Chris Moneymaker

Chris Moneymaker was born on November 21, 1975, in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and later earned a master's degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee. After graduate school, he worked as a comptroller (controller) for a restaurant chain and also held a part-time job at a local restaurant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. His family name originates from a German surname "Nurmacher", which his ancestors modified to "Moneymaker" after moving to England.

In 2003, Moneymaker was working as an accountant when he won a seat into the $10,000 WSOP Main Event through an $86 online satellite tournament on PokerStars. (He later misremembered the buy-in as $40, leading to the error in his autobiography's title.) The Main Event was his first live poker tournament. On Day 1, sports handicapper Lou Diamond pegged him as a "dark horse to win the whole tournament." Moneymaker made the final table after knocking out Phil Ivey in 10th place. At the final table, he eliminated Tomer Benvenisti and former champion Dan Harrington. In the heads-up match against Sam Farha, Moneymaker executed a famous bluff with King-high on the river, prompting Farha to fold a pair of nines. The momentum shifted, and Moneymaker eventually won when his 5♦ 4♠ made a full house (fives full of fours) against Farha's two pair (jacks and fives) on a board of J♠ 5♠ 4♣ 8♦ 5♥. He took home $2.5 million and his first (and only) WSOP bracelet. ESPN commentator Norman Chad famously exclaimed, "This is beyond a fairy tale. It’s inconceivable!"

Moneymaker's win is widely credited with igniting the "Moneymaker Effect" – a surge in poker's popularity. The WSOP Main Event field grew from 839 in 2003 to 8,773 in 2006, driven by online satellites and televised poker. His story proved that an amateur could defeat professionals, inspiring countless recreational players. The boom also boosted online poker platforms like PokerStars. Moneymaker became a celebrity spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment and PokerStars, and he quit his accounting job to play poker professionally. Reflecting on his rise, he later said, "I went back to work, because I didn't realize I could be making enough money to retire... It wasn't really until it started airing on TV that I woke up to the fact that poker was not just a passing fad."

A year after his WSOP win, Moneymaker finished second at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Shooting Star event in 2004, earning $200,000. He continued to play regularly on the global circuit. In online poker, he placed sixth in Event 5 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a $10,300 No-Limit Hold'em tournament, taking home over $139,000. He also cashed in Pot-Limit Omaha events online.

After a long drought without a seven-figure score, Moneymaker returned to the spotlight in 2023. He finished fifth in the $250,000 Luxon Invitational in London for $2,030,000 – his largest cash since his WSOP win. In 2024, he won the Triton Montenegro $25,000 GG Million$ event for $903,000, topping a field of 163 players. Later that year, he placed 10th in the WSOP Paradise Main Event for $500,000 and took third in a Triton Montenegro Mystery Bounty event for $311,000. As of 2025, his total live earnings exceed $8.2 million, and he ranks in the top 220 on the all-time money list.

Moneymaker is known for an aggressive, fearless style. His signature bluff in the 2003 heads-up match with King-high exemplified his willingness to take risks. He relies on psychological pressure and has said he prefers to "put opponents to the test." His approach resonated with amateur players who saw poker as a game of guts rather than pure mathematics. His victory helped popularize the use of online satellites and inspired a generation of players to pursue their own poker dreams.

Moneymaker published his autobiography, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker, in 2005. He also founded Moneymaker Gaming. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he purchased a poker room in Kentucky, which eventually faced forced closure. He currently resides in Mississippi. In 2019, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, cementing his status as a poker legend. After 17 years as a PokerStars Team Pro, he left the sponsorship in 2020 but remains active as a brand ambassador and occasional tournament player. His legacy as the man who started the poker boom is secure, and his name is synonymous with the dream of turning a small investment into a world title.