What Is Chris Moneymaker's Net Worth?
Chris Moneymaker is an American professional poker player and author who has a net worth of $4 million. Chris Moneymaker has earned his net worth by winning money in many professional poker tournaments, and he won the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). In 2003, Chris was the first person to become a world qualifying online champion, and this led to a rise in the popularity of poker that was referred to as the "Moneymaker Effect."
He published the book "Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker" in 2005, and he appeared in the 2020 film "The MisAdventures of Wild Bill Elliott" and the 2009 documentary "All In: The Poker Movie." Chris was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2019.
Career Earnings/Winnings
During his professional career, Chris won a total lifetime tournament earnings of right around $6 million, of which $2.5 million came from the WSOP.
Early Life
Chris Moneymaker was born Christopher Bryan Moneymaker on November 21, 1975, in Atlanta, Georgia. Chris has claimed that his ancestors originally had the last name Nurmacher and that they modified their German surname to Moneymaker because they made gold and silver coins. Chris grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and he studied at Farragut High School. He later graduated from the University of Tennessee with a master's degree in accounting. Moneymaker then took a job as a comptroller and worked part-time at a local restaurant.
Career
While working as an accountant, Chris took part in an $86 PokerStars satellite tournament, which resulted in him winning a seat at the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. On the first day of the WSOP tournament, sports handicapper Lou Diamond was impressed by Moneymaker, calling him his "dark horse to win the whole tournament." Chris did end up winning the tournament, earning $2.5 million. After his win, he quit his job and became a celebrity spokesman for PokerStars and Harrah's Entertainment. He launched the company Moneymaker Gaming, and he started traveling to tournaments with a larger buy-in. During the 2004 World Poker Tour, Chris was the runner-up in the Shooting Stars event, earning $200,000. At the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker, he finished in sixth place during Event 5 and fifth place during Event 16, winning more than $167,000 between the two events. In 2009, Moneymaker won the World Poker Open tournament's Deep Stack Pot Limit Omaha event, earning $15,889. In 2011, he won $130,000 after finishing in 11th place in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and $300,000 after coming in second in the National Heads Up Poker Tournament.
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In 2013, "All In" Editor-in-Chief Eric Raskin published the book "The Moneymaker Effect," which is described as "the story behind the most dramatic World Series of Poker ever and its lasting effects, told by the players, the TV execs, the tournament directors, techs, writers, and the 2003 WSOP champ himself, Chris Moneymaker." In September 2022, Chris opened the Moneymaker Social Club in Paducah, Kentucky. In February 2023, it was reported that he was forced to cease all poker games after new McCracken County Attorney Cade Foster reversed his predecessor's approval of the club. Moneymaker told "PokerNews," "We had grumblings last week that the (district attorney) was going to press charges and it could have gotten myself and some of my staff in trouble potentially. So, on the err of caution, we decided to shut it down." Chris added that before he opened the club, then-county attorney Sam Clymer "wrote a big, nice long 10-12 page document saying that everything that we're going to be doing in the room is completely, 100% legal."
Personal Life
Chris has been married twice, and after his 2004 divorce, he stated during a retrospective about the 2003 WSOP Main Event, "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." Moneymaker and his first wife have a daughter named Ashley. Chris married his second wife in 2005. They live in Tennessee, just outside of Memphis.
