A Life-Altering Triumph
Fame Takes Champs Away From the Sadle
To say winning the World Series is a life-changing experience is the understatement of all time. And it isn't just the money. It's everything. Just ask the 2 World champs.
Take Chris Moneymaker: Before he won his $2.5 million in 2003, he was just a small-time player. His story is now legend. He won a $39 online satellite, then went on an amazing run in the Main Event, and, even though it was his first live tournament and he was woefully inexperienced, won the whole enchilada.
Chris became an overnight sensation and showed millions of new players clicking away on the Internet that poker dreams can come true.
The win put an end to his days as an accountant, but his wife didn't want to be married to a poker player. So there went his marriage. Chris has since remarried and has a new baby, but he hasn't forgotten his roots, he lives just three miles down the road from his old place in suburban Nashville, in a nicer house, of course.
Chris has been in such demand as a celebrity that he has little time for poker. He has four cashes since the win, the biggest being second-place in the 2004 Bay 101 Shooting Star, when he lost to Phil Gordon, but took home $200,000.
"I don't play much these days, and last year was just brutal for appearances," he says. "My wife says you either play poker or do the endorsements. So right now I'm doing endorsements and establishing my company, and I'll play poker later. I try to play online when I can." (The company will make high-end poker chips and accessories, and there are plans to put his picture on slot machines.)
One event he won't miss, of course, is this year's WSOP Main Event. He will also play the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E and maybe a few others, but then probably won't play the rest of the year.
It's been a whirlwind for Joe Hachem since he won the richest prize in poker history in 2005: $7.5 million. The Australian says he spent half of 2005 in the U.S., away from home.
"My life changed completely, and I was totally unprepared for it," he says. "Everything's changed but me and my wife."
He says he's spent more time in the air than on the ground in 2005, but he has no complaints. "I've met new and different people all over the world in some of the most beautiful places in the world. I feel like I'm the luckiest man on the planet."
Before his win, Hachem was a mortgage broker, but played $25-$50 and $50-$100 no-limit and pot-limit hold'em online for four to five hours per day. He played online because his local gambling hall, Crown Casino in Melbourne, did not yet have games high enough to suit his thirst for quality competition.
"I made a healthy living online. I just took the (mortgage) job to make my wife happy."
Hachem has found time to cash four times since his win, the biggest being fifth place in a WSOP Circuit event at Bally's Las Vegas for $88,000. Prior to the World Series, his biggest cash was $4,518.
"I wish I had the time to play more," the Aussie says, adding that he definitely will compete in six or seven events at the WSOP.