Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?
Moneymaker: I started off by playing blackjack and betting on sports and wasn’t good at either one. I was in a casino and saw over in the corner that there was a poker room and thought it would be fun to sit down and give it a try. I figured out that I could sit there all day, have fun, be in a casino, and not lose all of my money.
PND: Walk us through your thought process during the monster bluff that you were able to pull off against Sammy Farha during the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Moneymaker: What many people don’t realize is that I actually talked about a deal with Sammy to split the money and play for the bracelet when we started playing heads-up. He said he wanted more money than me even though I had a 3:1 chip lead. Essentially, he was telling me that he thought he was a better player than I was. I turned down the deal and said that we should play it out. I knew he was a better player, he wanted to play small ball, and he wanted to grind me down. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I was going to gamble with him. I was going to make him pay for any draws that he had and put him in uncomfortable spots. That was my game plan going in.
When that hand came up, I turned an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. When he bet and I raised, I really thought that he was going to fold. I thought he had second pair and maybe the ace of spades. At that point, I was hoping for a spade not to fall. I was hoping to hit my straight. I knew that he didn’t have a flush at that point. By knowing that, I knew that he couldn’t call any river bet unless a spade came. If the spade came, consequently, I would have had the best hand and I would have checked. My intention was to move all in on any river card that wasn’t a spade.
The card that came missed me completely and missed him completely and I went with my gut that he didn’t have a flush. He wasn’t going to call the rest of his chips off without at least having a straight or, more likely, a flush. So, I made the move fully expecting him not to think about it and just lay it down, but then he said “You missed your flush.” It was a little bit harder to breathe and it was a bit tough to swallow, but I tried not to move and tried not to give anything away. About seven or eight hours earlier, Sammy said something to Amir Vahedi. Sammy instantly called him when he was bluffing because Vahedi said something back. I just tried not to say anything to give him any information.
PND: Your win marked a historic moment for the game of poker. Did you have any indication that poker would become as big as it is now?
Moneymaker: I had no idea. I had been playing poker on the internet and was playing smaller stakes. On PokerStars, the Sunday Million was actually the Hundred Grand at the time. There were 200 people signing up to play; it was very small. The biggest cash game was $30/$60 Limit or $5/$10 No Limit. Never in a million years would I haven thought that we would be having tournaments with $25,000 buy-ins or $10 million guaranteed. It’s really insane where we’re at in poker. I had no idea that it would ever get close to this.
PND: What about PokerStars has made it a premier online poker site?
Moneymaker: They really listen to the players. They get a lot of requests for different things and try to adapt and change accordingly. It’s player-friendly and you know that your funds are safe. People like that when you write into PokerStars, you get a person to respond. It’s not an automated response. Every e-mail that is sent to PokerStars gets to an actual person on the other end. They’re very good about keeping in contact with their customers. That plus the fact that their software is really good makes it an easy place to play.
PND: What advice do you have for players just getting started in the game?
Moneymaker: Take your time and learn the game. Spend three days per week playing and three days per week learning about the game. Play smaller stakes and try different styles. Try playing really tight one day and really aggressively another day and see what fits for you. Try to incorporate new things into your game. Watch what the successful people at your table are doing and try to emulate them. Watch the bad players and try to figure out how to expose them. That’s what the game is about: finding the weak spots and exposing them.
