Poker Stories Podcast With Chris Moorman

Poker Stories is a long-form audio series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Age: 32
From: Basildon, United Kingdom
First Live Tournament Cash: 2008
Combined Live and Online Tournament Earnings: $19.3 million
Best Score: 2nd Place – 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event ­— $1,068,690

The Highlights

On dealing with bullies as a kid…

“I was a bit of a nerd. Those first few weeks, if you make the [wrong friends] then you are screwed. I was at that school for seven years, so once you got that tag, you weren’t escaping it. I learned to deal with it, and played the fool a bit too much. I did silly stuff, stupid stuff, just to make fun of myself, hoping they would go easy on me. When I was one-on-one with somebody, they were nice to me, but in a group of people, they would turn on me.”

On the lie he told his parents when he started playing poker…

“By the end of the summer, I was playing $1-$2, bigger tournaments. At the time, I hadn’t told my parents that I was doing this, because I didn’t think they’d go for it. They didn’t even know I was playing poker, so I told them I got a job in the local supermarket. [My mom] was proud that I had shown some initiative to go and get a job, because it felt like it was out of my range. She was doubtful about it, so I had to make up a fake [coworker] friend called Adam. But you were supposed to get a staff discount card after a couple months and whenever I would see her, my mom would ask about it and I had to tell her that I left it at home. I [somehow] got away with it.”

On his the rise and fall of his staking empire…

“The first couple of months were slow, until the PCA, where one of my horses, Ty Reiman, played the $10,000 main event. In the end, he comes second for $1.8 million. I get half, plus the make-up, so basically the better part of a million dollars. It immediately got me hooked. Word spread that I backed him, so instantly my Facebook messenger blew up. I didn’t even check people’s hand histories, I was way too lackadaisical about it, and took on everyone basically. At one point, I was backing over 30 guys by myself. I won the Triple Crown in backing (he backed a WPT, EPT and WSOP winner), and still lost money overall. I just took on too many players. I’m surprised it worked out as long as it did. Every time it seemed like it was all going to go under, someone would have a million-dollar score and I could just put everyone back in all the [online events]. I was funding the poker community.”

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