I'll always remember bumping into Chris Moorman at Gatwick on route to an EPT. Not only did he have to buy a new ticket because he’d booked it for the wrong day, but he’d also forgotten to bring any socks and underwear, so had to purchase some at the airport. I recall thinking to myself at the time, ‘How is this guy one of the world’s best online tournament players? How is he able to show the organisation and commitment it takes to reach the top of the online rankings when he can barely get himself on a plane?’
It’s one of life’s mysteries, but the truth is that Chris Moorman is indeed an online prodigy, and without doubt one of the best poker players in Europe, if not the world. He has yet to prove his abilities live, but online, he boasts an endless string of results including a second place finish in an FTOPs event for $204,000. On top of that, he captured the 2009 Yearly PocketFives.com Leaderboard title, as well as the monthly PLB for December. Whatever his secret is, he’s a phenomenon.
In my last interview, I spoke to Shaun Deeb, a man who, although rejuvenated, once expressed a genuine disdain for the life he was leading as a poker pro. Chris is the complete opposite – he’s never hated poker, and he’s never considered quitting. In fact, he still loves the game and you can sense that passion whenever you see him play. Chris may not fit the stereotype of a dedicated online grinder, but for the last few years, he’s been pulling out result after result, and loved virtually every minute.
Snoopy: A number of successful young pros have declared their disdain for the poker lifestyle recently and even threatened early retirement? What are your thoughts on this and are you still enjoying poker as a profession?
Chris Moorman: This kind of stuff does cross my mind from time to time, but as soon as it does, I realise that's there's not much else I'd do instead. The thing is, I'm quite lazy anyway, so if I weren't playing poker, I'd just lie on the sofa doing nothing.
I can understand how they might find it hard to motivate themselves after a while. The only problems I have are after a big festival like the World Series or SCOOP. Suddenly all the prize pools are no longer massive and if you’ve had a bad festival, then you’re going to need to win five tournaments just to get back to even. For the first few weeks, the normal schedule feels pretty insignificant in comparison.
The difference between those guys and me is that I still enjoy playing high volumes. If I didn’t, then I just wouldn’t play. True, the rush isn’t as big as it used to be, but if I then play something like the $10,000 heads-up event at WSOP, the heart begins pumping again. Overall, I still really like what I do, so you won’t get me away from playing online poker for a long time yet.
Snoopy: Do you give yourself a routine?
CM: Normally, I start at around seven in the evening and play right through. My last tournament will start at about half two in the morning, so it can be a full day. If I miss those ones at seven, I actually can’t be bothered to start at nine, even though I've only missed a couple of tournaments. I just think, 'Ah well, I’m not playing today, I'll do something else.’ For some reason, if I miss the start, it sends me on tilt.
Snoopy: What’s your set-up like at home?
CM: Because I’d been traveling around Australia for six months, I didn’t have a home when I came back to England, so I just stayed with my mom. I ended up just grinding on a laptop, and even played a SCOOP on there. I could still fit 12 tables in with no overlap, but it wasn't ideal. It took me about a week to motivate myself to set up another screen, and when I finally did it, it was much better again.
Snoopy: Do you do much studying when it comes to online poker?
CM: Not really, I don’t use PokerTracker anymore and if I write notes, it’ll just be basic stuff like ‘idiot’, ‘retard’, ‘never believes me’ and stuff like that. I am a member of PokerXFactor still, but don’t really watch many of the videos. If I do, it'll be heads-up cash game videos. They're much more interesting as it's not something I do regularly. The best players are the cash players, not the tournament players, so you can learn a lot more from them. Tournament videos are pretty boring overall.
Snoopy: But you’re mainly playing tournaments still?
CM: Yeah, I don’t play quite as much as I used to, but I still put in a lot of volume compared to most. I think if I turned to cash I’d just be looking to move up all the time and play bigger stakes, which would probably be a bad idea as I don’t want the massive swings. I don’t have aspirations to play the nosebleed levels on Full Tilt as I don’t want to worry about going bust every day, that’s not the way to live. Also, if I'm winning in cash, I want to quit straight away, and if I'm losing, I want to play all day to get it back to even, which is obviously not an effective approach in the long run.
Snoopy: When did you realise you could turn pro?
CM: At the end of the second year of university I was supposed to go home for the summer and get a job in a local supermarket or something, but I decided to stay behind with another friend of mine and play poker instead. At the start, I was only grinding $0.25/0.50 cash tables and just hoped to make a similar amount to that of a supermarket job, but by the end of the summer I was doing well at $2/4 and making far more than I ever imagined.
