We’ve all heard the phrase before, usually from a player who just punted off their tournament stack and is left with no other options but to flick their last remaining chip into the pot and utter the poker player’s prayer: ‘a chip and a chair.’
It rarely works, but when it does, it is truly glorious.
Not since Jack “Treetop” Straus famously won the 1982 World Series of Poker Main Event after being down to his final chip have the poker gods blessed the chip and a chair battle-cry as much as they did recently to another legend of the game: Chris Moneymaker.
No stranger to a golden run, Moneymaker, who famously won the 2003 Main Event after earning his entry via an $80 satellite, scored another massive payday after coming back from just one chip to capture the Triton Super High Roller Series $25K title and $903,000 first-place prize.
The incredible journey in Montenegro from near-bubble boy to champion was documented and recently released on the ACR Poker YouTube page.
Here are 3 things I learned watching the captivating recap of this unlikeliest of events.
- Satellites Remain The Nuts
Before we get into Moneymaker’s unreal spin-up, let’s give a shout out to ACR player qualifier Brandon who parlayed a $33 satellite entry into his own $77,000 payday.
Moneymaker himself sang Brandon’s praises, saying he played absolutely fearlessly on the bubble, chipping up nicely to set himself up for the deep run. Unfortunately, Brandon’s golden run ended in 11th place when he ran eights into nines, but he did an incredible job of following in the footsteps of the world’s most famous satellite winner and of reminding us that so long as satellites continue to exist, the poker dream is alive and well.
- Lady Luck Is Forever Undefeated
Proving that lightning does indeed strike twice, Moneymaker accomplished the unthinkable, starting the incredible comeback by surviving an all-in on the $41,000 money-bubble, spiking an ace on the river against his opponent’s queens. Moneymaker would then go on to win a string of unlikely all-ins including river wins with 65s vs KQ, KQ vs 33 and K9 vs QQ with just 4 players left.
Obviously, accomplishing the chip and chair comeback is going to require not just a little luck, but an avalanche of it, and Chris definitely had that on this day. However, what those who criticize players for a run of positive variance fail to recognize is that 1) the amount of luck required to win any poker tournament, let alone one chock-full of high level professionals, is far higher than it seems and 2) what separates professionals from amateurs isn’t the amount of luck they do or don’t have, but the effort, resilience, and progress they make in the countless moments in between the runs.
So, revel in the win Chris, luck and all. Nobody deserves the run-good more than the champion who ignited the online poker boom!
- ICM Is For Poor People, Allegedly
Following the historic win, Moneymaker was interviewed alongside fellow ACR Pro Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero who dropped the quote of the tournament when he let the world know that “ICM is for poor people,” a reference to Moneymaker’s willingness to take risks and go for the win rather than ladder up the payouts like ICM strategy dictates.
Adding to the humor of the moment, Moneymaker joked “I did try to play ICM,” to which Nacho responded in his classic style “well you didn’t succeed.”
Funny as it was, the real takeaway here is that each player has to decide for themselves whether they’re looking to maximize their lifetime earnings or their shot at a title. Whether it’s for $900,000 at Triton or $900 at your local casino, everyone has to ask themselves: “what do I value more, the chips or the trophy”?
On this day, Moneymaker’s answer was clear: there was only one consideration in play, and that was to win the title, which he did in about as epic fashion as possible.
See the incredible run for yourself here.
