Everyone remembers the man with the all-too-fitting last name who shocked the poker world by winning the 2003 WSOP Main Event.
The fairytale ending and ESPN’s seemingly endless loop of reruns made him a household name overnight. A poker star was born.
But want to know the absolute truth? Chris Moneymaker didn’t ignite a worldwide poker boom or inspire millions of new players all by his lonesome. He had help.
Isai Scheinberg, the visionary behind a burgeoning poker site, envisioned a future that would redefine the game: 24/7 online tournaments, unparalleled service for players, and the gutsy signing of Chris Moneymaker as PokerStars’ face.
The rest is poker history. PokerOrg caught up with Chris for his take on Scheinberg’s candid interview, why he thinks Scheinberg isn’t in the Hall of Fame, and what he earned in his first year as a PokerStars ambassador.
Watch the highlights above or read on for more.
'Isai tore up our contract'
I’ll bet you had a ton of offers to be a poker ambassador after your Main Event win in 2003?
Nope. No one reached out because back then, there were only a couple of poker sites. Sponsorships and team pros were a relatively new thing.
PokerStars may have been the only site to have an ambassador when Tom McEvoy was on board back then.
It made perfect sense for you to sign with PokerStars.
Of course. I would go on to sign with PokerStars as an ambassador, given that I had won my seat on the site. They gave me that opportunity to play in the Main, so granted, I wanted to be on their site.
Would you care to share how much you banked for your first year on board?
My salary was $5,000 a month. I thought to myself, ‘They’re going to give me $60,000 a year to do nothing basically.’ That was more than I was making with my job. Good deal!
I was like, ‘Yeah, where do I sign? Let's do this.’ It was a three-year deal.
And PokerStars thrived. It was great timing for both of you.
It was. Their deposits went up something like a thousand percent, but obviously, they did all the right things. They pushed all the right buttons and made all the right business decisions to build a very successful and great company. They mostly did that through customer service and taking care of the players.
After PokerStars grew so fast the first year you were there, did you ever regret signing a three-year deal?
Not really. I signed the contract, that's just business. I was going to honor the three years and renegotiate when that time was over, or go somewhere else.
And what happened at the end of your first year?
Isai Scheinberg basically came back to me and said, ‘We sorely misjudged your impact on the game and what it's done to our company.'
He told me he would tear up our contract and do a different one. Basically, at that point, he had me for as long as he wanted me. I respected him wanting to do that for me.
Were you asking for a raise?
I hadn’t expressed to him at all that I was unhappy or asked for more money. I signed a three-year contract; I'm an adult. It may not be fair, but that's what you signed for.
At the time, I thought it was a great deal; a year later, I thought it was a terrible deal, but I had two more years to go.
But Isai tore up our contract and told me PokerStars could do better for me. It was then that I knew I would work for Isai until the wheels fell off. And that's what happened until he sold the company.
'For whatever reason, my fellow Hall of Famers have not voted him in'
Why do you think Mr. Scheinberg hasn’t been voted into the WSOP Poker HOF after all he's contributed to the game?
I think the game should recognize him. I think he should be in. It’s criminal that he’s not. As a Hall of Fame member, I get 10 votes every year. And for years, I gave him my 10 votes. I stopped doing it because he just wasn't getting the support from most anyone else. I felt like I was kind of wasting my votes.
Do you think he will ever be inducted? Has time run out on that opportunity for him?
I don't know why, but it doesn't seem like he's going to get in. I had Eric Hollreiser ask me, ‘Do you think they will do something like they did with giving Michael Mizrachi an automatic bid this year?’
For whatever reason, my fellow Hall of Famers have not voted him in. The difference with Grinder is that this summer, he pulled off something phenomenal in poker. It was a moment. Isai also did something phenomenal, but it was 20 years ago. He hasn't done anything to change hearts and minds in the last 10-15 years or so. So, if we were to take a vote, I would assume that most Hall of Famers would not put him in, as they did with Grinder.
Do you think some changes need to be made to the HOF?
Yes. The one thing I hate about the WSOP HOF is that one person gets in a year. You know, it was two for a long time. There's no way to have only one player inducted per year. It's just not enough. Just look at the backlog of people that we're going to have coming up.
And look at the number of foreigners we have now in the Hall of Fame. That is also criminal. We basically have zero; it's pretty much the American Poker Hall of Fame.
We wrote about that issue at the end of this year’s WSOP.
I saw that. I just don't know how admitting one a year, we're going to get people in that deserve to be in. And that's what kind of scares me about Isai because we have all these people coming up that are fresh in everyone's minds. It's unfortunately the society we live in — what have you done for me lately?
Isai’s contributions were made a long time ago, but for whatever reason, he hasn't gotten in. As I said, I think it’s a crime.
Do you think Mr. Scheinberg cares about getting in the HOF? He’s such a reserved and humble person.
I truly don't think he cares, knowing him as I do.
I know Isai spent hours upon hours on Two Plus Two, reading the forums, getting feedback, and listening to the players. He's a gamer. He loves poker.
Building PokerStars was like a pet project for him. He loves what he did with his company.
Chris Moneymaker is a Team Pro with ACR and the founder of the Moneymaker Poker Tour. Follow Chris on X.
