Chris Moneymaker, primarily known these days as the spark that ignited the online poker boom after his 2003 Main Event win, had a little personal redemption this evening after making the final table of the 2008 WCOOP Event #5!
The Team PokerStars member played some of the best poker of his life this evening, running over an impressive field of online pros and live poker counterparts like Daniel Alaei and Ted Forrest, who would actually finish 13th and 20th in this tournament. After the dust was settled, and the final table bubble was finally broken, it would be Moneymaker and eight other players making up a pretty sick final 9. Although it would be two players in particular that would end up giving the one-time world champ a run for his money.
Top-ranked online players ‘gbmantis‘ and ‘#1PEN!‘ would prove to be a tough test for Moneymaker at the finale. These 2 showcased to the world why they’ve been such big forces to be reckon with on the MTT felt, consistently making moves on Chris and eventually bleeding him a lot of chips towards the latter stages of the final table. With blinds at $12.5k/$25k, Moneymaker would be forced to make a desperate all-in push with the rest of his $300k stack with a weak Ace. Unfortunately for him, the small blind ‘Choron‘ would wake up with pocket Kings and was a dominating favorite to knock ‘Money800′ out for good. The board would ultimately bring no miracle Ace for for him, and Moneymaker would find himself on the rail in very solid 6th place!
His finish would net him nearly $180k and of course allow him to snub his critics - albeit temporarily I’m sure - who have bashed him in the past for his lack of tournament cashes and final tables. For now though, I can only hope he’ll enjoy his moment in the sun and start working on his game even more to prep for the future. Who knows how many more final tables he’s got in him?
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