Moneymaker : How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million

There are a couple things to keep in mind right from the start in thinking about the phenomenon of Chris Moneymaker, amateur Internet player, who wins the World Championship of Poker in 2003. One, he really is an amateur, or at least was when he won the coveted bracelet; and two, there's a good bit of luck involved in winning any poker tournament. No player ever won one without being lucky a time or two, and usually more often than that. Moneymaker, as this book reveals, was a bit luckier than most.
Here's another thing to keep in mind. It would seem that a poker player who cut his eyeteeth on the Internet game would be at some kind of serious disadvantage to players used to playing live. I say this because on the Internet the only tells you can pick up (or give away) relate to how long it takes to bet, and, to be honest, these tells aren't very reliable since God only knows what the other player may be doing besides playing poker. Many players play more than one table at a time, and that can account for the gaps in response when it's their turn to act. So Chris Moneymaker, a kind of not too sophisticated young guy, an accountant from Tennessee with credit card debt and a wife and kid to support, would not seem the sort of guy who would suddenly discover an incredible ability to read players or to be unreadable himself.
But what Moneymaker proves, as he narrates this unlikely tale (filtered through skillful wordsmithing by professional writer Daniel Paisner), is that for one tournament, you may not need all the skills. Stamina in the five-day tournament, averaging over ten hours of play per day, can be an important factor, especially against the older players. And Moneymaker had stamina. But he really wasn't very good at reading the other players. Again and again he relates how he put the other guy on the wrong hand. But it usually didn't matter because (1) he either had the best hand going or (2) drew out.
What Moneymaker did prove beyond a shadow of a doubt was his ability to run a stone cold bluff through some very strong players with better hands. That's his gift, and to be honest it's a double-edge one in the poker world. Normally it is better to be thought of as conservative and close to the vest in your play. That way when you do go out on a limb, you're not as likely to be called. On the other hand, if you are known as a bluffer, you are going to get called down a lot. Yet, being known as somebody who will splash chips with nothing, as Moneymaker demonstrated--if handled right--is good because then all you have to do is wait for your good hands and shove your chips into the pot. You will get played with. But it takes a real professional, a strongly balanced player to be just wild enough, to be just aggressive enough so that you manage to get called when you have the goods, and to make them fold when you don't. Some players refer to this as "changing gears." They have, through their previous play, established a "table image," and now is the time to take advantage of it. If you've been betting the ranch on a wing and prayer, now is the time to wait for pocket rockets. If you've been tossing everything but Big Slick and up into the muck, now is the time to take a flyer on unsuited connectors.
But Moneymaker apparently was not able to adjust to his new image and new life as a poker celebrity, as the reigning World Champion--and, as this story makes clear, he spent entirely too much time partying and basking in the glory, and not enough to taking care of business at home and on the felt tables. In other words this is a cautionary tale as well as a great poker read. The little guy fells the giants, but falls victim to the corruption of the spoils himself. I feel somewhat sorry for Chris Moneymaker because in reading this book I know he still hasn't a clue--well, he has a clue, but he just hasn't developed the character yet to come to grips with the truth and deal with his sudden, largely fortuitous success. This book concentrates on the poker playing and only hints at what success has done to Moneymaker's personal life, the drinking, the living on the road, the career change, the failure of his marriage...
He's like the guy who won the lottery, not like the guy who reached the pinnacle of his profession after years of hard work. And it shows. They say if the gods really want to destroy a man, they will give him his fondest wish. I think this is what happened to the man from Tennessee. Only time will tell if he can come back from the personal debacle and get his life together. I wish him well. His story did a lot for poker, and this is a good book in that he was honest enough to show himself as he really is. Now he needs to take a good, long study of the guy in the mirror.