Moneymaker Visits Fan In Hospital

Filed in archive Poker Blogs on August 8, 2007

The story of Chris Moneymaker just doesn't end with the accountant raising his arms after his 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event win. Sure, he landed a sweet endorsement deal with PokerStars, has some financial stability, and is the hero of every $4.40 satellite winner online but he doesn't sit on his laurels.

A recent call came in for the world champ that a fan who's been thru a stretch of bad luck wanted to meet Moneymaker. Donald Hobbs had survived an improbable car crash that left him fighting for his life. After complying for a simple request of an autograph and hearing the story behind the autograph request, Moneymaker decided to give his suffering fan an unexpected hospital visit.

Pokerstarsblog.com covered the visit in which Hobbs got to play a little heads up poker against Moneymaker using straws as chips:

...One day, during a game, Hobbs revealed he was a poker player and loved to watch it on TV. What's more, he said, Chris Moneymaker was his favorite player. Rose would later tell her colleagues that Hobbs' face lit up every time he talked about Moneymaker, about how the champion didn't forget his friends after he won the big one, and about how he liked to emulate Moneymaker's style when playing home games. Before long, Hobbs was sitting on the edge of his bed for 20 minutes at a time-no small feat for a guy who should've died months earlier.

What Hobbs didn't know at the time was that he was talking to a friend of someone who worked on the World Series circuit. What Hobbs didn't know what that he was about to get one heckuva surprise.

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I wasn't there when Moneymaker heard about Hobbs, but I've been made to understand that his reaction sounded a lot like, "Autographed picture? Forget that. Where is he? I'm going to go see him."

And that's exactly what happened. Moneymaker showed up at Cardinal Hill and challenged Hobbs to a heads-up match with hospital straws as chips... (continued at the link)