Full House No Good as Moneymaker Busts Early on WSOP Main Event Day 1a

Copy link Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Jul 02, 2025 2 min read

Everyone who enters this year's WSOP Main Event has a chance at winning. From rank amateurs and circuit grinders, high-stakes professionals — even defending champions.

There hasn't been a repeat winner in the Main Event since Stu Ungar in 1997, but there's one less chance of that happening this year after the elimination of 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker early on Day 1a.

The Hand

Early in the second level of Day 1a, with the blinds at 200/300/300, David Brown raised to 600 from the cutoff and Moneymaker called in the small blind.

The flop came J♠J♣6♥ and Moneymaker check-called a bet of 500. Both players then checked the 10♠ and the Q♥ completed the board.

Moneymaker bet 2,500. Brown then raised to 10,000, prompting Moneymaker to raise to 20,000. Brown moved all in for 47,000 effective and Moneymaker went into the tank.

"Do you really have pocket queens?" said Moneymaker. According to the PokerNews reporter, Moneymaker talked through a few more parts of the hand. "If you've got queens, you've got queens," he said before calling.

Moneymaker tabled Q♠J♦ for a full house while Brown did in fact hold pocket queens Q♦Q♣ for a better full house, sending Moneymaker to the rail.

Moneymaker in the Main

Since his win in 2003, Moneymaker went over a dozen years without cashing in the event, before finally recording a 687th-place finish in 2019, good enough for $20,200.

However, after the pandemic, he went on a streak cashing in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The best of these came in 2021 when he finished 260th for $38,600. Now he'll have to wait until 2026 for a chance at adding a sixth WSOP Main Event cash.

Chris Moneymaker Main Event Finishes

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 now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

Follow on

• Tags Chris Moneymaker WSOP25
• Related Players Chris Moneymaker