Chris Moneymaker Wins Two New Jersey SCOOP Titles
It was Chris Moneymaker that kicked off the original poker boom and, if he continues his recent run-good, he may be the catalyst for a US online poker boom!
According to Moneymaker, it's been a "busy week," and looking at his recent results from this weekend's PokerStars NJCOOP; you can see why!
| 1st place | Event 33-H | ($200 NLHE Final Weekend Kickoff) | $5,445.55 |
| 1st place | Event 34-H | ($200 Stud Hi/Lo) | $2,631.98 (after a heads-up deal) |
| 2nd place | Event 35-H | ($50+R NLHE 3-Max) | $2,485.27 |
| 4th place | Event 36-H | ($200 Mixed NLHE/PLO, Progressive KO) | $1,113.86 + $947.44 in bounties |
"Over the first couple of days, I bubbled a few tournaments," said Moneymaker, "but then on Saturday, I played three tournaments and won two of them! The Main Event didn't go as planned, but overall I can't complain.
"I always try to get online during these festivals. On Friday, I actually just sat down and played $0.01/0.02 No-Limit Hold'em for a bit, then a bit of $0.05/0.10 Pot-Limit Omaha. I played a few Spin & Go's. It just meant I was able to splash around a bit and get to play with a few different people."
"When I'm not going to live events, I always like to play with a different group of people than normal. And these guys either don't like tournaments or can't afford it. So I like to go in and give others an opportunity to play with me a little bit."
"It's going to be a life-changing experience for many players."
Moneymaker said that his appearance at the online cash tables usually has one of two effects.
"They really come for me and go out of their way to play against me! It's a case of they wanna see what I have, or want to have a good story. Then there are others who play their normal game and almost relish the fact that I'm at the table."
This year's PokerStars New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker (NJSCOOP) was NJ’s richest tournament series ever with a guaranteed prize pool of more than $1,300,000 across a packed schedule. Also up for grabs were two Platinum Passes worth $30,000 for the winners of both the High and Low Main Events.
"Those giveaways are a cool thing to watch," said Moneymaker. "It's a nice added bonus. It's going to be a life-changing experience for many players. Obviously, you're going to have players that have been there and done it all before and are used to it, but to some, even a min-cash is going to be a significant amount of money for a lot of people.
"That's what's going to be so cool about it. The PSPC bubble will be like the WSOP bubble on steroids. The WSOP Main Event money bubble is always the fun time because it's such a large bubble for everyone. But this is going to be even crazier!"
"It's kind of slow moving, but it's all positive and moving in the right direction."
Moneymaker says that as much as the pros will like a tournament with no rake and a softer field than usual, it's all about the recreational players.
"It will have a profound impact on their lives if they min-cash. It's all about them, not these guys who are traveling the circuit and playing $10k or $25k tournaments; it's about the guy who won his seat from a flip out."
After spending a week and a half at home, Moneymaker will travel to Canada to play SCOOP in the middle of May. The relegalisation of online poker in the United States has progressed at a glacial pace in recent years, but with recent legislative advances in Pennsylvania, Moneymaker believes it isn't long before more states follow suit.
"New York is really close; if we picked up New York, then I think it'll only be a matter of time. I can definitely see it going back to before when we could play with the international markets. It's kind of slow moving, but it's all positive and moving in the right direction.
"I think interstate liquidity is a really good thing. Once we get Pennsylvania, which should be by the end of the year or the beginning of 2019, then that's a really big thing momentum-wise."
For more information about PokerStars in New Jersey, head to pokerstarsnj.com. Moneymaker streams on Twitch, you can watch his streams on Twitch.tv.
Photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha, René Velli, PokerStars
The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
