Visitors to the Caribbean often come to enjoy the region’s sunny beaches, vibrant cultures, and accessibility, especially if they’re coming from North America.
However, the Caribbean Tourism Organization expects the islands to welcome more than 35 million tourists a year as more people discover how versatile the Caribbean is as a major travel destination. For instance, 2024 saw a number of islands host events for the International Cricket Council’s Men’s T20 World Cup, drawing the sport’s over 2.5 billion fans to the region. The same can be said for the Caribbean’s casinos.
The islands boast countless establishments where visitors can enjoy popular games like poker amid tropical locales. That’s a combo that appeals to tourists, helping the likes of the Dominican Republic earn annual tax revenues of over $26.23 million and even causing Jamaica to lay the foundations for a tourism-focused casino industry.
Events like the Caribbean Poker Series take full advantage of this rich environment by adding elements of excitement and competition. Held in Aruba, it’s open to players of all skill levels and continues to steadily attract more players from around the world.
As the Caribbean becomes a more renowned gaming destination, even the globe’s biggest poker pros are gracing the event. That includes the man, the myth, the legend himself: Chris Moneymaker. Here’s more on how he’s helping shine a light on the Caribbean Poker Series—and what that leaves in store for fans in 2025.
Who is Chris Moneymaker?
The poker boom of the early 2000s helped the card game reach unprecedented levels of popularity across the globe, and it all started with Chris Moneymaker’s win at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). For the stay-at-home accountant, poker was just a hobby—until he joined an online WSOP satellite tournament with an $86 buy-in. Initially, he wasn’t in it to earn a seat at the WSOP’s main event. In fact, he just wanted the prize that came with fourth place. “I’m just an amateur player playing with friends,” he told CNN in 2021. “My goal was to win that eight grand. And a buddy talked me into taking the seat, and that’s how I got [it].”
The rest is history. Moneymaker successfully bluffed seasoned pro Sam Farha to earn the most prestigious prize in poker, making him the first person in history to win a major tournament after qualifying for it online. The resulting “Moneymaker effect” proved that even the average Joe could nab big wins, leading to the poker boom. From here, Moneymaker continued to cement his professional poker career, becoming the celebrity spokesperson for former WSOP owner Harrah’s Entertainment and signing a sponsorship deal with PokerStars, which hosted the satellite tournament that kickstarted his journey.
Now, Moneymaker plays poker on his own terms. In 2021, he signed with ACR Poker as an ambassador. The brand’s online card rooms, which PokerTube notes he already frequented, gave him more flexibility to focus on his personal life compared to the constant traveling PokerStars required him to do. Compared to his previous sponsor, ACR Poker also has a bigger reach—which perfectly aligns with his goal to pay it forward. Moneymaker notes that it similarly “gives everyone a chance to change their lives” with poker: aside from offering games for all buy-in levels and holding promotions like Next Moneymaker, which gives weekly leaderboard winners a chance to get a free ride to Las Vegas, ACR Poker was also instrumental in organizing the Moneymaker Tour. Though its 2023 events were held across the US, the tour’s 2024 edition expanded to Aruba—in partnership, of course, with the Caribbean Poker Series.
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Bringing the Moneymaker Effect to the Caribbean
In 2024, the Casino Aruba once again hosted the Caribbean Poker Series—but this time, the latter took place as part of the larger Moneymaker Tour. Held across 10 days between September and October, it offered up to $300,000 in guaranteed cash prizes and was open to local and international players alike. Thanks to partnerships with ACR Poker, Plon, and the Poker League of Nations, the tournament’s 14 rings and one bracelet were made even more accessible, with multiple buy-in levels available for events spanning poker variants like No Limit Hold’em and Caribbean stud poker—and even a dedicated Ladies’ Poker Tournament. As poker’s everyman ambassador, Chris Moneymaker went further by ensuring more people had a shot at winning a prize.
A month before the Aruba schedule, he worked with ACR Poker to make 12 more tournament slots available through the Beast Tournament Mega Satellite. Players could join with either a direct buy-in of $95 or by topping the weekly leaderboard on the ACR Poker website. Each winner won a Moneymaker Aruba package, which featured a $1,500 entry to the $200,000 main event at Aruba—and, more importantly, $2,000 for travel expenses, meaning Moneymaker quite literally helped fly 12 more people out to the Caribbean Poker Series that year. “I’m thankful for ACR Poker’s ongoing support for my tour, and excited to see players bring their A-game to Aruba,” he remarked upon the announcement of the satellite tournament, noting how the offering mimicked his own journey to winning the 2003 WSOP.
Moneymaker landed in Aruba to kickstart the main event himself. The tournament was eventually won by none other than player agent-turned-pro Katie Lindsay. At over $102,915, the cash prize is the highest in Lindsay’s career and comes after five years of no tournament wins. In an interview with Poker.org, Lindsay described her podium finish as an “empowering” outcome in the male-dominated world of poker as well as a “full-circle moment,” especially since she watched Moneymaker’s initial win in 2003. With that, it’s safe to say that Moneymaker is steadily moving toward his goal—which, at the WSOP held exactly a decade after his breakthrough, he stated as using his career to help people “play poker wherever we want, whenever we want.”
What to expect from 2025’s Caribbean Poker Series
Ultimately, Moneymaker integrating the 2024 Caribbean Poker Series into his tour drew hundreds of participants to Aruba—and helped cement both the island and the tournament as among the most premier destinations and events in the world of poker. With the series again scheduled as part of the Moneymaker Tour in September, both it and Aruba can expect to gain new levels of prestige this year. That’s especially true given that Moneymaker and ACR Poker began building hype for the Moneymaker Tour’s Caribbean stop as early as December 2024. Here, they put a whopping 30 packages up for grabs across not one, but two Beast Tournament Mega Satellite events.
“My 2024 tour was a huge success—it was amazing to see so many players come together to play poker at fantastic stops like Aruba and Las Vegas,” he elaborated in a press release. “A huge thanks to ACR Poker for their continued support, and I’m thrilled they’re helping to make 2025 even bigger by offering more packages for players to compete in a Main Event at their favorite tour location.”
For more in-depth news on the Caribbean American community, keep reading here on the Caribbean National Weekly.
