Thursday, 28th March 2024 17:01
Home / Uncategorized / Moneymaker Tour: Poker is…

In the immortal phrasing of the NPR stalwart show Marketplace, “let’s do the numbers…”

109 unique players at Lucky Chances here in Colma, California fired a total of 145 $86 bullets into Friday’s qualifying day for the Moneymaker Tour. Added to the previous total of 628, we’re up to 773 total entries. Those of you who have an “over 1,000 entries in total” bet can start counting your money. The staff are already whispering nervously about the crowd for tomorrow (Saturday, the last day to qualify).

Catching up on yesterday’s chip leaders:

  1. Jompop Laongsuwan – 177k
  2. Brent Dady – 105k
  3. Thomas Cook (yes, the one from the photo) – 102k

The man of the hour, Chris Moneymaker, is coming into town this afternoon and will be at the casino tomorrow and Sunday – forecast calls for crowds throughout the day and scattered selfies. In the meantime…

This is Charles Allen, and he has been in the qualifier every day this week. Always has a different football (I mean the NFL, son) jersey on. But he brings the same good humor and positive spirit every day. Poker is colorful.

Maybe *yellow* is the lucky color…

I got to the table just as they erupted in laughter and pointing. The guy in the picture had pocket jacks and called a shove by a guy holding pocket 4’s. The flop came all aces, which pretty much sealed the deal. But the poor guy with 4’s rivered a pointless set. Poker is silly.

He rivered me. No wait… I win anyway. Stupid game.

Apparently nobody told this woman that poker players are supposed to look serious, ignore the camera, etc. Every time I swung the lens in her direction, she smiled and waved. So I went with it. Poker is friendly.

Hi mom, I’m on the PokerStars blog

Finally, when tribalism seems to have a death-grip on our society, I dare you to show me a more diverse group of people enjoying a game together, anywhere, under any circumstances. The poker world certainly has its problems, but at its best it gathers folks from across the spectrum around a table to play a game, and that’s got to be good for the planet. The Moneymaker Tour is providing many of these moments and I’m proud to be a part. Poker is, if nothing else, diverse.

Poker, diversity is thy name

Late update: here are the chip leaders coming out of Friday:

  1. Jonathan Finch – 178k
  2. Adi Berman – 135k
  3. Guilherme Borges – 128k
  4. Huihan Wu – 126k

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