Snoopy: So why did you start playing tournaments if you were winning at cash?
CM: The site I was playing cash on ended up closing down, and I couldn't get my PokerTracker sorted out for a couple of weeks because of a problem with my card. So, during that time, I decided to have a go at some tournaments. I ended up coming fifth in a Sunday tournament for $12,000 or something, and was like, ‘Wow, where have all these guys been hiding for all this time?’ At the same time as winning, I also found them more fun than cash. The time would fly by a lot quicker.
Snoopy: So winning came pretty easy to you?
CM: People don’t realise the struggle I had at the start. I’d spend all night playing $0.05/0.10 for weeks, working hard on improving my game whilst all my mates were going out. I was putting in the hours at the low stakes in order to become a better player, which many people aren’t willing to do. People want the success straight away, but you've got all the time in the world in poker and I was prepared to build up my bankroll slowly. Even when I went to live tournaments I'd offer pieces of my action, and when I didn’t sell percentages, I just wouldn't go.
What I began to realise the more I played is that I’m able to anticipate how others are going to react, and then play accordingly. Quite often I will know a certain player will three-bet light before the start of the hand, which, in turn, makes it easier to four-bet with any two cards.
Snoopy: How did your parents react to your turning pro?
CM: When I first started playing, my dad didn’t know anything about poker, and he was worried. I was at University and got a bad degree and he was concerned that poker wouldn't be sustainable. I'd been doing well for nine months, but to him, nine months wasn't the same as forty years. I had enough money to pay off my student loans, and he made me pay them off straight away which made a big dent in my bankroll, so I had to drop down the stakes a bit. He gave me sixth months, then checked my bank account to see if I'd made money. I ran good during that period, and he was pretty shocked by how much I'd made. At this point, he became more accepting of the direction I was taking as he saw for himself how well I was doing.
Snoopy: I hear he’s a bit of a player himself?
CM: Yeah, after I turned pro, he started getting into poker himself, just so he knew more about what I was doing. He plays most nights online, but just low stakes. He has a strange playing style, but it seems to work for him. He’s often going on at me to fly him over to Vegas. He won a GUKPT in Manchester about a year ago, so there's definitely something to his game. People started calling him 'moorman2', which was funny.
Snoopy: Why did you pick such a basic online moniker? In hindsight, would you prefer anonymity?
CM: I went for ‘moorman’ initially, but somebody already had it, so I just stuck a number on the end, and '1' was the first one. I never really thought it would matter. At least this way I know how they perceive me and then I can adjust to that. Hopefully, I'm adjusting to them better than they are to me.
On some of the others sites, like UB [Ultimate Bet], I play under different names, and some people know it and some people don't, so it's harder in a way because you don't know who know it's you or not. When people know it's me, they try to gun for me early, which obviously works in my favour in the long run. I normally play pretty tight at the start, yet they'll think top pair's the nuts, meaning that every time I have a big hand, I'm probably going to double up.
People didn’t really know me live first, but now I’m wearing the DoylesRoom patches, they’re at least aware that I’m a pro and will assume I’m a young guy who bluffs a lot.
Snoopy: How important was your recent sponsorship deal?
CM: That was huge for me, sponsorship was something I had been after for a while. The great thing about being part of the Brunson 10 is that you are very important to the website, rather than just being another name at Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars, and DoylesRoom really listen to my input on different matters. I’m part of a great team here and I'm sure the Brunson 10 will have a great WSOP.
As for Doyle, I have his phone number but I'm too scared to put it in my phonebook in case I ring him up when I'm drunk. We did have dinner when I joined, though, which was fun. Everyone was there, Doyle, Todd, their wives, even Liv Boeree made a random appearance too. There was talk about the old days and Doyle was telling me about how he gambled against someone from the Titanic.
Snoopy: How have you found the transition from online to live?
CM: To say it’s been tough is an understatement, no one likes losing, especially me! It’s frustrating because when you bust, the next tournament is in a month’s time rather than having another 10 going at the same time. Also, if I didn't get pocket kings live then my Hendon Mob entry might look a bit more tasty.
Snoopy Do you react well to bad beats?
CM: It depends. If I'm in the middle of a bad run online, I will smash things. Normally, it's my mouse. My last computer actually broke in the end because I smashed it so many times. The worst thing I've done, though, is keep hitting my fist against the table and waiting until it starts bleeding, and then keep banging it some more, just to prove to someone in my house how bad I've run by showing them my hand. You probably think that’s a bit weird.
