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.

Among them are the stories of two renowned players: Stu Ungar and Daniel Negreanu. You will also be able to see how Martin Jacobson prepared before playing the final table of the 2014 Main Event, European poker legends, the history of online poker and the 2003 poker boom, among other topics.

Without further introductions, I invite you all to play and enjoy them.

Top 10 Poker Documentaries

One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stu Ungar

Stu Ungar is the only player to win the WSOP Main Event in its freezeout format. He was also the only one to make it to his final table without being present, as he was unconscious in his hotel room from his addictions. This excellent documentary features statements by Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Jennifer Harman, Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Selbst, John Duthie, James Hartigan, and his brother Mike, among others.

Kid Poker

The Canadian Daniel Negreanu is one of the favorites of the public and in his career he managed to win six bracelets. In this documentary he tells of his origins at the pool tables, his first live tournaments and we can learn about his brother and his parents.

Dreamers

This great documentary was released a month ago and follows a group of renowned players (Chris Moneymaker, Darren Elias, Rampage, Jeff Platt, Jamie Kerstetter and Matt Berkey, among others) at the WPT World Championship 2022 festival in Las Vegas. You can also check out our review and an interview with the producers.

Bet Raise Fold

Explores the evolution of online poker and examines the great confrontation between online poker players and US gambling authorities. Through a series of interviews with three professional players, Danielle Andersen, Tony Dunst and Martin Bradstreet, this documentary transports viewers to a historic moment for online poker: the Black Friday.

To Be Determined

The protagonist of this documentary is Oscar, a low-stakes poker player who has been pushed to the fringes of an increasingly difficult industry, confronts an uncertain future within a game that often takes more than it gives. Includes interviews with Erik Seidel, Nick Schulman, Phil Galfond, Andrew Lichtenberger, Maria Konnikova, Matt Berkey, Christian Soto and Vanessa Selbst, among others.

A $100,000 Journey To Becoming a Poker Champion

Synopsis: “The ACR Team Pros traveled to one of the most prestigious live poker events in Triton Vietnam to battle it out against some of the best players in the world. They say you should expect the unexpected, but what occurred took that saying to a whole new level. This is their story”.

For Love or Money?

It shows the life of tournament players live as they play the WSOP. Interviewees include Scott Blumstein (2017 WSOP Main Event Champion), writer and coach Tommy Angelo, Chris Leong, Stanley Lee, Michael Rocco, Asher Conniff and Brynn Kenney.

10 for 10 – Martin Jacobson

It shows in detail how Martin Jacobson‘s preparation went before playing the final table of the 2014 WSOP Main Event. He showed a great level starting eighth in the chip count and finished champion, winning $10,000,000.

Chase The Dream

Last Call

In its first season of 4 episodes it shows the most popular players in Finland. The first chapter covers Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen, from his freeroll beginnings to nosebleeds against Phil Ivey in just two years.

Poker Documentaries: The Rest of the Best

No Limit – A Search For The American Dream On The Poker Tournament Trail

This 2006 documentary shows two single parents trying to make it on the live tournament circuit at the height of the poker boom. There are interviews with Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Doyle Brunson, Lou Krieger, Layne Flack, Bobby Baldwin, Tom McEvoy, and Chris Moneymaker, among others.

The World of Sam Trickett

In a few minutes, the documentary shows the story of the English player Sam Trickett, who after getting injured changed the soccer ball for the cards.

Matt Salsberg

In this short documentary from Pokerlistings we can learn more about the life of screenwriter and poker player Matt Salsberg.

Grinders

Synopsis: “With a new baby and wife to support, out-of-work filmmaker Matt Gallagher tries his hand – and some would say “luck”- at playing poker for a living. This inside journey into the unconventional, often bizarre, underground world of illegal poker clubs finds a world populated by colorful characters, straight out of central casting. A world where the workday starts at midnight and runs strictly on cash and can change forever with the simple flip of a card. Playing poker to pay the bills means living side by side with risk. But, as Matt soon discovers, the real meaning of risk lies far outside the poker room and can strike in the most personal way”.

