He's already the most successful online poker player in history and a WPT champion.
England's Chris Moorman had yet to win a World Series of Poker bracelet, though -- until this past weekend.
With a rambunctious British rail cheering him on, the esteemed 888poker pro bested a field of 959 players in Event 27, $3,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max, to claim his first WSOP title and a $500k pay check.
“Surreal” Day
“It’s kind of surreal," Moorman told the media when he finally lifted the gold at 3am. "Any time you win live, it's like it's a lot more 'real.'
"Particularly since a lot of my online success was when I was living in the UK and I would be playing all through the night, and maybe win a tournament about five or six in the morning.
"I would just be there on my own, maybe talking with friends on Skype online, but the money goes into your account. You don't see the money in front of you; you don't have anyone celebrating. I don't know – it's just a great feeling when you win [live].”
Part of that feeling was certainly due to a highly excited rail that cheered him on through the final table and included, among others, Maria Ho, Marvin Rettenmaierand Niall Farrell.
Ace on the River
Three tough and long days of poker lay behind him. On the last day 21 players were still in the mix and among them were high profile players like Pratyush Buddiga, James Chen, Sam Cohen, Steve Sung, Morten Mortensen and then chipleader Max Silver.
Silver got destroyed by a bad beat with kings against queens but Moorman was spared by variance this time and moved into the chiplead when the final six sat down to determine the winner.
In the second hand of that finale Moorman and Sung were all-in with A-K vs pocket jacks. Moorman hit an ace on the river and took command over the table.
“If I lose that, I’m out. I was fortunate enough to win that there," said Moorman afterwards. Instead, he took over the chiplead and kept it all the way.
Bernardo Dias from Brazil was the player to withstand the pressure of Moorman the longest, but even he was never able to level up in chips against the Englishman.
It did four hours for the heads-up to finish so the Brazilian proved to be a worthy and resilient opponent.
Now Over $20m Combined
It’s the first WSOP bracelet for Moorman although he came close twice back in 2011, when he was runner-up to Elio Fox in the WSOP Europe in Cannes and to Joe Ebanks in the WSOP $10k 6-max NLHE Championship.
Having won almost $15 million in online poker tournaments Moorman is now on the point of also becoming one of the most successful live players on the planet.
While the second place in Cannes still counts as his biggest score – just over $1 million – he has now surpassed the $5 million mark in live winnings.
It was Moorman’s third cash at the 2017 WSOP and he has no plans of leaving soon. He’s also moved up the POY leaderboard and is now in 13th place, just ahead of $10k HORSE champion David Bach.
Moorman’s new book The Story of the Most Successful Online Poker Player of All Time will be available at the WSOP and online this week. The book had been announced at 888poker’s opening event at their branded poker room in the Aspers Casino in London last year.
Things are looking pretty good for Moorman, who will also lead the British 888poker 8-Team into the main event next month.
WSOP 2017 Event 27, $3000 NLHE 6-Max Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Chris Moorman | GB | $498,682 |
| 2 | Bernardo da Silveira Dias | Brazil | $308,166 |
| 3 | Michael Gagliano | US | $210,139 |
| 4 | Steve Sung | US | $145,634 |
| 5 | John Gorsuch | US | $102,605 |
| 6 | Max Silver | GB | $73,510 |
You still have the chance to play the WSOP main event and become part of one of five 8-person teams. Get your own 888poker account through PokerListings and play. Satellites to the WSOP main event are running for one more week, so hurry up!