Snoopy: You’ve also been staking people and had a chunk of Flushy [James Dempsey]. Why did you decide to start staking people?
CM: It started as a favour for a friend of mine who was broke at the time. He owed me some money too, so the only way to get it back was to stake him. He did pretty well, and I was helping him with his hand histories which I'd go through and highlight what I thought he was doing wrong. His results started improving and it changed his game. Obviously, getting the 50 percent cut was the best part, but seeing him getting better and have results from me passing on my knowledge was definitely rewarding.
Snoopy: How many are in your stable? Is it going well?
CM: About 20. I don't want any more than that. I've been turning people down for months, people I'd really like to back too, but I don't want to take any more on because it's too much for one person. I don't want to go in with anyone else either because if you fall out it makes things difficult, plus I'm greedy and want it all for myself.
Staking's gone pretty well for me although I’ve experienced both ups and downs. I had Tyler Reiman in the PCA when he came second, so that covered a lot of downs, thankfully. Everyone was doing badly in the recent FTOPS and SCOOPS, but then one of my guys won an event in each of them, which saved me. The variance is huge with staking, though, but the rewards can be big if one of your players makes a big score.
Snoopy: How important are the online rankings to you?
CM: They aren’t as important as they used to be as I've kind of proved myself online now. However, I want to be someone who's around at the top for ages rather than someone who comes and goes after a few years, so, in that respect, the pressure is still on to keep putting in results.
Snoopy: How's it being going in Vegas?
CM: I’ve had a few cashes but no finals yet. I definitely think I’m playing well and am a lot more confident than I was when I first started playing live. I’ve also started to adapt my game as there’s a big difference between playing live opponents to online. Before, I think I was trying to do too much, but now I’m focused on playing a more solid game and targeting the fish more. I do feel as though I'm one of the better players at the table, so hopefully my live results will improve. This is my fifth time in Vegas and I’ve never made Day Two of the Main Event, so that's my main aim this year.
Snoopy: What are your ambitions for the next 12 months?
CM: After last year's Series, I said I really wanted to learn how to play all of the games, but I've done a bad job at that. I think I'm good at Omaha now and have had some success, but I haven't had a chance to play any of the live Omaha events this year just because of the timing. After seeing Stuart Rutter play the $10,000 Stud, it's made me want to do the same next year and play everything. I think it's a good opportunity to get a bracelet. None of Phil Ivey's bracelets are in Hold'em, and he's one of the best No Limit Hold'em players in the world. I want to be a player that everyone respects and not just a one trick pony.
Snoopy: To finish, some quick-fire questions: Have you ever been so desperate for the toilet during a tournament that you’ve pissed in a cup?
CM: [laughs] No.
Snoopy: Have you ever said “in your eye” to someone at a live table?
CM: Loads of times online, but never live.
Snoopy: Have you had your chat banned?
CM: Yep, quite a lot, on most sites.
Snoopy: Have you ever tilt-shoved all tournaments?
CM: Yeah, 16 tables is my record. It worked well during a WCOOP once because I got aces the next hand and got paid off. Ended up chopping the event.
Snoopy: Who’s the best Brunson 10 player?
CM: [pauses] Steve Gross. He’s the best out of anyone online, and we’re all playing catch-up to him right now.
Snoopy: What’s your worst run?
CM: I was on a $100,000 downswing at one point last year.
Snoopy: What’s your longest session?
CM: I played $10/20 nonstop for two days. Lost 12 buy-ins early on but got back up to even. I quit cash because of this and swore I’d stick to donkaments.
Snoopy: Ever played drunk?
CM: Yeah, but I actually play better when I'm drunk.
Snoopy: Do people say, ‘You’re due,’ a lot when it comes to live form?
CM: Yeah, surely if I keep playing, though, I've got to win one sooner or later.
Snoopy: What’s the most degenerate thing you’ve done?
CM: I offered PocketFives 5:2 that I would win a tourney. I got far more action than I anticipated and ended up losing around $20,000 when I could only manage a third.
Snoopy: Have you ever watched porn whilst playing online?
CM: No comment.
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For more high profile interviews see:
Phil Ivey
Patrik Antonius
John Juanda
Tom Dwan
Ian Frazer
Annette Obrestad
James Akenhead
Richard Ashby
Sammy George
Roland De Wolfe
Jeff Lisandro
Freddy Deeb
Barry Greenstein
Phil Laak
Shaun Deeb