The Impact of 2003 World Series of Poker
When Chris Moneymaker won the main event of the World Series of Poker in 2003 the world of poker was rocked. Not only was the winner of the biggest tournament in poker an amateur player, but he had won his seat online for the small amount of forty dollars. The subsequent years have seen poker become a legitimate profession for many players seeking to achieve what Moneymaker did. Poker players are now celebrities, revered as experts at their profession rather than dismissed as degenerate gamblers. The impact of the 2003 World Series of Poker main event on this perception of poker was profound.
In 2003 839 players battled for the main event bracelet. At the time this was the large ever field for the main event, with a massive first prize of $2.5 million. It was expected that a tournament professional would take the win. Moneymaker had ridden his luck getting to the final table, notably when his all-in raise with 88 was called by Humberto Brenes with AA only for the turn to get him the set with the 8. Brenes was then eliminated and Moneymaker would go on to win. There were many players whom he beat in the final twenty for a chance to play for the bracelet. Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Dan Harrington and others all fell as the amateur charged towards his historic victory. Upon starting his heads up battle with Sammy Farha, Moneymaker enquired whether they would be able to do a 50/50 split of the remaining prize money. Farha said no as he needed the money to break even from losing around that amount in side game action.
Farha was expected to easily beat the amateur, but when Moneymaker made a double barrelled bluff after missing a draw on the river Farha failed to call the all-in bet to win the tournament despite holding top pair. Moneymaker then won the tournament when he held 5,4 offsuit against Farha’s J 10, the flop of J,5,4 gave both players good hands and the rest of the money went into the pot. Farha did not catch the J or 10 he needed to stay alive and it was all over.
The impact of this tournament has been felt around the poker world ever since. Working from home has always been a dream of many people but with the advent of online poker a few years earlier, people now flocked to sign up with poker a real way of making money from home. It was a gold mine to good players who went from making thousands of pounds to sometimes millions very quickly. Newspaper articles and television programmes profiled single mothers and young college kids supporting themselves through online poker winnings. Large events capitalised in the new surge in poker interest with casinos opening card rooms, and large tours including World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour were founded to give large prize pools. Poker continues to have the large prize pools for any sport in the world by some distance. The luck involved in the game means normal people have a shot at beating the professionals in a single tournament even if the pros would have an advantage long term.
Full Tilt Poker, the brainchild of around ten well-known poker professionals, was launched and grew to be one of the largest online poker rooms in the world making each of the founder’s multi-millionaires. Poker, it seemed, was everywhere.
But what goes up quite often comes down. The world economy suffered from 2007 onwards and there were also tons of books, DVDs, online training video websites and software available to help players improve. The standard of Holdem rose to a point where a lot of the recreational players just stopped playing. Gradually the opportunity has realigned itself so it has become harder to find the good games and game selection is now very important. This does not mean you cannot make money playing poker but you must now work a little harder to do so.
Chris Moneymakers 2003 win changed the poker world forever and many poker millionaires and professional grinders have a lot to thank him for. Perhaps one of the 2009 final table participants will have a similar effect on the game if they win and poker will enjoy another surge of new players into the game for another poker boom.
By Malcolm Clarke
