Chris Moneymaker WSOP winner

Updated 2008/2009
Chris Moneymaker has had an amazing rise in the poker world to win the World Series of Poker Championship in 2003. He was working as an accountant with a master\\\'s degree in accounting when he got this chance, but in spite of being a newbie, he managed to kick out some really top notch players and win the prize of $2.5 million dollars. Chris started of with really humble beginnings in poker. His early games were Bridge with his grandmother when he was pretty young and then he went on to playing blackjack with his father. Chris went on to attend college and even earned his masters from the University of Tennessee. Chris was working for a forty thousand dollar a year salary living a very comfortable suburban life when he was introduced to Texas Hold \\\'Em through the movie Rounders. That brought him into the gambling circuit.

Chris soon started playing with friends and was making people notice. He wanted to improve his skills and searched for card rooms but to no avail. The nearest legal room was about four hours away. Looking for other sources, he found internet poker sites to be his foundation stone. pokerstars happened to be Chris\\\' one stop solution for his poker needs and he entered many tournaments winning quite a few at the $20 and $30 level and climbing in rank. He was improving consistently and soon got the chance of his lifetime. A $39 satellite tournament was the starting point. Chris attended it just for improving his skills. He didn't think he could win it but luck had other plans for him and he earned himself a spot in the World Series of Poker satellite tournament. The winner got a seat and ten thousand dollar buy-in for the WSOP. Chris was that winner, winning over sixty other players.

The Binion Horseshoe casino at Las Vegas was the revered land for Chris and he was right in the middle of the action at this place. The 2003 World Series of Poker had a pretty tough line-up, one of the hardest any amateur would ever face. People like Johnny Chan (One of Chris\\\' favourites), Howard Ledere and Paul Darden made the list.

Though his initial goal was just to walk out with pride and not lose out on the first day itself, Chris eventually settled into the tournament. He worried that he might give away tells due to his lack of experience in the card room and hence masked himself with a hat and sunglasses. It worked and Chris raked in $60,000 worth of chips at the end of the day.

On the third day, an interesting and somewhat embarrassing moment occurred at the table. It was being televised through ESPN and had Howard Lederer and Johnny Chan at the table. Chan raised during a hand and Lederer raised as well, following which everything stopped. Chris made a motion of leaning back so as to study his hero\\\'s action before he understood his slip. The bet was placed towards Chris who had thought he had folded. He became aware of the situation only after Chan asked him if he knew that the bet was on him. As everyone was bemused with this occurrence, Chris silently made a decision and went on to win the table.

Even as he reached the final table, Chris wasn't very confident of winning the tournament. He was facing a very seasoned professional by the name of Sammy Farha. Slowly and steadily Chris inched ahead of Sammy. The final hand would determine the winner. Sammy Farha had jacks, while Chris flopped a pair of two and the bets were in. Farha came all in at the end. The final cards, then gave Chris a full house, which let him demolish the pair of Farha.

After the win, Chris got back to work. He was two point five million dollars richer though. The first thing that he did was to donate twenty five thousand towards cancer research. Soon quite a few endorsement offers came through and Chris quit his job to become a celebrity spokesman. Chris is known to be one of the friendliest players in the circuit and always shakes hands with those who have been knocked out and welcomes players who come with a big win.

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