Poker Players Becoming Overnight Millionaires Winning Tournaments

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Poker Players love Live and Online Poker Tournaments because they are getting Rich! Read about some of the biggest ones to achieve fame in the Poker World below.

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Rags to Riches Winning Big Live and Online Poker Tournaments.

Poker Players are Winning Live and Online Poker Tournaments Making Big Money these days.

Poker is a game of chances, aided by some strategic techniques garnered through experience, intensive reading and a lot of exposure to different playing styles. Like every game of chance, it is quite possible in poker for players to “get lucky” and win grand and unexpected prize money.

In fact, the history of poker is filled with such stories- amateur players winning gold bracelets and first prizes in serious poker tournaments like the WSOP and WPT; recreational poker players finishing in the Money and winning cash and how can we forget – Chris Moneymaker.

Moneymaker was the person who beat professional poker players without any considerable prior experience in poker and changed the perception towards poker games and tournaments single handedly and made it immensely popular among common people and amateur players all over the world.

The introduction of grand scale and international poker tournaments and these non poker players making it big against the professionals and more importantly Chris Moneymaker’s victory, commonly referred to as “The Moneymaker Effect”, had a major role in the poker boom of 2003 – 2004.

Here are the stories of 5 such poker players who made it big and became an overnight success.

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Poker Players Winning Big Tournaments:

Poker Player Tom Dwan

Thomas Dwan Jr., also known by his screen name Durrrr, has the perfect rags to riches story to his credit. Dwan started playing poker when he was just 17 years old. Poker contributed to a major portion of Dwan’s wealth, making him the millionaire poker player and among the most feared poker professional.

He started his journey by participating in SnGs (Sit and Go events) on Full Tilt Poker, after earning sufficient money to purchase buy in for other games, he started participating in cash games and later moved on to heads up games. Soon, Dwan started playing in the high stakes games on Full Tilt Poker and earned more than $312,000 in 2007 at the age of 20! But, that’s not it. Later, in 2008, Dwan won $5.41 million playing high stakes poker games on Full Tilt Poker. He is known for his aggressive playing style that works for high stakes online poker games.

Poker Player Qui Nguyen

Qui Nguyen was born in born in Vietnam in 1977 and moved to California, US in 2001. He worked in a Nail Salon and began playing poker, participating in small limit, low cash Hold’em games. He later moved to Vegas and began playing No Limit Hold’em in small buy in events and went on to win and cash in many of those events.

Life changed for Ngyuen when he participated in a $1,100 satellite event to win a seat for WSOP. Needless to say, Nguyen won his WSOP satellite entry event in the big game and the rest is history. Ngyuen went on to defeat over 6,000 entrants in the $10,000 buy in No Limit Hold’em event in WSOP 2016 and made his way in to the November Nine.

In an intense and power packed game, Nguyen defeated Cliff Josephy and Gordon Vayo and grabbed the winner’s bracelet for the WSOP 2016 bragging rights along with a cash prize of over $8 million bucks!

Poker Player Benny Chen

Benny Chen is a restaurant manager from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Aside from his regular day job, Chen used to play poker on the side, but never made it big. As luck would have it, Chen went on to win the first ever $1,500 buy in re-entry No Limit Hold’em Event, also called the “Million Maker” in WSOP of 2013.

The event, indeed, made its winner a millionaire. Chen crossed through 6,300 players to win his first ever WSOP gold bracelet and won $1,199,104 in cool hard cash prize money!

The interesting thing in Chens story is he used a re-entry to win! Yes, that’s right. No wonder he thinks to himself “what if he chose not to re-enter” This thought must have crossed his mind a million times. His story is a true reflection of believing in one’s luck. Had he not re entered he never would have won!

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Poker Player Michael Malm

Michael Malm was born in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada and is the third Canadian to have made it big in WSOP and won a bracelet. For Malm’s, a door to door newspaper salesman by profession, it was truly a work of destiny because he, for one, didn’t plan on participating in the event in the first place.

Second interesting thing about Malm’s win was, most of the time he has no idea about the detailed strategies or tactics of the games he was playing. He said he in an interview that he only knew the basic strategies of the game and learned from his mistakes and improvised as the game progressed.

His quick learning abilities won Malm his first ever WSOP gold bracelet in the $2,500 Eight Game Mix and brought him $225,104 in prize money in WSOP 2013.

Poker Player Joe Hachem

Joe Hachem was born in Lebanon, his family later moved to Australia when he was 6. Hachem started playing poker around 1995, after he left his previous profession due to a rare blood disorder and participated in local tournament circuits around Melbourne for years.

The real breakthrough for Hachem came when he participated in the Main Event, $10,000 No Limit Hold’em, of WSOP 2005. He smashed over 5000 players and many professionals and went on winning the grand event receiving the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and about $7.5 million in prize money that year.

Hachem not only became the first Australian to have won the WSOP gold bracelet, he also won the record all time biggest tournament cash prize in poker history making him an overnight success. Hachem is now a respected poker professional and collected a massive amount of wealth through his poker earnings.

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Special mention To Poker Players Average Joe Hero

Yes, the list started off saying a list of 5 poker players, but any poker rags to riches story or overnight success story is not complete without mentioning this player. A player who not only turned his fate around but also turned the fate of poker and brought it in to the limelight for millions of players all over the world who never thought of earning big in poker. Yes, we are talking about none other than,

Chris Moneymaker who helped Poker Players Dream Big

Everything about Chris Moneymaker seems right out of the movies.

