A certain day in a certain month in the year of 2003. A certain online player from a certain poker site is sitting in a certain casino in a certain city in Nevada. He is changing the course of poker history. Certainly.

Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million when he took first place in the main event of the World Series at Binion's that year, but the real amount of money made for players around the world will never be known. It's too much to even comprehend. You see, Moneymaker's success was the spur to countless poker careers, both online and off, and tournament poker as we know it today - including the EPT - owes an awful lot to that young man from Tennessee.

Not that you'd know it from the hand that just happened over on table 14. Moneymaker is sitting three seats to the left of David Layani, a young player cast from the same mould as the man who wears the platinum bracelet. Layani is a PokerStars qualifier from France who won his trip here on the site. He also just won a pot worth 22,000 chips when he rivered quad sixes, useful if you're all in and the former World Champion has a set of kings.

How about that river?


David Layani

That is what is known as biting the hand that feeds. Who's the money maker now?

Moneymaker update: he's out. He was crippled from the hand described above, got all his chips in with a straight draw, and missed. Chris has vowed to play more tournaments in the coming year, so I don't expect it will be long until he's back in the cash.