Dan Cates

Another short documentary from Pokerlistings on the life and career of Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates.

Poker Queen – Jennifer Harman

In this short documentary we can learn more about the life of Jennifer Harman. Interviewees include Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer and Jen herself.

Nosebleed

Follows the story of Alex Luneau and Sebastien Sabic, two French poker players trying to win the biggest live poker tournament in the world. The documentary shows the journey of both players to the gaming capital and offers a glimpse of the other side of the WSOP from the players’ perspective. In addition, it analyzes the style of the two players and the techniques they use at the game table.

My daddy is a card player, the story of Marcel Luske

In just 7 minutes Dutchman Marcel Luske, known as The Flying Dutchman, tells his story with poker.

All-In: The Poker Movie

Filmmaker Douglas Tirola examines the growing popularity of poker, and the crackdown on online gambling. Starring Chris Moneymaker, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreranu, T.J. Cloutier, actor Matt Damon, musician Kenny Rogers, Nolan Dalla, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Erik Seidel, among others.

Shaun Deeb

New episode of Pokerlistings profiles with an interview with a young Shaun Deeb about his career.

The Million Dollar Deal

A documentary about the World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas. Featuring Andrew Black, Donnacha O’Dea, Mike Magee, Martyn Wilson, Mark Napolitano, Amarillo Slim, Scotty Nguyen, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott and Matt Damon. Narrated by John Hurt.

A Kid’s Game: the story of online poker

It shows youngsters Andrew Robl, Isaac “Ike” Haxton, Shaun Deeb, Peter Jetten and Alec Torelli discussing online poker.

Ultimatebeat

Talk about the case of fraud and scam of the Ultimatebet online room. The founders created tools to view player cards and stole millions of dollars. Among those interviewed is player Mike Matusow.

Inside Underground Poker

In this National Geographic documentary we can see interviews with an organizer of an illegal game in New York and some regular players.

If you also want to watch poker movies for free you can see which ones are available on YouTube.

In this article we review the 90-minute documentary as well as speak to Above the Felt Founder and CEO Tom Wheaton and the film’s editor Alec Rome, who each shared some interesting behind-the-scenes details about the project.

Review of Dreamers

The documentary features a group of renowned poker players, commentators, and vloggers competing at the 2022 WPT World Championship Main Event in Las Vegas. The tournament attracted 2,960 entries — each of whom bought in for $10,400 — and distributed $29 million in prize money, almost doubling the guaranteed prize pool of $15 million.

The WPT World Championship 2022 / Photo: Joe Giron

Here’s a brief rundown of the documentary’s protagonists:

• Darren Elias: The only player with 4 titles on the World Poker Tour
• Chris Moneymaker: The winner of the 2003 WSOP Main Event
• Maria Konnikova: Author of the book The Biggest Bluff with earnings of $463K on the tournament circuit
• Ethan “Rampage” Yau: YouTube poker vlogger with over 234K subscribers
• Matt Berkey: 2022 Global Poker Award winner with $4.6M in live earnings
• Jamie Kerstetter: Winner of two Global Poker Awards and poker commentator
• Jeff Platt: Broadcaster, streamer and player with $621K in live earnings
• Landon Tice: Player who has won $650K on the live circuit
• Jaman Burton: YouTube poker vlogger with over 47K subscribers
• Tom Wheaton: Founder & CEO of Above The Felt and Faded Spade Playing Cards

Cameras follow the group as they play the tournament and all are interviewed individually. That way we get to know how they started out in poker and that’s one of the things I enjoyed the most while watching Dreamers. To be able to see what attracted them to the game and what factors led them to dedicate their lives to poker is very interesting.

Finally had the chance to sit and watch the @abovethefelt DREAMERS documentary.

So much of this resonated so hard with my own set of beliefs about the poker industry and so many of the amazing people within.

A no-brainer must-watch for anyone in poker.

More importantly, I will…

— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) April 18, 2023

Other topics discussed by the protagonists include: how they deal with variance and tournament eliminations, women in poker, what they enjoy most about playing live, content creation and the future of poker.

