PokerStars May 2003

If you don’t know what happened in 2003, you’re new to poker or you really haven’t been paying attention.

Chris Moneymaker, a Tennessee accountant, won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, but he started with an $86 satellite, which gained him entry into a $650 satellite. Moneymaker was one of three to get a $10,000 seat to the WSOP.

With the popularity gained by Moneymaker as the story made headlines worldwide, the number of players on the site doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 within five months, what PokerStars calls “a ripple of ‘The Moneymaker Effect.’