Chris Moneymaker might still be talked about as the 2003 WSOP Main Event champion, but with a good run of cards over the next two days, he could change all of that. The 2024 WSOP Super Main Event has a $50 million guarantee, the largest in poker history. If Moneymaker wins, he’ll more than double what he got from that historic win. And he won’t be far off doubling his entire career winnings over the past 20 years.
Moneymaker ended Day 3 with a top ten stack and just 36 players remaining. "I’m running good, playing good,” he says when we catch up with him shortly after he bagged for the night. “This is obviously a pretty special tournament.”
Anyone who still thinks that getting this deep relies solely on luck hasn’t been watching closely. The days are long and players know that one mistake, one lapse in concentration, could spell the end. It’s not easy playing top-level poker through multiple 10-hour days.
The Moneymaker game face is on.The grind is real
“I put a lot of effort into the last three days,” Moneymaker says. “I’m stumbling over here I’m so freakin tired. I’m ready to get some sleep. I’ve put everything into it and I’ve played probably the best poker I’ve ever played in the last three days. I’ve had a lot of interesting spots, a lot of good bluffs, and a lot of good laydowns. I’m real happy with most of my decisions.”
Most?
“There’s one big spot, and it’s killing me to know but I’ll never find out," Moneymaker says. "I almost called 14 million with ace-high and I’m pretty sure I would have been right.”
That hand was against Pablo Melogno, and the two players tussled a lot in the later levels of Day 3. The big river bet was on a 
board.
It’s the sort of decision that’s tough to make anytime, let alone late in the day when you’re surrounded by cameras and there are millions of dollars at stake.
They’re the spots that can also get in the way of a good night’s sleep, which is something all 36 players need before they go again at 12pm on Wednesday, when they’ll play down to the final table.
Moneymaker won a Triton in May this year but says a WSOP Super Main win would hit different.
WSOP Super Main Event win would be 'huge'
The champion will be crowned on Thursday night. Moneymaker’s been there before but what would it mean to win this one, 21 years after the most famous Main Event bracelet win of all time? Moneymaker sums that up in one word: “Huge.”
“Not only is this the second bracelet, but it’s the second real bracelet — a big bracelet,” Moneymaker adds. “This is probably the toughest field I’ve ever played. Tritons are tough but this structure is a bit slower than Triton. Triton gives you a break because the blinds go up a bit faster.
“You gotta play poker in this thing for a long time. A lot of seeing flops, a lot of playing post-flop. It’s a lot more difficult than at a Triton, where you are flipping a lot. If you get down to this point in a Triton, you are down to ten big blinds. You have to know your shove-call range.
“It’s a skill to know that and to know what you need to shove and fold with. Here there are more chips in play. The structure moved really fast during the rebuy and it feels like it’s slowed down a bit now. It feels like tomorrow we might get some play. We have to lose 27 players and it might take a while.”
Phil Hellmuth always talks about legacy when it comes to the WSOP. But that’s not what drives Moneymaker. He admits that he’s “pretty much done what he’s going to do.”
This is for himself. He’s always had to contend with trolls who claim his 2003 win was a fluke.
“This is just for me to prove,” Moneymaker says. “I guess I already know I can still do it. I’ve had so many good successes and good scores over the last year and a half. I’m super confident in my game and I really feel like I can compete with anybody. This is validation, I guess. Again. That I can come in and play against the best in the world and hold my own. This is more for me than my legacy.”
Play restarts in The Bahamas at 12pm ET and you can watch it play out live through our Instant coverage.