I’m not going to tell you how the group fared in the WPT World Championship Main Event, as you’ll have to find out on your own by watching the documentary. But, I can tell you that two of them made deep runs in side events and one even managed to find the winner’s circle in a different event.

Time absolutely flew by as I was so caught up in the tournament action and interviews with the members of the group. I couldn’t believe how quickly the 1.5 hours passed! I really enjoyed watching Dreamers and having watched numerous poker documentaries I can confidently say that this one is one of the best I’ve seen.

You can watch it for yourself below, as it’s available for free on YouTube.

Interview with the documentary’s creators

After having watched Dreamers, I was eager to learn more about how it all came together, so I spoke with Tom Wheaton and editor Alec Rome to get more details.

How did the idea of making this documentary come up? 

Tom: “We were originally aiming to produce a couple informal vlogs that highlighted the team’s run in the world championship and how we approach the game and life via interviews. It turned into something much deeper based on the output of the interviews, and the story that developed with two of the members of the group making deep runs in side events.”

Alec: “A few months back, Tom asked me if I had any interest in video editing. I’ve done plenty of video editing starting in high school, but never anything feature length like a documentary. There was all of this interview footage and B-roll from the Wynn Championship in December of all the Above the Felt roster, and particularly the great stories around Jamie Kerstetter and Rampage.

Tom and I both agreed that we could do something big to highlight all of these great people and poker personalities and communicate what we both know about the industry to someone who perhaps doesn’t know anything about poker. There are amazing, smart and personable people in this game who could expand the poker space into new avenues. We both knew we needed to do the story justice and that we could, and thus ‘Dreamers’ was born!”

Did you start to worry when team members began to be eliminated from the tournament or is this something you had a “Plan B” for?

Tom: “Yes, I thought it would turn into content about resilience and how we as poker players have to fight through failure to achieve success. That is still very much a part of the story through the eyes of each player, and how it’s the poker dream that keeps us all so passionate about the game regardless of the vast differences in our journeys. The progression of the poker story from the World Championship to the Ladies Championship to the High Roller was such an exciting content roller coaster.”

Alec: “Really I wasn’t worried about the fact that nobody did well in the World Championship. We knew we had those other stories to use and also, narratively, it helped us to show the struggles and to show how poker can go from smiles to shit in a day or less. The story has no substance if it’s all positive. There must be some challenge, villains, problems. I’m also personally interested in portraying reality as accurately as I can, and that’s the reality that multiple players talked about in the documentary. You barely cash 20 percent of the time in tournaments. Bankrolls can be busted. Cards are brutal. They don’t care about how hard you’ve worked or how long you’ve been doing it… but that’s what’s beautiful and that’s why we keep playing.”

Who is the target audience for your poker documentary?

Tom: “We made an intentional effort to make it interesting for those outside of the industry or who were passionate about poker during the boom era compared to today. The response from those outside of our community has been phenomenal, although I think there are things we could have done differently to make it resonate even more with an outside of poker audience. In our industry, the audience is anyone who is chasing their own version of the poker dream whether recreational, professional or otherwise.”

Alec: “Ideally we wanted both poker professionals and those who are avid poker fans/members of the industry to love this documentary and feel that it represented the best of who we are. But when I was editing this, I really had the novice or the outsider who barely knows how to play poker in mind at all times. How best can we keep an outsider interested? How do we introduce the roster to people who didn’t know their names before? How do we get them invested in the story and intrigued to keep watching? We knew that the avid poker community member was more likely to stick around, and we still wanted to serve them in telling this story, but this was about bringing new players into the game and outside eyes on an industry that may not have been watching before.”

I can’t believe we have ~40,000 views & so many positive responses to “Dreamers: A New-Age Poker Documentary” in just 72 hours.

Thank you for showing up #poker family . Our @AboveTheFelt YouTube didn’t have content two weeks ago. LFG momentum!

https://t.co/PmtNLTpSLa https://t.co/zZEydflMCa pic.twitter.com/eTevFYWncR

— Tom Wheaton (@TomWheaton_) April 18, 2023