by SMT

Created on: January 29, 2009   Last Updated: July 28, 2009

Ask any professional card player making their living in ring (cash) games the genesis of poker's unwavering popularity, and more frequent than not you will simply get a two word, five syllable answer; Chris Moneymaker. Prior to the 2003 World Series of Poker the game had shown marginal increases in popularity as a result of being annually televised on ESPN. But the story of Moneymaker and the improbable run he made at the Main Event in 2003 inspired a large legion of poker player wanna-bes to chase the dream of hitting it big in poker, by taking a $40 online buy-in, to win a seat to the Main Event all the way to the bank for over $2 million in cash. Since then poker has seen unprecedented, explosive growth from online play, record tournament fields, and live cash game play in casinos around the country.

When I started playing poker my options were limited to a small selection of rooms strung out over Las Vegas. I was mostly forced into playing Limit Texas Hold em', as only a select few spread No Limit; and if they did, it was a big game that my bankroll was not ready for. After Moneymaker took down the largest prize pool in World Series history at the time, I switched to No Limit Hold em' literally overnight. Within a year of his victory, I suddenly had game and card room selections I had never experienced in the past and began playing against a more diverse group of players, all results stemming from a man who instilled a dream within new players of the game, that they could do the same.

Poker's popularity has made celebrities and rockstars out the world's top players, and they reap the benefits from everything to endorsement deals, tournament buy-ins, appearance fees, and commercial spots. What once was considered somewhat of a stigma because of the intimate relationship poker has attached to gambling, is now somehow in vogue as home games, poker parties, and pilgrimages to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Los Angeles to play cards are common occurrences. People religiously watch the barrage of programming on ESPN during the World Series, the World Poker Tour, and cash game play like "Poker After Dark" and "High Stakes Poker".

Moneymaker proved to the world that someone really only needs to understand the basics of the game, get lucky, and those are the rudimentary ingredients to tournament poker success. Tournament poker offers the ordinary joe the opportunity to risk a relatively small amount of money to cash in on a huge payday, which largely explains fundamentally why poker has risen to the levels of popularity that it has. As a devout live ring game player, I couldn't welcome the popularity of poker more. But it doesn't mean I don't get a little annoyed when a small buy-in tournament player sits down at the table thinking they are a pro, and then proceed to beat me out of a pot as a result of luck and bad play. This is a common (but quiet) grumbling among cash game players that have learned to take the good with the bad as a result of poker's growth. Like sports, many play, but only a very small group of players ever have hope of rising to the top.

When I look back from where I started as a new player over eight years ago, it's astonishing to me that so much has changed. A casino that does not have a card room that spreads No Limit Hold em' is in the minority, online poker has raked in billions of dollars and has been shunned and shut down by congress, tournament fields are larger than anyone ten years ago every dreamed of them being, and a game that professional player's hid from their family and friends now flaunt it with great pride. All of this stemmed from one man, an ordinary tax accountant from Arkansas named Chris Moneymaker.

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