Chris Moneymaker Named Ambassador of Hollywood Poker Open

Between March 7th and 16th, season 2 of the Hollywood Poker Open will continue at the Hollywood Casino St. Louis, offering 30 tournaments over 10 days which will appeal to both amateur and professional poker players alike. Other qualifiers will also take place in February and March at various locations, including Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and in May an additional four HPO regional qualifying main events will be held eventually leading up to June’s championship event at the M Resort Spa & Casino in Las Vegas.
Against such an impressive backdrop of mouthwatering events, the Penn National Gaming Hollywood Poker Open series has announced that during this time 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker will serve as ambassador for the Hollywood Poker Open (HPO) brand and will participate in various regional qualifying events, whilst also spending time with the players and poker enthusiasts.
Chris Moneymaker, 38, “revolutionized poker” and helped start an online boom after becoming the first person to win the WSOP Main Event having qualified via an online poker site. Moneymaker’s story of spinning a $39 satellite entry into a $2.5 million fortune served as an inspiration to a new generation of poker fans, thus spawning what has been termed the “Moneymaker Effect.” Since racking up his major victory in 2003, Moneymaker has since gone on to earn a further $1,026,264 playing in live tournaments and still remains one of the most recognizable faces in poker.
However, Moneymaker’s first marriage didn’t survive his transition into full-time poker and he currently resides with his second wife and three daughters in Collierville, Tennessee. Talking about his 2004 divorce, Moneymaker, explained: “The main reason was me wanting to be a traveling poker pro. She didn’t sign up for that life. She was married to a stay-at-home accountant who was not traveling the world, gone all the time, and gambling a lot of money. And it was a choice I had to make. I tried to be good, stay at my job, and be that accountant, but in all honesty I didn’t want to.”
Anyone interested in checking out the HPO tournament schedule or following the poker action can do so at www.hollywoodpokeropen.com, or by following HPO Facebook and Instagram at @HollywoodPokerOpen.