Chris Moorman Eclipses $13 Million in Online Tournament Earnings
Chris Moorman has long been online poker's leading all-time money earner, and this weekend he put a little more distance between himself and everyone else when he eclipsed $13 million in online tournament earnings, according to PocketFives.com. Moorman reached the milestone after he took down the 888 Sunday Challenge for $18,809.
"I was close — about $50,000 away for awhile — and it was [the Turbo Championship of Online Poker] and a chance to get a big score, but I kept missing out so it was nice to go over the line with a win rather than just a min-cash or something like that," Moorman told Frank Op de Woerd of PokerNews while in Dublin for Day 1b of the European Poker Tour €5,300 Main Event.
The 888 Sunday Challenge boasted a prize pool of $102,504 thanks to 777 entries. The event surpassed its $100,000 guarantee and the top 99 spots reached the money. Moorman won the event playing under his 888poker screen name "WhatWudJSay."
With that, you might be asking yourself how someone like Moorman, who plays much larger buy-in events on the live tour and has seen it all in the virtual realm, keeps grinding as much as he does online.
"It's just little targets to keep me motivated when I play online because obviously I've played online for years, so I need set myself goals or else it becomes sort of a bit boring and mundane," Moorman said before he was asked about pushing onward to $15 million in online earnings as his next goal. "$14 million comes first. I'd like to win something big, like the [Spring Championship of Online Poker] Main Event or something. That would help."
It wasn't too long ago that Moorman became the first player in online poker history to surpass $10 million in online tournament winnings. Now, in less two-and-a-half-year's time since reaching that mark, Moorman has padded his résumé with another $3 million in winnings.
Also in that time period, Moorman got the live poker monkey off his back with his first major live title, winning the 2014 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic to the tune of $1.015 million. But after that big score, Moorman still remained someone who keeps travel to live poker events few and far between. We don't seem him grinding every single stop on the circuit like some pros, and we also don't see him playing every single event, day in and day out, when he's at a festival.
"I just haven't been traveling as much," Moorman said when asked about playing live events. "I've been kind of picking and choosing my events. It's funny, online poker I just love playing anything and everything, but live poker, if I bust a live tournament, I don't want to play another one the next day. Obviously poker's a lot of fun when you get deep and you're near a final table, but Day 1s, I just hate Day 1s. Even today, I waited to register when the antes came in — live poker's just not as exciting. It's more exciting when it's get deep, but it's hard to get deep when there's 500 or 600 people in the field."
We could be seeing Moorman more involved in the live poker scene should he get drafted for the Global Poker League. He said that he signed up to be eligible for the draft and could very well hear his name called come draft day. Given his dual prowess on the felt between online and live play, he could very well be a coveted selection. PokerNews asked if he has been thinking about the upcoming event.
"A little bit," Moorman said. "I registered and am excited for the draft. I'll be in L.A. for it and hopefully get drafted — not standing there like 'Pick me, pick me!' It should be interesting, and I'll support anything that's new in poker and give it a chance. I hope it works out."
Over in the archives of PocketFives.com, Moorman is nothing short of a legend. He's been ranked as the world's No. 1 player 22 times, won the yearly leaderboard in 2008 and 2009, and has won 25 PocketFives Triple Crown awards.
His largest online tournament cash came in 2011 on Full Tilt, where Moorman plays under the moniker "MoormanI." That biggest score was worth $235,592 for taking third in Full Tilt's special $1K Monday event that boasted a $2 million guaranteed prize pool. He has three other six-figures cashes on his online record.
Although he won the 888 Sunday Challenge on 888poker to eclipse the $13 million mark, the bulk of Moorman's online winnings come from PokerStars ($6.58 million) and Full Tilt ($3.842 million). On PokerStars, Moorman plays as " Moorman1."
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