Twenty years after his defining victory in the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event that ignited the Poker Boom, Chris Moneymaker came to Las Vegas looking to further his already cemented status as one of the most important figures in poker history.
Only 27 years old at the time, Moneymaker spun a $40 satellite victory into $2.5 million in perhaps the most memorable and consequential WSOP victory of all time. Now a household name in poker, Moneymaker has now put up a $50,000 buy-in — the biggest of his two-decade poker career — to play the prestigious WSOP Poker Players Championship for the first time at the 2023 WSOP.
PokerNews spoke with Moneymaker during Day 1 on June 18 as he battled against the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh and two-time defending champion Dan "Jungleman" Cates, all of whom were seated at the 2003 Main Event champion's table.
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While the presence of other poker legends like Phil Ivey, Eli Elezra and Lyle Berman in the PPC was expected, the appearance of Moneymaker, who primarily plays mid and low-stakes tournaments outside of the $10,000 Main Event, came as a surprise.
"Heading to Vegas tom(orrow) to play the poker player championship," Moneymaker tweeted earlier this week. "My only event this summer outside the Main Event."
Moneymaker, who called the PPC "my bucket list event," told PokerNews the stars had finally aligned for him to play the high-stakes championship event.
"It's something I've always wanted to do, it just hasn't really fit with my schedule," Moneymaker said. "For whatever reason, it always fell on just the worst time. And I just told myself this year I was going to do it."
Now 47 with a wife and teenagers home in Tennessee and having recently launched the Moneymaker Poker Tour, it's hard for the father of three to find the time to play a summer schedule.
"I had some business stuff come up, so I wasn't going to be able to come out and play," he said. "And just luckily stuff kind of fell through and got delayed a little bit, so I talked to my wife and said, 'Hey, I'm going to go out.' And she's like, you've been talking about it (playing the PPC) for ten years, so go do it. So I finally got out here to do it."
"I don't really travel much during the summer, so to come out here on Father's Day ... my oldest daughter, who's 18, she was dogsitting. She texted me she's like, 'Daddy, you left without telling me bye.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I kind of did. But I'll be back soon.'"
A deep run in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship is no easy task and Moneymaker found himself in the back of the Paris ballroom at a table of sharks, including recent five-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh and last year's $1 Million Bounty recipient Matt Glantz. Later in the day, defending champion Cates took a seat to Moneymaker's left as fellow Poker Hall of Famer Negreanu sat down to his right.
A few tables over sat Ivey, who Moneymaker famously delivered the bad beat of a lifetime to en route to his Main Event win.
Phil Ivey
"Obviously, everybody in this field is going to be good," Moneymaker said. "So I expect(ed) that going in."
PokerNews spoke with Moneymaker halfway through Day 1 as he tried to get above starting stack. "I haven't gotten off to the best start, but I've got a lot of play left."
A seasoned version of the young accountant wearing tinted racing glasses who bested Sammy Farha to shift the trajectory of poker, Moneymaker held his own through a rotation of Hold'em, Stud, 2-7 and Omaha, noting that Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better is "probably my (best game), that's the one I play pretty much every single day. I play a lot of PLO and a lot of Omaha 8. I used to play a lot of stud and razz and all that."
"It's a mixed game (event), so it's a little bit different," he said. "So you don't have constant pressure as far as making no-limit hands and stuff ... the PLO hands are going to be pretty significant in this format, I would imagine."
Chris Moneymaker
Other Poker Players Championship hopefuls acknowledged the presence of the man most associated of the Poker Boom. Late on Day 1, Britain's Philip Sternheimer, seated to Moneymaker's left, told the table about a time he got bluffed in a celebrity game by the then-recent Main Event champion.
"That was the best moment of my life at the time," reflected Sternheimer. "And here we are 19 years later."
Falling On Day 2
Moneymaker held his own on Day 1 and had three-quarters of a starting stack by the time 54 players bagged at the end of the day, around the same amount as the defending champion and fellow bracelets winners Shaun Deeb, Daniel Zack and Joe Cassidy and a distance behind Ivey and Arieh at the top of the counts.
When he returned to the Paris ballroom on Day 2, Moneymaker was once again seated to the left of Cates, while he had to worry about recent $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship winner Brian Yoon and online end boss Viktor "Isildur1" Blom to his own left.
Dan Terminator Cates
It didn't take long for Moneymaker to find himself at risk against Cates in his Terminator cosplay. After a Stud Hi-Lo hand that went in Cates' favor, the two played a no-limit Hold'em hand that mimicked a confrontation between Moneymaker and Johnny Chan 20 years prior.
On a flop of 4♦3♥A♦, Moneymaker check-raised holding 10♦9♦ and "Jungleman" re-raised all in with K♦5♦.
Like Chan did in 2003, Moneymaker called off with the inferior flush draw to be in bad shape before a diamond on the river confirmed his elimination from his first Poker Players Championship.
Out of the 50k ppc. Lose flush over flush to jungle man in NL
— Chris Moneymaker ⭕ (@CMONEYMAKER)
While he won't have his name engraved on the Chip Reese Trophy this year, Moneymaker, already a poker legend, is content getting back to life in Tennessee with his wife, son and two daughters.
"As soon as I bust this one, I'm probably going to head back home and come back out for the Main," Moneymaker said on Day 1, "so I won't be gone too long either way."
Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.
