Chris Moneymaker Signs with America’s Cardroom
Chris Moneymaker, one of the most recognizable names in poker, has signed a sponsorship deal with Americas Cardroom. He became famous after winning the 2003 WSOP Main Event and $2.5 million first place prize, and caused an explosion of interest in internet poker.
As the flagship online poker room of the Winning Poker Network (WPN), Americas Cardroom is a leading online poker room serving the United States market with an offshore license.
Moneymaker and ACR jointly announced the new deal on social media.
“You guessed it, I’m a new pro at Americas Cardroom,” said Moneymaker in a promotional video announcing the signing. “I’m really proud to join the team and looking forward to working with you guys,” he added, calling it “the fastest online poker internet site in the world.”
The signing comes less than a month after Moneymaker and his former sponsor, PokerStars, parted ways, which ended a 17-year run for Moneymaker at his prior sponsorship.
In a video response to his split with PokerStars at the end of 2020, the Poker Hall of Famer said that he was likely going to “play a little less poker in the immediate future and explore other endeavors.”
The new deal suits his current lifestyle better. His prior contract required him to travel globally, since PokerStars has little foothold in the US market, operating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Meanwhile, Americas Cardroom is available to poker players in all 50 states. Moneymaker doesn’t have to travel to New Jersey just to play an online poker tournament, but he could play on ACR from the comfort of his Mississippi home.
“I’m 45 years old, I’ve got 3 kids, I can’t not work,” said Moneymaker. “But I’m not qualified for anything anymore. I couldn’t do your taxes as good as H&R block could do them. My only qualification in life is ‘Do you want fries with that?’”
Moneymaker isn’t the first big name that PokerStars dropped. In 2019 fellow Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu parted ways with them. With Moneymaker’s signing, both Negreanu and Moneymaker have found new sponsorship homes as Negreanu signed a deal with GGPoker just five months after his departure from PokerStars.
Moneymaker joins a lineup that is full of poker’s newer faces, including vloggers Jeff “Boski” Sluzinski and Ryan DePaulo, as well as streamers Jon Pardy, Drew Gonzalez, and Ebony Kenney.
