2003 World Series of Poker

2003 World Series of Poker at the 2003 World Series of Poker
Location	Binion's Horseshoe, Las Vegas, Nevada
Dates	April 15 – May 23
Competitors	839
Total prize money	$7,802,700
Champion
Chris Moneymaker
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The 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a poker tournament held at Binion's Horseshoe. The tournament is seen as a turning point in the history of competitive poker, as amateur Chris Moneymaker's victory in the main event despite no prior tournament experience was widely regarded as bringing with it a surge in public interest and popularity in the game, known as the Moneymaker effect, or the Poker boom. ^{[1] [2]} Moneymaker entered the tournament from a ticket won in an online PokerStars table. ^[3]

Events

There were 35 preliminary bracelet events at the 2003 World Series of Poker. ^[4] Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Phil Hellmuth all tied Johnny Moss's career bracelet record with their ninth. Men Nguyen finished runner-up in two events in this World Series.

#	Date	Event	Entries	Winner	Prize	Runner-up	Results
1	April 15, 2003	$500 Casino Employees Limit Hold'em	208	David Lukaszewski (1/1)	$35,800	Paul Trieglaff	Results
2	April 16, 2003	$2,000 Limit Hold'em	422	Mohammed Ibrahim (1/1)	$290,420	Jon Brody	Results
3	April 17, 2003	$1,500 Seven-card stud	177	Toto Leonidas (1/1)	$98,760	Rallis Peter Tanagiotias	Results
4	April 18, 2003	$2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	175	Chris Ferguson (1/4)	$123,680	Barry Bindelglass	Results
5	April 19, 2003	$2,000 No Limit Hold'em	407	Jim Meehan (1/1)	$280,100	Guy Calvert	Results
6	April 20, 2003	$1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em	212	Prahlad Friedman (1/1)	$109,400	Bernd Rygol	Results
7	April 21, 2003	$1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split	190	Minh Nguyen (1/1)	$106,020	Bob Mangino	Results
8	April 22, 2003	$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha	117	Erik Seidel (1/6)	$146,100	Men Nguyen (0/4)	Results
9	April 23, 2003	$2,000 H.O.R.S.E.	113	Doyle Brunson (1/9)	$84,080	Brian Haveson	Results
10	April 24, 2003	$2,000 1/2 Hold'em, 1/2 Seven Card Stud	89	Chris Ferguson (2/5)	$66,220	Diego Cordovez (0/1)	Results
11	April 25, 2003	$2,500 No Limit Hold'em	259	Phi Nguyen (1/1)	$222,800	Jim Miller	Results
12	April 26, 2003	$2,500 Limit Hold'em	194	Phil Hellmuth (1/8)	$171,400	Young Phan	Results
13	April 27, 2003	$2,500 Seven Card Stud	103	Michael Saltzburg (1/1)	$95,580	Mimi Tran	Results
14	April 28, 2003	$5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw	28	O'Neil Longson (1/2)	$147,680	Allen Cunningham (0/2)	Results
15	April 29, 2003	$5,000 No Limit Hold'em	127	Johnny Chan (1/8)	$224,400	Surinder Sunar	Results
16	April 30, 2003	$1,500 Limit Omaha	120	Eddy Scharf (1/2)	$63,600	Dave Colclough	Results
17	May 1, 2003	$1,500 Limit Hold'em	346	John Arrage (1/1)	$178,600	Kathy Liebert	Results
18	May 2, 2003	$2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	135	Layne Flack (1/4)	$119,260	Men Nguyen (0/4)	Results
19	May 3, 2003	$2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em	214	Mickey Appleman (1/4)	$147,280	Brian Plona	Results
20	May 4, 2003	$1,000 Seniors' No Limit Hold'em	378	Ron Rose (1/1)	$130,060	Ron McMillan	Results
21	May 5, 2003	$2,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split	140	John Juanda (1/2)	$130,200	Shawn Sheikhan	Results
22	May 6, 2003	$1,500 No Limit Hold'em	531	Amir Vahedi (1/1)	$270,000	Cleve Haley	Results
23	May 7, 2003	$2,000 S.H.O.E.	135	Daniel Negreanu (1/2)	$100,440	Jim Pechac	Results
24	May 8, 2003	$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha	85	Johnny Chan (2/9)	$158,100	Emmanuel Sebag	Results
25	May 9, 2003	$1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout	220	Layne Flack (2/5)	$120,000	Annie Duke	Results
26	May 10, 2003	$3,000 Limit Hold'em	154	Tom Jacobs (1/1)	$163,000	Jan Sjavik	Results
27	May 11, 2003	$5,000 Seven-Card Razz	30	Huck Seed (1/4)	$71,500	Phil Ivey (0/4)	Results
28	May 11, 2003	$1,000 Ladies' 1/2 Hold'em, 1/2 Stud	112	Barb Rugolo (1/1)	$40,700	J. J. Liu	Results
29	May 12, 2003	$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	259	Frankie O'Dell (1/1)	$133,760	Bill Schonsheck	Results
30	May 13, 2003	$3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em	218	Charles Keith Lehr (1/1)	$225,040	Chris Ferguson (0/5)	Results
31	May 14, 2003	$5,000 Seven Card Stud	96	Men Nguyen (1/5)	$178,560	Mel Judah (0/2)	Results
32	May 15, 2003	$3,000 No Limit Hold'em	398	Phil Hellmuth (2/9)	$410,860	Daniel Negreanu (0/2)	Results
33	May 16, 2003	$2,500 Pot Limit Omaha	120	John Juanda (2/3)	$203,840	O'Neil Longson (0/2)	Results
34	May 17, 2003	$5,000 Limit Hold'em	143	Carlos Mortensen (1/2)	$251,680	Mark Gregorich	Results
35	May 18, 2003	$1,500 Ace to Five Triple Draw Lowball	78	Men Nguyen (2/6)	$43,520	Charles Keith Lehr (0/1)	Results
36	May 19, 2003	$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event	839	Chris Moneymaker (1/1)	$2,500,000	Sam Farha (0/1)	Results