Including right from the beginning with his parents modifying their German Surname, “Nurmacher” to “Moneymaker”, as if they knew their son was going to make it big one day, to his story of being a boring accountant turned gambler and to his grand victory, while being an amateur player, baffling the poker professionals- words might fall short when we start talking about Chris Moneymaker.

Not that he needs an introduction, but for those of you living under a rock, Chris Moneymaker is the winner of the Main Event of WSOP 2003 winning not only a gold bracelet and $2.5 million but also revolutionizing poker.

He was the first person to win a WSOP main event after qualifying online and brought an overnight stardom upon himself and poker. He inspired people, especially amateur and recreational poker player to leave the confines of their homes and television screens and try their hands at poker.

Moneymaker became an instant poster boy for poker and contributed to the poker sonic boom that was surfacing in 2003. His influence on the game was so huge that the press termed his impact as “The Moneymaker Effect”.

Related:

Tourney Tracks lists every major tournament series that happens in a casino in North America, but now that online poker is back in the United States, there are tournaments available online too! Residents of New Jersey and Nevada, and more states very soon, can play everything from freerolls (free poker tournaments with cash prizes) to real money tournaments with big buy-ins and bigger prize pools.

Ontario Poker Tournament Schedule Bracket

To help you find the best online poker tournaments and freerolls, we have chosen the three best regulated US poker sites and created this guide. These sites are completely legal to play in the states where they operate, and they are the best places to play for real money online.

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WSoP.com

Ontario Poker Tournament Schedule 2020

WSoP.com has an excellent schedule of online tournaments, both freerolls and tournaments played for real money and they are currently the largest site in Nevada and the second largest site in New Jersey. We expect the site to continue to grow with the best name in tournament poker backing them and qualifiers to live events during the World Series of Poker bringing in players in big numbers during the live events of the summer.

Having a recognizable name and offering deposit and withdrawal options from Caesars properties makes WSoP a great site to play online tournaments and a nice freeroll schedule means that you don’t even have to deposit to build up a bankroll.

888 Poker

888 Poker has been around the online poker scene since the beginning, but live players may not recognize them. The freeroll schedule is generous, with big cash prizes for the winners, and the real money tournament schedule is also very good. With their extensive experience in the online poker world, and a partnership with a strong brick and mortar casino, we expect 888 poker to be around for a long time.

Borgata Poker

The Borgata is one of the best names in live poker, and in their partnership with Party Poker they are poised to become one of the biggest names in online poker as well. The poker tournament schedule at Borgata Poker is excellent, with a nice selection of freerolls and the largest tournament fields of any online poker site that is legal in the United States.

Daily freerolls that pay real cash prizes, a wide selection of real money tournaments, and easy deposit options make Borgata a great place to play.

These sites are all fairly new, opening soon after online poker was regulated within Nevada and New Jersey in 2013, and we expect the market to continue to change. The three sites we have reviewed are not only the largest sites now, but also the most reputable and we think they are the most likely to continue to thrive.

The Future of Online Poker Tournaments in the United States

The tournaments at all three sites are excellent, with good structures and reasonable field sizes. US sites can’t compete with the big worldwide sites yet, but they are growing and the fields are already large enough to win serious cash. In an open and regulated market, with strong competition, the future of online poker in the US will only get better.

We expect WSoP.com to continue to dominate the market in Nevada because the brand is so strong there already. With a huge influx of new players every summer trying to qualify for WSoP events, the fields should be very large during the live World Series of Poker events in June and July, and some of these players will play on WSoP.com whenever they visit Nevada later, so this brand certainly has a chance to grow with an opportunity that other brands do not.

888 Poker is a well known brand in online poker, and they got off to a fast start, but numbers have fallen recently. They are still the second largest site in New Jersey, well ahead of the rest of the pack, and an established brand like 888 will almost certainly find a way to stop the slide, but they will likely lose out to both WSoP and Borgata unless they find a new partner or a new way to promote the brand.

Borgata Poker and their online partnership with Party Poker got off to a fast start, and they are the most successful online poker brand operating in the regulated system in America. Their numbers in New Jersey have dropped off in recent months, but they are still the largest legal US online poker site right now.

Party is one of the most successful brands in the history of online poker, possibly second only to PokerStars, and they have won everywhere they have gone. With Stars having trouble getting a New Jersey license, Party has a nice head start and they will have the knowledge and the funding to move quickly as more states open up. We expect this brand to dominate pretty much everywhere except Nevada, and they could choose to make a strong run there as well, especially if they can partner with a large live casino chain.

Ontario Poker Tournament Schedule For Today

The Domino Effect

Online poker tournaments in the United States, especially those with cash prizes, have been tough to find since the four major sites were shut down on the now infamous Black Friday by the Department of Justice. With the opening of legal online poker in New Jersey and Nevada, the market is slowly starting to grow again.

The key to a successful site, especially when it comes to tournaments, is large player pools. A tournament with ten players does not interest many players, but if 1,000 players join, then hundreds more will join next week because of the allure of a large first place prize. This critical mass will bring in many more players and much larger prize pools, but it won’t happen in a single state.

When states start working together, and combining their player pools, the fields will be large enough that critical mass will happen and players will be excited to play online again. The buzz around legal online poker in the US will grow quickly once this happens, and the process is already happening. Multiple states are looking at regulated online poker, including Pennsylvania and California with their huge populations, and a few large states banding together would cause many more states to get in line for a share of the cash.

Ontario Poker Tournament Schedule 2019

Until this critical mass is reached, player pools will be a little smaller, but they will also be very soft and easy to beat. That makes today the perfect time to sign up for an online poker site and start learning to beat the tournament game. As the sites grow, so will your winnings, and you’ll have a significant head start on your opponents who are learning the game while you are already way ahead of the curve.