Chris Moneymaker Wins Biggest Score In Three Years At St. Louis Tourney

Chris Moneymaker has won his biggest score in three years after taking down the $1,800 buy-in Hollywood Poker Open at the Hollywood Casino in St. Louis. With a mere 67 players entering the competition, the field may have been just a fraction of the 839 players he overcame at the 2003 WSOP Main Event to collect $2.5 million in prize money, but the $36,259 he did collect represented the 38 year-old’s biggest score since March, 2011, when he finished runner-up at the $25k NBC National Heads-Up Championship for $300,000.
At the seat of his latest triumph, Moneymaker, who says he’s “a million times better” as a player now than when he won the Main Event, managed to eliminate seven of his final nine opponents, eventually defeating Frank Wyville in a brief heads-up match to claim the title.
HPO St. Louis Results:
1 Chris Moneymaker $36,259
2 Frank Wyville       $22,395
3 James Basham       $17,063
4 Todd Bartlett       $10,664
5 Shabtai Moria       $8,531
6 Jovan Sudar       $6,399
7 Todd Metheny       $5,332
The Team PokerStars pro, who is still considered one of the greatest ambassador of the game, has now earned a little over a million dollars since his famous WSOP victory more than a decade ago. Most importantly, whereas other WSOP winners have been accused of not doing enough to promote the game, the former accountant continues to be viewed as the everyman who helped sparked the poker revolution.
Commenting on his influence on the modern game’s growth, Moneymaker, said: “I know there were many other facts that helped push me being in the right spot, the right time, the right person, right everything. It was the perfect storm. But I think it was also how I carried myself and how I handled the celebrity and just dealing with people. I think a lot of people can relate to me. I’m just an average guy you can hang out with at a bar or play poker with.”