Chris Moneymaker Talks Run It Up Resorts Rumble and Online Poker in NJ
The PokerStars New Jersey Run It Up Resorts Rumble is coming up tomorrow, Saturday, May 14, at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, and one of the hosts of the event will be none other than Chris Moneymaker, a member of PokerStars Team Pro and winner of the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Moneymaker also serves as ambassador for the Hollywood Poker Open tour, and at the HPO's recent stop in Columbus, PokerNews caught up with Moneymaker to chat a little about the Run It Up Resorts Rumble and online poker in New Jersey. As expected, Moneymaker is excited about the event.
"The Run It Up Resorts Rumble is basically myself, Jason Somerville, Barry Greenstein, Liv Boeree, and Vanessa Selbst, and we're going to be hosting a day at Resorts where you come, have breakfast with us, talk strategy, talk hands, hangout, or whatever," Moneymaker said. "We're going to have a tournament that's a live tournament online — it's calling an 'onlive' tournament — and it's a unique concept that only people present at Resorts will be able to participate in. We'll have another tournament online for everyone in New Jersey to participate in, and then we'll have a party that night for a lot of fun."
Fun will certainly be had, and there will be plenty of opportunity for those in attendance to talk with Moneymaker and the other pros about anything they'd like. Plus, there's much more on tap than just breakfast, a poker tournament, and a party. For more of what to expect from the Run It Up Resorts Rumble, click here.
This won't be the first time Moneymaker makes the trip up to the Garden State for some poker, and we're sure it won't be his last. But, online poker in New Jersey has only been legal and regulated for a few years now, with PokerStars recently launching in March. Knowing that Moneymaker's been there to play on the client, we asked what he thought.
"It's been great," he said. "PokerStars in New Jersey has a pretty wide range of mixed games, and they always have no-limit games running all the time. The traffic is a little bit less than what you're used to, with 1,000 people or so online at any given time, but I've never had any problem finding a game at high stakes, mid stakes, or low stakes. As it grows, hopefully, and with different states, hopefully they'll merge and the player pool will increase. Right now the tournaments are a little bit smaller, but they're still hitting some good guarantees and the future looks pretty good for it. For a state like New Jersey to get the numbers they're getting, I'm pretty happy with it."
As for online poker in general, it played a huge part in making Moneymaker who he is today. After all, if he didn't win that $86 satellite to the WSOP Main Event on PokerStars in 2003, then we'd likely never been talking about the man from Nashville, Tennessee. But now he's a regular name in all poker households, and it's those households that Moneymaker would like to see online poker return to. If that happens, it'll help return poker to the glory days.
"Honestly, for poker it's one of the most important things we can do — get online poker back," he said. "You know, Joe Hachem said poker was dying after Black Friday, and everybody sort of knows that poker has definitely plateaued or not grown because it's lost a lot of its 'cool factor.' Not only does online bring back online poker and the ability for people to learn and play for lower stakes, but it also brings back sponsorship dollars, it brings back advertising dollars, it brings back TV, and all sorts of things that make poker boom like it did before. It's one of the most important things that can happen in poker — actually, it is the most important thing as far as the growth of the game goes."
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