He won’t go down in history as one of the greats of the game, but few people have played such a significant role in poker’s rise over the past decade as Chris Moneymaker. In fact, it was Moneymaker more than anyone else who kick-started the global poker boom following his famous victory in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.
An accountant from Nashville, Tennessee, the then 27-year-old won his way into the Main Event that year via a US$39 satellite tournament on PokerStars, then turned the opportunity into a US$2.5 million payday as he outlasted a field of 839 players to claim the title.
While the fact that he boasts the best name in the business no doubt helped attract the media’s attention, it was Moneymaker’s rags to riches story that captured the imaginations of players across the world with a whole new generation taking up the game in the hope of emulating his stunning feat.
The impact was remarkable. From 839 players in 2003, a whopping 2,576 took part in the 2004 WSOP Main Event, then 5,619 in 2005 and a record 8,773 in 2006. His victory also catapulted him into the realm of poker superstar with the game’s sudden rise in popularity creating a handful of poker “celebrities”. Until then, the idea that a poker player could become a household name seemed absurd.
Although he hasn’t gone on to achieve anything like his 2003 success since, Moneymaker remains a regular on the tournament scene around the world with a couple of notable results including runner-up finishes in the WPT’s Bay 101 Shooting Star in 2004 for US$200,000 and the NBC Heads-Up Championship in 2011 for US$300,000. More importantly, his legacy will remain for many years to come, for no matter what the future holds Chris Moneymaker will always be known as the man who brought poker to the masses.
