Chris Moneymaker Offers New Players Coaching Lessons

Home » Poker News » Chris Moneymaker Offers New Players Coaching Lessons

Friday, January 26th, 2018 | Written by Charles Washington

Anyone familiar with poker has heard the name Chris Moneymaker, who in 2003 helped kick off the poker boom after wining the World Series of Poker Main Event for $2.5 million. What made his WSOP victory stand out so much is that he earned his way through to the $10,000 tournament via an $86 satellite tournament on PokerStars. His success subsequently made him an overnight millionaire, as well as helping to inspire countless of other people around the world to take up the game.

Moneymaker Coaching Amateurs

As an integral part of the online game’s history, Chris Moneymaker was soon snapped up by PokerStars as a sponsored pro, and to act on their behalf promoting the poker lifestyle. Moneymaker’s duties include representing the brand at various live tournaments around the world, with his most recent sighting being at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas this month.

Meanwhile, Moneymaker has also shifted some of his focus towards providing new poker players with coaching sessions and recently he gave an interview where he discussed how poker pros can help the industry develop further by training the next generation of players. As he then explained in a statement:

“It’s not like this is some bad thing to learn or something hard thing to learn — it’s actually a very easy game to learn. It’s hard to master, but I can teach someone how to play in a couple of hours and they can go sit down and do okay.”

Elaborating further, Moneymaker said that he has taught poker at a number of different poker camps and was enjoying showing amateur players the ropes, as well as coaching players at a more advanced stage of development.

Moneymaker offers Poker Coaches Advice

Not content just to teach the game, Moneymaker has even started offering advice to those professionals already offering coaching services of their own. According to Moneymaker, poker coaches should get started by asking students about their poker playing experience and what they already know about the game. From there they can then teach the basics, including hand selection, blinds, antes, and the flow of a game. Students should subsequently be taken through practice hands involving face-up cards in order to work through some of the thought processes involved in playing a hand.

Finally, the coach can turn the cards face down and start a basic game. This is where novices learn if they need to play or fold a hand, and clearly demonstrates to them the difficulties associated with decision making and recognizing the strength of their hand compared to their opponent’s range. This is an intimidating step and one of the biggest hurdles a player can face. Overcoming this is an achievement in itself and any poker pro that gets a novice past this stage can turn them into a solid player that has every chance of succeeding in the game.

However, Moneymaker advises players to develop their game online first as this allows them to benefit from bonus offers, whilst avoiding the embarrassment associated with being outside of their comfort zone. Once enough experience, confidence and skills has been aquired, Moneymaker feels that players can then enjoy the social aspect of the game more by taking part in live games, thus enjoying the full range of entertainment that poker has to offer.

Poker Hall of Fame Nomination?

Considering the important part Moneymaker played in sparking the poker boom, the player has understandably had his name put forwards as a Poker Hall of Fame (PHoF) candidate. Only two people each year are nominated to join the PHoF, but in the meantime there are some who feel that Moneymaker shouldn’t be one of them because he hasn’t had any significant accomplishments outside of his historic victory at the 2003 WSOP Main Event.

In fact, outside of his major win Moneymaker has earned just over $1.1 million during his 14-year career tenure with Team PokerStars, equivalent to around $80 thousand a year. However, he has won just $252,074 over the past six years, or an average of $42,000 per annum. Nevertheless, Moneymaker has also given back to the poker community by coaching players and being a great brand ambassador for PokerStars and the game in general. Therefore, a case can be made for the player’s entry into the PHoF, which in turn would certainly prove the crowning glory in the career of a player that many consider to be poker’s “everyman”.