Chris Moneymaker: "I'm Very Excited" To Be Playing Online Again
The return of PokerStars to the United States via the regulated market of New Jersey has meant a lot of things to a lot of people.
For longtime PokerStars Team Pro and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, it means spending more time around his family, as he told PokerNews.
Moneymaker's kids didn't get to see their dad, who personified the everyman winning big in poker after qualifying for the WSOP Main Event via an $86 super-satellite, doing what made him famous. Now, Moneymaker can travel to New Jersey and grind online with the comfort of family close by and even spectating. Though too young to understand the game, his children enjoy watching him play against the colorful avatars on PokerStars.
"Have you beaten the clown yet?" Moneymaker said they ask him. "It's really cool that they're getting to the age now where they're interested in what I'm doing."
Juggling family and poker with quick sessions online brings Moneymaker back to the glory days of online poker, before April 15, 2011. When Black Friday hit, it ended a lifestyle for Moneymaker and countless other American grinders.
"At certain points during the day, I could play for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour," he said. "And then I could take them to school, take them to cheer. It was a lot of short sessions, but a lot of play that fit around my schedule."
When that went away, Moneymaker was like many players in that he expected things to be back to normal soon. Not so, and soon has turned into nearly five years, until the landmark launch on March 21. Now, Moneymaker can get a taste of his old life, but it's only "a step in the right direction" as online poker proponents hope to continue to momentum and get things legalized nationwide.
Check out everything Moneymaker had to say in the video below:
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