A Legend in the Truest Sense of the Word
In the poker world, there is probably no one who doesn't know the name Chris Moneymaker. The American poker player made history in 2003, when, as a completely unknown qualifier through an online satellite, he won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker and took home $2.5 million. His victory started the "poker boom" and inspired millions of amateurs around the world, showing that any ordinary person could change their life with a single tournament. Since then, he has become an icon of the poker world, an ambassador of the game, and later also the founder of his own poker series, the Moneymaker Tour.
And it was precisely this tour that had another stop in recent days, this time at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida. The Main Event with a $1,100 buy-in attracted 424 entries (prize pool $411,280), and although dozens of strong grinders appeared in such a tough field, the most attention was drawn to the man whose name was on the trophy – Chris Moneymaker.
First Trophy in 20 Years
Chris cruised through the whole tournament like a knife through butter, right up to the final heads-up where, with a 5:2 chip advantage, he faced Jason Wandley. Everything was finally decided by a preflop cooler, where Wandley shoved with his pair of J h J c, but unfortunately for him, Moneymaker was sitting with K h K c . The blank board changed nothing and it was decided – the trophy along with a prize of $83,042 belonged to Chris.
Shortly after the victory in front of the audience, Chris admitted that this was one of the most emotional moments of his career. "I never thought something like this could happen to me. I’ve been playing poker for twenty years and this is my first big live trophy since the WSOP. It's unbelievable," said the emotional champion.
Hey @rampagepoker this is what winning looks like. Anyone that wants to win easy this summer @StakeKings has a bet that rampage won’t win money this wsop. Like free money. pic.twitter.com/Ws7nNDNygs
— Chris Moneymaker (@CMONEYMAKER) May 14, 2025
Although in recent years Moneymaker has been cashing regularly and was successfully launching his own series, the title still eluded him. But that is no longer the case and this moment has taken the Moneymaker Tour to a new level. What was supposed to be a platform to support regional poker has, thanks to this story, gone down in history. And Moneymaker has once again proven that his name in poker represents not only the past – but also the present.
You can watch the final table replay via Live Stream:
Sources – CardPlayer, X, YouTube, Poker.org, reviewjournal