It feels like yesterday that the new Moneymaker Tour was launching its inaugural stop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club. Time flies when you're launching a new poker tour.
Now, they've had several successful stops, ventured out of state and back, and return to where the magic happened back in south Florida.
First time through was full of highlights
The first time the Tour rolled through the Kennel Club provided memorable moments left and right.
Centenarian steals the show
It's where most of us were introduced to local legend Gene Calden. The then 100-year-old crusher on the felt spends many of his days at the poker club. He busted Chris Moneymaker out of several events, shipped one of the side events, and played on the feature table of the Main Event. Moneymaker and company loved the guy so much that they sent him to the WSOP Main Event in Vegas this year.
Calden may not have made a deep run in Vegas, but now they're back on his home turf. Will he show up to make some more deep runs while making Chris Moneymaker's life miserable? I wouldn't bet against it.
We thought Calden's story would be tough to beat. Then, Michael Rossi stepped up.
Michael Rossi pulls his best Chris Moneymaker impression
The series was capped off with a story so appropriate for a Moneymaker Tour launch it couldn't have been scripted any better.
Qualifying via a satellite on ACR, Michael Rossi took a Moneymaker-esque path to winning the inaugural Main Event.
Exactly 20 years to the day of Chris Moneymaker winning the WSOP Main Event back in 2003, Michael Rossi came full circle and won $134,265 from a $90 satellite entry. He defeated two-time WPT champion James Carroll in a heads-up match for the title.
Moneymaker and the team were so impressed with the story, they also threw in some unadvertised perks for their first champion. Partnering up with Phil Nagy, Moneymaker and ACR sent Rossi to both the WSOP Main Event and awarded him a $100k Triton London package. That's the sort of victory that can kickstart a career, and it all started at the Palm Beach Kennel Club.
Key dates for this stop
All the action kicks off today with the always-exciting Mystery Bounty. There will be eight flights into that opening event; that's plenty of chances to find a way into the bounty phase.
- Oct 25 - 29: $500 Moneymaker Mystery Bounty ($200k GTD)
- Nov 1: Moneymaker $1k Done in One Day ($50k GTD)
- Nov 2 - 6: $1,500 Moneymaker Main Event ($300k GTD)
In addition to those marquee events, there will be plenty of satellites, mixed games, and side events at price points for all players.
