The Weekly PokerNews Strategy Quiz: The Chris Moneymaker Birthday Edition

11-21-2015 75389 responses Top results

Happy Saturday everyone, and happy birthday to Chris Moneymaker who turns 40 today!

Reaching that milestone makes the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame, and the topic of whether or not he’ll be considered when balloting comes around again next year is already being bandied about today over Twitter. (What do you think? Should Moneymaker be a PHOFer?)

For our purposes today we’ll set that debate aside and instead challenge you with eight questions regarding Moneymaker’s historic victory in 2003, an event considered by many to be at the heart of the subsquent “boom” in poker marking the mid-2000s.

Get six or more of these questions correct earns you a passing grade. And even though the idea of you missing any would be beyond fairy tale — inconceivable — if you happen to get any wrong, you’ll be given an explanation of the correct answer.

Start Quiz

Question 1

As we all know, Moneymaker earned his $10K 2003 WSOP Main Event seat via a satellite on PokerStars. Many have reported he entered a $39 satellite to win his seat, but in truth he initially entered a $86 satellite to win an entry into a $650 satellite from which he won his ME seat. So starting with $86, Moneymaker eventually won a $2.5 million first prize, meaning his ROI was...

Question 2

From the 839 players who began, 385 made it through Day 1 with Barry Greenstein the chip leader and Moneymaker in 26th position. Moneymaker overslept on Day 2 and was late sitting down, causing him to worry that he would...

Question 3

A total of 111 players made it to Day 3 of the 2003 WSOP Main Event, during which Moneymaker found himself in a big hand versus two-time WSOP ME champ Johnny Chan. On a flop of 4h-Ad-3h, Moneymaker bet, Chan raised, Moneymaker shoved, and Chan called all in. Moneymaker had Ah-8h and Chan Kh-5h. The turn was the 9h, leaving Chan how many outs to survive?

Question 4

The money bubble burst late on Day 3, then 45 players returned for Day 4. Early on a hand arose that saw Humberto Brenes call Moneymaker’s shove following a 9d-Kc-2d flop. Brenes was the one at risk, but he had Ah-Ad versus Moneymaker’s 8h-8d, making Brenes a favorite of...

Question 5

Alas for Brenes, the turn brought the 8c to give Moneymaker a set of eights, suddenly reducing the chance of Brenes surviving down to...

Question 6

Near the very end of Day 4 they had played all of the way down to just 10 players at which point a dramatic hand occurred that saw just Moneymaker and Phil Ivey left with the board showing Qh-6s-Qs-9c. Moneymaker led, Ivey raised all in, and Moneymaker called, turning over Ah-Qd for trip queens. But Ivey had 9h-9s for a full house, leaving Moneymaker only...

Question 7

Moneymaker had the chip lead to start the final table, and was still leading to begin heads-up versus Sammy Farha. In the famous “Bluff of the Century” hand, Moneymaker shoved the river with king-high and got Farha to fold a pair of nines. On the previous street, the board was 9s-2d-6s-8s when Farha bet (with Qs-9h), then Moneymaker raised (with Ks-7h) as a...

Question 8

On the final hand, Farha reraise-shoved all in following a Js-5s-4c flop with Jh-10d for top pair, but Moneymaker called him with 5d-4s for bottom two. The turn was the 8d, meaning with one card to come Farha needed what to come on the river for him to survive?