Main Event

There were 839 entrants to the main event. ^[5] Each paid $10,000 to enter, with the top 63 players finishing in the money. It was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick and mortar casino at the time. Many entrants, including the overall winner Chris Moneymaker, won their seat in online poker tournaments. ^[6] Moneymaker defeated professional Sam Farha heads-up with two pair, which improved to a full house on the river, over Farha's pair of jacks. ^[7] The 2003 Main Event was the first tournament to pay out at least $2,500,000 to the winner. Dan Harrington made the final table and looked to win his second Main Event championship, but fell short in third place. ^[8]

Final table

Name	Number of chips (percentage of total)	WSOP Bracelets*	WSOP Cashes*	WSOP Earnings*
Chris Moneymaker	2,344,000 (27.9%)	0	0	0
Amir Vahedi	1,407,000 (16.8%)	1	4	$314,950
Sam Farha	999,000 (11.9%)	1	2	$193,140
Tomer Benvenisti	922,000 (11.0%)	0	0	0
David Singer	750,000 (8.9%)	0	8	$93,115
Jason Lester	695,000 (8.3%)	0	11	$128,200
Dan Harrington	574,000 (6.8%)	2	7	$1,325,858
Young Pak	360,000 (4.3%)	0	4	$33,819
David Grey	338,000 (4.0%)	1	7	$306,664

*Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2003 Main Event.

Final table results

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Chris Moneymaker	$2,500,000
2nd	Sam Farha	$1,300,000
3rd	Dan Harrington	$650,000
4th	Jason Lester	$440,000
5th	Tomer Benvenisti	$320,000
6th	Amir Vahedi	$250,000
7th	Young Pak	$200,000
8th	David Grey	$160,000
9th	David Singer	$120,000

In The Money Finishes

NB: This list is restricted to In The Money finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.

Place	Name	Prize
10th	Phil Ivey	$82,700
11th	Minh Nguyen	$80,000
12th	Dutch Boyd	$80,000
13th	Freddy Deeb	$65,000
14th	Marcel Lüske	$65,000
15th	Bruno Fitoussi	$65,000
18th	Scotty Nguyen	$55,000
19th	Howard Lederer	$45,000
23rd	Dennis Waterman	$45,000
25th	Men Nguyen	$45,000
27th	Phil Hellmuth	$45,000
29th	Victor Ramdin	$35,000
31st	Jeff Shulman	$35,000
34th	Ken Lennaárd	$35,000
41st	Humberto Brenes	$25,000
42nd	Kevin Song	$25,000
45th	Paul Darden	$25,000
47th	Annie Duke	$20,000
49th	Barry Greenstein	$20,000
54th	Julian Gardner	$20,000
55th	David Chiu	$15,000
56th	Julien Studley	$15,000

References

1. Levy, Don Riddell,Glen (2021-11-17). "The Moneymaker Effect: Meet the man who helped change the fortunes of poker overnight". CNN. Retrieved 2025-06-01.
2. Pataskowski, Mark (2023-08-02). "Chris Moneymaker After the Poker Boom: 20 Years Later". PokerTube. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
3. "PokerStars Big 20 – 2003: Chris Moneymaker wins WSOP, sparks 'poker boom'". PokerStars.
4. "2003 World Series of Poker Tournament Schedule". World Series of Poker. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
5. Berman, Marc (2022-10-06). "Chris Moneymaker's Inspiring Story: From the 2003 WSOP to Now". Programming Insider. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
6. Lee, Bernard (2018-05-24). "The life and legacy of Chris Moneymaker, 15 years after his WSOP title changed poker". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
7. Wilgoren, Jodi (2003-05-25). "A Player Called 'Money' Wins World Poker Title". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
8. "Web players' success raises stakes on poker scene". Baltimore Sun. 2004-06-20. Retrieved 2025-03-07.

External links

• Tournament results at the World Series of Poker