Moneymaker, Chris 1976(?)–

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Moneymaker, Chris 1976(?)–

(Christopher Brian Moneymaker)

PERSONAL: Born c. 1976; children: one daughter. Education: Earned bachelor's and master's degrees from University of Tennessee.

ADDRESSES: Home—Spring Hill, TN. Agent—HarperEntertainment, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Accountant, entrepreneur, and professional poker player. Worked as an accountant; competitor in numerous poker tournaments; founder of Moneymaker Gaming; collaborator on self-help poker software.

AWARDS, HONORS: Winner, World Series of Poker (tournament), 2003.

WRITINGS:

(With Daniel Paisner) Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker, HarperEntertainment (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Chris Moneymaker developed a skill at playing cards at an early age, first learning to play bridge with his grandmother, then blackjack with his father. In college, Moneymaker pursued an education in accounting, then got a job as an accountant. But he still pursued his interest in cards and gambling, playing poker with friends and on the Internet as a hobby. As Moneymaker's skills at poker improved, he got involved with low-stakes Internet tournaments. Through the PokerStars Web site, the author entered and won a forty-dollar tournament, eventually catapulting him into a qualifying spot in the 2003 World Series of Poker, held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Playing amongst more than 800 competitors, many of them seasoned poker players, Moneymaker worked his way through the five-day tournament, emerging as the winner of the 2.5-million-dollar grand prize. He was the first World Series of Poker champion to have entered through an online poker tournament. Since that time, Moneymaker has continued to compete in national and international poker tournaments. He also began his own business, Moneymaker Gaming, which produces poker-related items such as poker sets, gaming accessories, apparel, and commemorative chips.

In 2005, Moneymaker published his first book, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker, with coauthor Daniel Paisner. The work chronicles Moneymaker's rise from an accountant who played poker as a hobby to a poker champion who has won millions of dollars. The tournament itself is discussed in great detail, going through Moneymaker's key hands as well as his feelings leading up to and during the tournament. Readers learn about Moneymaker's struggle to overcome first-day nervousness as well as his excitement to be playing with and learning from his poker-playing idols. The authors also include a what-beats-what list and a glossary of poker terminology.

Moneymaker was met with positive reviews overall. Many critics found the authors' writing style to be effective and gripping, drawing readers into the story quickly. "Their razor-quick prose does a good job of getting us inside Moneymaker's head to explain why he did what he did," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the book to be an excellent look inside the world of professional poker, drawing together many details about how the professionals play and think. The book "offers an entertaining and insightful insider analysis that will allow them to decide for themselves whether Moneymaker was fabulously lucky or played a skillful game and thus deserved his success," added the reviewer.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Moneymaker, Chris, and Daniel Paisner, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker, Harper-Entertainment (New York, NY), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2005, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Moneymaker, p. 1257.

Business Wire, August 10, 2005, "bep Launchs Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker's Gaming Site."

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2005, review of Moneymaker, p. 38.

PR Newswire, February 4, 2005, "World Poker Champion, Chris Moneymaker, Cashes in on Poker Craze"; May 6, 2005, "Become a Poker Champ, One Hand at a Time, with the Release of Chris Moneymaker's World Poker Championship from ValuSoft."

Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2005, review of Moneymaker, p. 55.

Sports Illustrated, April 12, 2004, Richard Dietsch, interview with Moneymaker, p. 28.