A couple days ago, Poker.org released Moneymaker 20 Years Later, a documentary that explores Moneymaker’s win in the WSOP Main Event and how that win changed his life. It is definitely worth a watch for any fan of Moneymaker or those interested in the history of the modern era of poker.

Beer, Sports Betting, Accounting, and Poker

The first thing that stuck out about this documentary was the style. It reminded me a lot of some of the poker documentaries that came out around the start of the Poker Boom. While this isn’t PokerGO-esque level production, if you want an honest look into the life of the WSOP’s most famous champion, this is the interview to watch.

Like many documentaries, this one started with Moneymaker talking about his childhood. The highlight of the opening segment, in this reviewer’s opinion, was Moneymaker speaking about his relationship with his Dad. From there, the documentary switched to Moneymaker’s college years.

We learned about how Moneymaker discovered beer and sports betting. He also talked about how he started a career in accounting despite being “too dumb” to work at some of the top accounting firms. He split his time between work and poker, quite literally, and that eventually led to his run in the WSOP Main Event.

Most of us know the story about Moneymaker’s run as ESPN presented it back in the day, but in this interview, we hear more of his story. We also learn about some of the “creative liberties” that ESPN took in presenting the 2003 WSOP Main Event. This part of the documentary was fun, honest, and gave a fresh look at the Moneymaker run.

What If… Moneymaker Was a Full Tilt Pro

Imagine a world where Chris Moneymaker was an investor in Full Tilt Poker. According to Moneymaker, that almost happened! One of the more revealing sections of the documentary detailed Moneymaker’s contracts with PokerStars.

He started out making $5,000 a month “to do nothing.” After a year, Isai Scheinberg decided to 5x his contract. Scheinberg’s generosity earned Moneymaker’s loyalty, which was soon tested. While Chris was renegotiating his contract with PokerStars, Howard Lederer offered Moneymaker the chance to invest in Full Tilt Poker.

Moneymaker declined the offer, which he initially felt was a -EV play. Ultimately, it proved to be one of his smartest moves. Of course, it does make one wonder what the poker world would have been like if Full Tilt Poker had Moneymaker’s services. Fortunately, we will never have to find out.

The Future With America’s Cardroom

The last few minutes of the documentary gave insight into how Moneymaker signed on with ACR Poker. He spoke about how Black Friday impacted his life, his ability to play on PokerStars, and his future in poker. At one point, he revealed that he was considering retirement from poker. (We all know just about how long poker retirements generally tend to last.)

While some may see this as a backdoor plug for the website, it is still an important part of Moneymaker’s story. Listening to Moneymaker talk, you get the impression that ACR Poker is on a similar trajectory as PokerStars back in 2003. The right amount of time was spent on this topic. It covered his transition to ACR Poker without making the documentary seem like an infomercial.

Moneymaker Documentary: A Fun Look In

Moneymaker 20 Years Later is an entertaining look into the life of poker’s most famous World Champion. The interview helped to paint a complete picture of the man behind the legend.

The best parts of the interview focused on Moneymaker’s mindset while going through the Main Event and the realities of being the first mainstream poker ambassador. Unless you lived through those years as a part of the poker community, it is hard to imagine what the early days of the Poker Boom were like. This documentary helps to paint a clearer picture of that time.

As far as critiques, because poker fans have gotten accustomed to A+ level production from the likes of PokerGO, my principal gripe was with production quality. I felt that there was a bit too much reliance on stock photos and music, plus the background music just seemed unnecessary and could have been eliminated.

With that said, overall this is still a feature worth watching, particularly for any Moneymaker fan or anyone wanting to learn more about the early days of the Poker Boom. You can watch the documentary for free below, courtesy of Poker.Org’s YouTube channel.

Not all people have the time to follow drama unfold on Twitter. They often ask for CliffsNotes. “Can someone give me the basics of this situation?” I’m here to do that. And since (insert copyright legalese here) that name is taken, I’m naming this column something unbelievably original:

JensNotes

Catchy, no? If no, we can go with a more explanatory title of Controversy Clean-Up.

Ali Imsirovic versus Phil Nagy

People logging on to Twitter on Wednesday, May 17, or anytime thereafter, may see chatter about longtime high-stakes poker pro Ali Imsirovic allegedly using bots to cheat on Americas Cardroom (ACR) and its sister sites on the Winning Poker Network (WPN). Or they may have seen people applauding WPN CEO Phil Nagy for putting a $100K bounty on the proverbial table for anyone who can prove that Imsirovic is doing said cheating.

Let’s go back.

Origin Story: Ali Allegations

What had happened was…

In April 2022, high-stakes poker players were playing events on the island of Cyprus. There was a Super High Roller Bowl and Triton Super High Roller Series, all a part of the PokerGO Tour (PGT).

Ali Imsirovic had been riding high from big results for several years running. He was the first-ever PGT Player of the Year in 2021 and he was on his way to a repeat, already on top of the PGT POY leaderboard in Cyprus… until things began to quickly fall apart.

