Are you people aware of the word ‘godfather’? This is what professional poker player Chris Moneymaker said in an interview with magazines.
He earned his nickname from the Cincinnati Reds’ Billy Wagner, who he credited with helping him through the rough times of his life.
Here is the story of how Moneymaker came to win the $2.5 million first prize at the 2003 WSOP by answering 5 questions from the magazine.
Moneymaker was a relative unknown in the world of poker before the 2003 WSOP.
The only fact that is known for sure regarding Moneymaker’s win is that he beat 8,773 other players to win the first prize.
Moneymaker, a convert from the Method theory, is a huge fan of poker and knew nothing about playing poker.
The only help that he received in playing poker was reading his E-book on Texas Holdem, which recommended Doyle Brunson’s book.
After that, Moneymaker’s poker career took off and he started to win major poker tournaments.
He is now known all over the world as one of the best poker players.
Here are few facts about the life of Chris Moneymaker:
He was born on 5th July, 1975 in Tennessee. When Moneymaker was a child, his father did not approve of his married to friends, so he lived with his parents. His father had school in the morning and worked until afternoon.
When he was 14, Moneymaker’s father decided he would drop Moneymaker off at school.
Moneymaker’s mother did not approve of his marriage and did not visit him.
His father died when Moneymaker was 17 years old.
Moneymaker dropped out of school in his senior year and took a job as a car dealer.
At this point in his life, Moneymaker was ready to make the life he had always dreamed of.
He made up his mind that he wanted to play poker professionally.
In order to play poker professionally, Moneymaker had to get a series of dummy accounts, which he started with $100,000.
He says he only started playing online poker to get away from the constant bad beats in casinos.
Moneymaker’s first tournament was WSOP 2003, where he got the 11th place and won Nothing Hands.
He won the first WSOP $1 million tournament being the 66th in line.
subscribing to Full Tilt Poker on the Internet, Chris Moneymaker became the leader in the tournament and won record prize money.
One of the two remaining players, Greg Raymer, won the tournament.
Moneymaker left his home to answer the call and flew to Las Vegas to attempt his life-changing one million dollar dream.
Moneymaker is now known as one of the most successful poker players in the history of the game.
In January, 2011, Moneymaker and his wife, Annie Duke, welcomed their third daughter, Chelsea.
The couple has already named their daughter after the name of the last instant wish they received from God.
The other name that has been suggested by the Moneymakers is Oscar, which is the last name of the legendary World Champion of Poker, Doyle Brunson.
Oscar would hence bring the couple more fame if she wins the Championship.
Moneymaker is also famous as far as the World Series of Poker is concerned. He was one of the first players to participating in the 2004 and the third time he won the championship.
The reason for the success of the big event is hard to predict. But being at the same time a big gamble, many people felt that the odds against him were incredible as he had never played in the big event.
However, he soon proved them wrong by beating highly touted Phil Ivey and learning to his first two NCAA final tables.
This assured the success of his fourth time as the winner.
After this win, Chris Moneymaker’s professional poker career has been dubbed into a new dimension, almost like that of a sports player who has made his whole income coming from a single source. This is done by saving and coming out ahead of his opponents in every operation.
Now, he is in the same situation in the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Here are some of the observations of the professional Chris Moneymaker about the 2007 WSOP World Series of Poker.
There was one time when, he played in an online tournament for a $1,000,000 and recently got in at the satellite final in Las Vegas. His first game was heads-up against Sam Farha, and he lost the game. His second game was against David Redlin, and he won the game (On the same day). He also took part in a $1,500 NLHE game called Summit_Stash, and won the tournament.