Chris MoneymakerSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

It is a trite, but still reasonable question. After all, Chris, a one-time accountant who pulled down around $40,000 a year, found a way to turn a lifetime of gambling into the biggest contest and payout of his life. Chris managed to make it into the World Series of Poker, scrap through a record field, and rise to the very top for a $2.5 million payday.

What began as a childhood of playing bridge with his grandmother, morphed into a later love of blackjack with his father.

Though gambling coursed through his veins faster than lifeblood, Chris labored through his accounting degree at the University of Tennessee, scored a Masters degree and settled into a perfectly suburban life of numbers crunching and gambling fantasy.

Credit the film “Rounders” with Chris’ internal revolution. Like the movie did for thousands of young wannabe players, it shot Chris and his friends into the world of Texas Hold’em. Soon, knocking around his friends wasn’t enough. He wanted to test his mettle against some unknown chip-slingers. He wanted to find a card room. The sad fact was, however, Chris would’ve had to travel four hours from home to sit down at a legal table.

Enter: PokerStars.

Sure, Chris dabbled around at other online poker sites, but PokerStars’ muti-table tournament schedule intrigued him.  It drew him into countless $20 and $30 events. He started rising through the competition, cashing and even winning some of those huge events. It would seem like a big deal at the time. That is, it would seem like a big deal until Chris found himself entering a $39 satellite tournament.