Chris Moneymaker Will NOT Play WSOP 2021 Due To COVID-19 Concerns

Chris Moneymaker has revealed that he won’t be making another run at the WSOP Main Event title that he famously won back in 2003, citing COVID-19 worries and the fact his young son is unable to be vaccinated as the main reason…

After the live version was cancelled last year, the 52nd WSOP is slated to return for 2021 from Thursday, September 30th to Tuesday, November 23rd, again at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
With rising numbers of hospitalisations and deaths in the USA due to the Delta variant, Moneymaker was unwilling to take a risk.

He pointed out to one Twitter poker follower that although the statistics show that young children are generally not in serious danger, “my son has asthma and if he is in that .3 then it's 100 percent bad.”

The ACR team pro and ambassador also made it clear that quarantining wasn’t an option, stating:

“I don’t want to sit alone for a week just to play poker.”

The majority of those commenting fully supported Moneymaker’s decision, most along the lines of the following tweet from Steve Porter:

“A dad putting his family first. Why is this a problem for anyone? Take care of your family. This is how to be a role model the world needs today.”

Another proved that poker twitter never forgets and rarely forgives, pulling Shaun Deeb into the mix with this barbed tweet:

For those wondering why El Paso comes into the equation, the Texan town lies directly on the border between the USA and Mexico, allowing players to bypass the online poker issues with the former and play the WSOP online series on GGPoker.

That one is currently running, starting August 1st and running until September 12th, with three of the 33 bracelets on the schedule already decided, and the $5,000 buy-in, $20 million GTD Main Event still to come.

Meanwhile, as we reported recently, the venue for this year’s live edition is currently being used as a vaccination centre, and Mike Matusow has done an about-turn and is now pleading that people get the vaccination.

With a month and a half still to go, there may well be further big names who decide it’s not a great idea to mix while coronavirus numbers are on the increase, and there is still the possibility that the entire thing will be called off.

Of course, we’ll keep you up to speed with everything related to WSOP matters, so be sure to check in regularly.