Former world champ Chris Moneymaker is weeks away from opening a poker room.
The 2003 WSOP Main Event winner told PokerNews he plans to launch a social card room in Kentucky next month, and he's naming it Moneymaker's.
Prior to COVID-19, he considered dipping into the booming Texas poker scene, but inevitably decided against doing so. Instead, he's opening a room in Paducah, a town of approximately 25,000 northwest of Nashville, Tennessee, and about three hours from Moneymaker's home in Mississippi.
Details About the New Chris Moneymaker Poker Room
Moneymaker is going solo in this business venture and he received a business license on June 9, 2022 under the name Moneymaker's Social Club as a limited liability corporation (LLC), according to public records. The business name explains the type of card room he'll be opening, a social club much like the way poker rooms in Texas operate due to the stringent gambling laws.
The former world champ opted for Kentucky as opposed to Texas, as he explained, due to less competition in the Bluegrass State. Poker is booming in Texas and card rooms are popping up left and right across the state. In Kentucky, however, only one other social card club exists, which means competition is much lighter.
Social poker clubs operate differently than traditional poker rooms. They can't take rake out of cash game pots as that would be illegal, and instead operate as membership-based clubs.
Moneymaker's, according to the former PokerStars ambassador, will have eight poker tables but room for more if he hosts bigger tournaments. He doesn't have an official opening date just yet, but anticipates it will take place at some point next month.
For the third straight year, Moneymaker reached Day 4 and cashed in the World Series of Poker Main Event, his first three cashes in the tournament since he won it 19 years ago. He was eliminated on Sunday in 1,198th place for $15,000.
After exiting the Main Event, he registered for both the $1,979 Hall of Fame Bounty and $1,111 One More for One Drop events. At the time of publishing, he was in the money in the One Drop at dinner break with a large stack that he quickly spun up.
