Chris Moneymaker
Chris Moneymaker
Christopher Bryan Moneymakeris an American poker player who won the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker. His 2003 win is said to have "revolutionized poker" because he was the "first person to become a world champion by qualifying" at an online poker site. This has been referred to in the press as the "Moneymaker Effect."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionOther
Date of Birth21 November 1975
CountryUnited States of America
good hard people realize tournament
I don't play a lot of tournaments, but if I don't win a tournament in a year, people are like, 'What in the world is going on?' People don't realize how hard it is to win tournaments. You're not going to go out and play 10 tournaments and win one of them. Your odds aren't that good.
american-celebrity
You have it or you don't... I think I have it.
love money people playing poker pros wins
The pros really like all the new people playing poker because they love the dead money; but when the money wins they don't like that very much at all.
competition family game gotten guy hour improved money poker spend teach time win
The competition has improved tremendously. In 2003, I could teach a guy how to play poker in an hour and he could win some money. Today, it would take days. The game has gotten so much tougher. So I will spend my time with my family and play when I can.
biggest definitely fear public quite ready
My biggest fear was public speaking, and then having everyone know who I was, it was definitely weird at first. When I first won, it was definitely a culture shock, it was something I wasn't quite ready for.
bounce europe good helped jim joe people playing quite robert talked traveled
I've talked a lot with Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem. Being on Team PokerStars with them has helped me out quite a bit. I've traveled around Europe playing with them. I've also talked with Robert Williamson here and there and Jim Worth. So I've had some good people to talk to and bounce ideas off of.
enjoyed found gamble played poker sports
I used to sports gamble a lot and I was getting killed on that but then I found poker and really enjoyed it. But it was a hobby more than anything else. I played it every day but only on pretty small stakes.
good
When I had a full-time job, I really wasn't that busy, but now I'm really busy. I guess that's a good thing.
online players sort taken tv
Not having the online game has made it more difficult. There are a lot of young and upcoming players in poker. But you don't get to see them because TV has sort of been taken away.
hard life money people tons travel tv understand weird
But I want people to understand that poker's not all glamorous, it's not all being on TV and making tons of money. It's a hard life. It's a lot of travel. It's a lot of weird hours.
For the most part, I get to do what I want to do. If I want to play poker, I can. If I don't want to play poker, I don't have to.
Poker has such an element of competitivness that other games don't have.