moneymaker's Win STILL the Biggest WSOP Upset Ever?
However, there wouldn't be a place at the final table for Ivey as he was eliminated in spectacular fashion by Moneymaker himself. As chip leader, he flopped trip queens against Ivey, only for Ivey to turn a full house with pocket nines.
Poker News
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Life and legacy of Chris Moneymaker, 15 years after his WSOP main event win changed poker forever
It was the culmination of an impossible story that by all measures never should have happened. Moneymaker's fortuitous road to the 2003 WSOP main event title nearly got derailed at several junctures. First, he thought he was playing a sit-n-go on PokerStars that offered a cash prize, only to discover after he'd won that he'd instead earned a $650 WSOP main event satellite seat.
ESPN
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When We Held Kings
The oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which an amateur named Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million and the poker boom was born
Grantland
