Moneymaker always plays to win

What sporting celebrity would you like to meet? Tiger Woods? Brett Favre? Danica Patrick? You can have them. I met one of my new superheroes: Chris Moneymaker.

Anyone who has played poker has got to love this guy. When he came out of nowhere to win the 2003 World Series of Poker, he was proof that the poker gods have a strange sense of humor.

Moneymaker? What are the odds of a guy with that name weaning himself on Internet poker before showing up to win the game's greatest prize? And now, two years later, both the man and the game continue to prosper.

"If I was Chris Smith, you would have never heard of me. TV loved my name and ran with it," Moneymaker said Tuesday during his two-day visit to Orlando to make promotional appearances. "I became part of the poker explosion."

He became the poster guy for Texas Hold'em poker, the fast-moving game anyone could win -- if they are both lucky and skillful. Moneymaker, an accountant before that improbable World Series victory, still marvels at how it changed his life.

"Before I won, I would go to work at 8, come home at 6 and play poker on the Internet. After I won, I stopped going to work at 6, got a divorce, met my new wife and love her to death, had a baby daughter and love what I'm doing.

"If I had finished second two years ago, I would have some money, but none of the rest would have happened."

Now Moneymaker gets invited to the Playboy mansion. Now Tara Reid grabs his arm to speak to him, while Leonardo DiCaprio yells hello from the other side of the room. Now he's part of a gambling accessory business known as Moneymaker Gaming, along with a half-dozen other ventures.

And he still plays cards when he has the time.

I mean, how cool is that?

(He also does a card trick that baffles me, but I'm easily baffled. And after playing three hands of Texas Hold'em, he was able to "read" my cards as if they were stuck to my forehead. Meanwhile, his expression never changes. In fact, there isn't an expression there. He's good, real good.)

As for the Texas Hold'em mania, it can't go on, can it? The 2005 World Series ended last week with another unknown winner who took home $7.5 million. Even Moneymaker never has heard of him. Surely it will level off?

"On TV, it will level off," Moneymaker said. "You can watch only so many 'pocket queens' before it gets old. But the playing of Texas Hold'em won't stop."

Cultural alert: We interrupt Moneymaker's comments to warn you that the next thing he says may make you shudder. Depends on what you think about poker. Here it comes . . .

"My biggest fans are teenagers or younger. I meet so many 11- and 12-year-olds that want to hang out with me. Whether that's good or bad, it's a fact. The game is here to stay."

That's the word on Fifth Street.

By Jerry Greene

News Added: 20 July, 2005

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