Ever since his win in the 2003 WSOP Main Event, it’s safe to say that Chris Moneymaker’s poker career has been on a major downslide. In fact, that is a bit of an understatement because out of all the major tourneys that Moneymaker has played in since his big win, the 2004 WPT Shooting Star event is the only one he’s actually had much success in (he placed 2nd there).
But I thought that was all about to change in the World Poker Open Championship as he held a massive chip lead going into the final table. Out of the 2.5 million chips that were in play, Moneymaker held over 1 million of them with his closest competitor - Chad Brown - holding 433,000. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for Moneymaker to re-establish himself as a legitimate pro and grab his first notable win since the 2003 Main Event.
Unfortunately for Moneymaker, this was not to be as he blew the huge chip lead he had amassed and was struggling just to stay in the tournament with 3 people left. Eventually, Jeremy Gaubert would knock Moneymaker out in third place en route to winning the World Poker Open Championship. Being knocked out of the tournament not only meant that Moneymaker would be making a lot less money ($60,000 instead of $182,000), but it also meant that he had missed his chance to prove he isn’t a total lost cause.
And the only people who are going to know about Moneymaker’s 3rd place finish are those who really pay attention to poker. The rest of the casual poker followers will probably never hear a word about Chris Moneymaker taking 3rd place in a mid-high profile tournament. And they will keep on believing that he is a huge joke in the poker world.