Tag: Chris Moneymaker

Chris Moneymaker won an intense, huge World Series of Poker Main Event hand, is among chip leaders

Could he win AGAIN?

It was 18 years ago that Chris Moneymaker took home the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet and effectively changed the game as someone who went from online player to champion.

And as of Friday morning, he might be making ANOTHER run.

OK, it’s a little premature to say that. But Moneymaker and a bunch of other players remaining are in the money … and the ex-champ is among the chip leaders.

Part of that is due to a HUGE hand on Thursday. Moneymaker and Bryan Reyes went head to head with two monster hands: Reyes had a pair of Kings and Moneymaker had Aces. The two went back and forth with a four-bet before the flop that Reyes called.

The flop was Queen-6-6. Reyes checked, Moneymaker bet 25,000 and Reyes called. The turn was a 5, and the same thing happened: A check, and this time Moneymaker bet 65,000.

Reyes took a while … AND WENT ALL IN.

Now: This is a TOUGH call for Moneymaker. The way Reyes bet pre-flop indicated strength in a big way — either Kings … or Queens. And if it was Queens, Moneymaker’s Aces would lose.

But Moneymaker — who had over 313K in chips — called the 203K bet, Reyes cursed, and Moneymaker won:

As of Friday morning, he’s 12th in chips with 1,432,000. And the wild thing is he almost didn’t play the Main Event! Per Poker News:

Three months ago, Moneymaker announced on Twitter that he would skip the series altogether due to COVID-19 concerns. He worried that he could potentially bring the virus back to his family in Mississippi even though he’s vaccinated. The former Main Event winner told PokerNews at the time that he expected that he’d be exposed to the virus in the crowded Rio, which forced him to make a tough decision.

Over the past few weeks, Moneymaker began to tease the idea of competing in the Main Event due to the vaccination requirement at the WSOP. But he hadn’t announced his official decision to play publicly until Monday.

We’ll see if this keeps up.

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