Chris Moneymaker Quotes

“Although I have to say, it's become a lot harder for me since I won the world series because everyone wants to beat me. For example, bluffing is really tough now, because there's always someone who calls me on the off-chance that they'll then be able to say they read a world champion's bluff.”

“For the most part, I get to do what I want to do. If I want to play poker, I can. If I don't want to play poker, I don't have to.”

“I always pretend like I'm nervous no matter what. I try to fall asleep.”

“I don't like the way I ever appear on TV.”

“I don't play a lot of tournaments, but if I don't win a tournament in a year, people are like, 'What in the world is going on?' People don't realize how hard it is to win tournaments. You're not going to go out and play 10 tournaments and win one of them. Your odds aren't that good.”

“I used to sports gamble a lot and I was getting killed on that but then I found poker and really enjoyed it. But it was a hobby more than anything else. I played it every day but only on pretty small stakes.”

“I want people to understand that poker's not all glamorous, it's not all being on TV and making tons of money. It's a hard life. It's a lot of travel. It's a lot of weird hours.”

“I'm the first person in my family to play poker.”

“If you want to make money and have action, you need to work from like, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Those are the hours. That just doesn't fit with a lot of people's schedules. And that's just the start of it. You've got to realize what you are getting into.”

“If you're a poker player and you show up at a casino at 8 a.m., you're going to be by yourself or with some people that are rocks and just don't give you any action.”

“My biggest fear was public speaking, and then having everyone know who I was, it was definitely weird at first. When I first won, it was definitely a culture shock, it was something I wasn't quite ready for.”

“Never in a million years did I think the sport of poker would blow up the way it did.”

“Not having the online game has made it more difficult. There are a lot of young and upcoming players in poker. But you don't get to see them because TV has sort of been taken away.”

“Other than the fact that I don't have to work any more my life hasn't changed a bit.”

“Poker has such an element of competitivness that other games don't have.”

“Poker is meant to be enjoyed.”

“The beautiful thing about poker is that everybody thinks they can play.”

“The competition has improved tremendously. In 2003, I could teach a guy how to play poker in an hour and he could win some money. Today, it would take days. The game has gotten so much tougher. So I will spend my time with my family and play when I can.”

“The pros really like all the new people playing poker because they love the dead money; but when the money wins they don't like that very much at all.”

“When I had a full-time job, I really wasn't that busy, but now I'm really busy. I guess that's a good thing.”

“When I was broke, no one ever offered to buy me a beer. Now that I have quite a bit of money, everybody tries to buy me beers. Where were all these people back when I was in college and broke?”

“World Class players can lay down the toughest hands and play any two cards at any time without fear. Their reads are impeccable.”