10 years ago, he ignited poker’s big bang. Now Chris Moneymaker tells us how it almost didn’t happen

The flop is [Js] [5s] [4c]. Chris Moneymaker checks. Sam Farha bets 175,000. Moneymaker looks skyward and contemplates his next move.

“I’m gonna raise,” said Moneymaker, putting out a bet of 475,000.

Farha takes some time with his decision.

“OK, I go all in. Let’s go,” says Farha, holding [jh] [td].

Moneymaker calls, tabling [5d] [4s], and stands up to await his fate.

The turn is the [8d].

The river is the [5h].

Chris Moneymaker wins the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event and poker is never the same.

That fateful hand played out on May 23, 2003, — and this WSOP marks the 10th anniversary of the event that WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla labeled at the time as “the sonic boom of poker.”

In the 10 years that have passed since Moneymaker, then a 27-year-old accountant from Nashville, TN, won poker’s most prestigious title, the poker world has grown exponentially. But it almost didn’t happen — there were a number of times along the way that Moneymaker’s historic journey hit speed bumps.

The legend that grew out of Moneymaker’s win and the subsequent mainstream media attention that followed was that Moneymaker had won his way into the Main Event thanks to a $39 satellite on PokerStars.com. It’s true that Moneymaker qualified on the online site, but there were actually two tournaments Moneymaker needed to win to get a trip to Vegas and neither of them had a buy-in of $39.

The first was an $86 single table satellite — a sit-n-go — that allowed the winner to move on to a $650 mega satellite, which offered one WSOP seat for every $10,000 in the prize pool.

“I just remember logging on. PokerStars didn’t have the player base obviously that it has now, so sit-n-gos didn’t go off as often as they once did. That’s what I liked playing a lot more than anything else, because people played them so bad,” recalled Moneymaker. “So when I saw that they were almost full, I would always jump on. There were a couple times where I’d come to find out I’m playing satellites and not cash. I guess this was one of those times.”

That Wednesday night, Moneymaker came home from his nine-to-five job and promptly won that satellite — even though he was initially thinking he was playing for a cash prize.

Buy-in $80 + $6

Date: April 23, 2003

Money800 Hormones stack00 Eppie jlove72 kidtnt12 iffywicky lil jj timmers1

Chris “Money800” Moneymaker wins a seat into a $615 + $35 WSOP mega satellite. The runner-up, “Hormones,” wins $70 cash.

The following Saturday, Moneymaker registered for the 4 p.m. WSOP Cash Satellite. He was one of 67 players in the field, meaning the top three finishers would all be headed to Las Vegas to play in the WSOP. The remaining $8,205 in prize money would go to the eventual fourth-place finisher.

Over the next six hours, Moneymaker found himself playing well and he was still alive. Shortly before 10 p.m. “Bombardier” was eliminated in fifth place and Moneymaker, with bills to pay, was hoping to take home the cash prize rather than the WSOP seat.

“I saw that fourth place was $8,000, and I had $8,000 of credit card debt, so all I really

wanted was that fourth place,” said Moneymaker. “I didn’t want the seat and have to

play against the best players in the world.“

So the four players began discussing a deal that would have seen Moneymaker walk away with the $8,205 cash. Only, there was a problem; Moneymaker wasn’t the only one who was applying the one-in-the-hand, two-in-the-bush philosophy to the negotiations, another player wanted the cash.

“We were fighting basically over that $8,000, because he didn’t want the seat either. He just wanted the money as well,” said Moneymaker. A good friend of his was watching the action and saw the discussions in chat and called Moneymaker up.

“He was like ‘Dude, come on man, just take the seat, you’re good enough; you can do it.’ I said ‘Man, no, there’s no way.’ And he said ‘Listen, take the seat, I’ll give you $5,000, I’ll take half your action, and we’ll split it. And then you’ll have the $1,000 extra or that you get for travel expenses. So you’ll have like $6,000 in cash, you’ll have a Main Event seat, and you can take care of some of your bills and all that stuff from that other money.’ I was like ‘Cool. OK. That makes sense. I’ll do that,’” said Moneymaker. “We had a little bit more discussion, we couldn’t come to an agreement, so we all just said let’s play.”

It only took another 15 minutes for the tournament to finish. Moneymaker, along with “Hugefish2888” and “First Ward,” earned WSOP seats while “Gotmilk” got exactly what he wanted — the money. Moneymaker’s dream plan took a turn for the worse a few days later, though.

Money800 – WSOP Seat Hugefish2888 – WSOP Seat First Ward – WSOP Seat Gotmilk – $8,205 Bombardier Big Orange shortstuff JFGUAY beginnerluck

“The guy that I was on the phone with that was going to give me the $5,000, I guess had a bad week gambling and didn’t have the money anymore. So I was stuck with the Main Event seat, and $1,000 in cash, and that was it,” said Moneymaker. Knowing that PokerStars Terms and Services required satellite winners to take the seat, Moneymaker emailed customer service hoping for a miracle — and $10,000 cash.

“I wrote them and said ‘Hey, I don’t really want to play the Main Event, can I get $10,000 in cash,’ and the terms and services said that you win the seat, you have to play. I knew that going in, but I tried anyway, and they said no,” said Moneymaker. Hoping to pocket at least some cash, Moneymaker came up with another idea and he turned to his father, his brother and his best friend with what he openly told them was a “bad investment.”

His father Mike ended up taking 20 percent, his best friend David Gamble took another 20 percent and his brother Matt bought 10 percent. Even with $5,000 cash in his pocket Moneymaker wasn’t exactly full of confidence.

“My dad was always supportive, and I don’t know why my dad jumped at it. And Dave, I’d played poker with him before, and he knew