Alex Foxen took to Twitter to publicly accuse Imsirovic of cheating at the Super High Roller Bowl – on the livestream, no less. Foxen said that Imsirovic looked at table-neighbor Paul Phua’s hole cards, and the livestream recording appeared to back up that assertion. The next day, Imsirovic played more of the tournament but wearing sunglasses, a rarity at those games and for Imsirovic himself.

Ali is known as a cheater to almost all in the high roller community, however without much ironclad proof, most stay silent. After watching this hand on the SHRB live stream, enough is enough.

— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022

Here is a sim of Ali's response to check raise. There are no small 3bs, only shoves. All of these shoves have a diamond in them. Taking a small 3b option makes a lot of sense knowing the Ad and a 5 are out of the deck. This "sick line" brought to you by pauls hole cards. pic.twitter.com/nxkg8yow60

— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022

The high stakes community is, for the most part, extremely honorable and a group of people I consider myself lucky to associate with. This nonsense should not be tolerated and needs to be called out more often.

— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022

While most poker players were taken by surprise at the accusation, many high-stakes players were not. Players such as Justin Bonomo and Ryan Leng spoke up as well to corroborate Foxen’s overall allegations of Imsirovic’s unethical play. It snowballed from there.

• Allegation: Imsirovic cheated in the 2022 Cyprus Super High Roller Bowl.
• Allegation: Imsirovic was banned from GGPoker for multi-accounting and using RTA (real-time assistance), both methods of gaining an advantage in online poker and widely regarded as a form of cheating.
• Allegation: Imsirovich displayed suspicious behavior in online poker MTTs in the form of chip-dumping to his horses (players he backs), and his horses sometimes played suspiciously as well.

As of this article’s publication, there has not been any proof. Not a single poker player has produced solid proof that Imsirovic undoubtedly cheated in online poker. Even the livestream appearing to show Imsirovic peeking at an opponent’s cards could not serve as clear-cut evidence.

Further, GGPoker would never confirm or deny any investigation into Imsirovic or if he had been banned. This is common for online poker rooms, as they rarely reveal any information related to cheating allegations.

Even so, poker tours began to prohibit Imsirovic from playing their events. He and another player – Jake Schindler – were allegedly turned away from registration in the middle of the 2022 European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo series in early May 2022.

Breaking: Ali and Jake enjoying the Beach in Monte Carlo instead of playing the 50k. A ban is possible but not confirmed. I will keep you updated

— Dietrich Fast (@2pacnrw16) May 3, 2022

While the WSOP in the summer of 2022 took no steps to prohibit Imsirovic from playing, the PokerGO Tour did institute a ban in September. The PGT suspended Imsirovic and Schindler indefinitely and ruled them ineligible for their Player of the Year race. Even with that, the statement provided no details or evidence.

Statement regarding the PGT status of Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler.

– https://t.co/P1CXlpOVJi pic.twitter.com/WWFsyrOkkw

— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) September 22, 2022

Despite the lack of evidence, the word of the poker players appeared to corroborate what some tour operators or online poker site operators knew or believed to be true.

It should also be noted that Imsirovic has never made a public statement about any of the accusations.

More to the Story: Coaching and a Bounty

The word around most poker spaces was that Imsirovic had given up on most live poker tournaments for the indefinite future. He did not try to play in the inaugural WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December, and he has yet to reappear at any major live poker series. Poker Twitter would have reported it.

However, poker players “in the know” felt certain that Imsirovic has continued to play online. He has reportedly been banned from sites like GGPoker and PokerStars. Notably, he was also banned from the Winning Poker Network, including Americas Cardroom in 2019.

On May 17, Barry Carter happened upon Imsirovic’s Instagram account and snapped a photo of a message asking any guys (only guys, evidently) to email him if they’d be interested in poker coaching.

Oooh Ali Imsirovic is coaching people now. I wonder if he is coaching people on poker or, you know, the other thing pic.twitter.com/dfBQZGAkYH

— Barry Carter (@Barry_Carter) May 17, 2023

Poker pros like Matt Berkey responded to Twitter threads to relay long-standing rumors that Imsirovic and his stable of horses collude and use RTA systems on ACR regularly. Phil Galfond seemed to believe this as well, referring on Twitter to Imsirovic’s “current cheating methods.”

Enter WPN CEO Phil Nagy. He was checking Twitter from the high-stakes tables at the current Triton series in Cyprus and saw Galfond’s tweet. Seemingly without hesitation, Nagy offered up a $100K bounty for proof of the cheating.

I will go on record I am in the Triton 200k blinding off reading this. I will offer a 100k reward for proof of this I take security seriously however there is no-one that is perfect. Help me Help you if you can. (excuse grammar Im under some pressure here) https://t.co/8Kz4AtYL8X

— Phillip Nagy (@WPN_CEO) May 18, 2023

The move garnered praise from around the poker community, even from those who would not ordinarily say anything positive about an offshore-based poker operator. Matt Berkey, Jesse Sylvia, Ryan Riess, Justin Bonomo, and Dan Zack were among those magnifying Nagy’s offer.

That’s the story so far.