I spent this last weekend with a bunch of writers at the North Carolina Writer's Network Fall Conference. Many of them make up good stories, but they'd be hard pressed to come up with a better story than the story of Chris Moneymaker.
Chris lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee, outside of Nashville, where he works as an accountant. Like a lot of us he enjoys playing poker. And like a lot of us, he probably imagined how great it would be to win the World Series of Poker and take home a pile of loot. Unlike a lot of us, though, Chris Moneymaker actually did it.
Back in May he parlayed a $40 entrance fee into winnings of two and a half million dollars. That's amazing enough, but what's more amazing is that when he walked into Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas and sat down at the tournament table it was the first time he had ever, ever sat in a room and bet against professional poker players.
Moneymaker, you see, developed his skills online. He played hundreds of hands there before he decided to try and qualify for the World Series of Poker.
Then, he got his entry stake of $10,000 by winning a tournament at Pokerstars.com. He financed his trip to Las Vegas by selling shares in potential winnings to his father, Mike and his friend Don Gamble (I'm not making this up either) who put up $2000 apiece.
That was quite an investment. They each got a cool half million as their share of Moneymaker's winnings.
There are advantages to learning to play online. Start with convenience. You don't have to go out or spend money to travel to a casino or card room. You can fit your play into your schedule. And then there's speed.
Online play is faster than play in a physical card room. The computer keeps track of the chips and accounting and deals quickly. There's never a misdeal. Some hands are finished in as little as thirty seconds.
The way you learn to play poker is to play lots of hands. Online you can play more hands in less time. You hone your skills online by playing against real people and betting real money. If you don't want to go that far right off the bat, there's a technological alternative.
The alternative is simulation software. Just a few years ago another amateur, James McManus, honed his game by playing against programs like Turbo Texas Hold'em. He finished fifth at the 2000 World Series of Poker and then wrote a best selling book about his experiences.
There's one small problem here. Gambling on the Internet, including playing poker there, is illegal. Most states have a law against it, but even if they don't, the Wire Act of 1961 prohibits the use of any wire-based communication, including the Internet , to place a wager.
So far there's been more discussion than enforcement of those laws, but that could change. In the meantime there's another technology that's boosting interest in poker tournaments.
The Travel Channel has been broadcasting World Poker Tour events since last year, and ESPN has done well with its World Series of Poker shows. They include an equivalent of play-by-play and color commentary along with a bit of promotion.
All the publicity is getting more folks interested in poker tournaments. At some of them, registration is double a year ago.
You can imagine all kinds of folks out there thinking, "Gosh, with just a little help from my technological friends, I can learn to play poker real good really fast and make tons of money."
The problem with that, like most get-rich-quick schemes, is that it isn't likely to work. The reason Chris Moneymaker is news is that his case is an exception. And, you never know, with all this publicity government prosecutors might decide it's a good time to take action.
In the meantime, Chris Moneymaker has paid his investors and his tax bill, donated $25,000 to cancer research, and socked the rest away to pay for his daughter's education.
17 November 2003
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