Moneymaker's ancestors made silver and gold coins and chose the name "Moneymaker" as a modification of their German last name: "Nurmacher."

Moneymaker attended Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and later earned a master's degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee.

Moneymaker married his wife, Christina Wren, in Las Vegas in April, 2005. He has a daughter, Ashley, born three months before he won the WSOP main event. They currently reside in Nashville, Tennessee.

After receiving his master's degree, Moneymaker worked as a comptroller. He was also a part-time employee at a local restaurant. After his WSOP win Moneymaker became a spokesman for PokerStars. He has also started his own company, Moneymaker Gaming.

His autobiography, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker was published in March 2005.

World Series of Poker

Moneymaker was working as an accountant when he won a seat into the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker through a US$39 satellite tournament at the PokerStars online poker card room. Although largely unknown prior to the tournament, on day one of the tournament his skills caught the attention of professional sports handicapper Lou Diamond, who called Moneymaker his "dark horse to win the whole tournament." Moneymaker went on to win the first prize of $2.5 million, instantly garnering poker superstar status. It was his first live poker tournament. One of Moneymaker's most memorable hands was heads-up against Sam Farha, when on the river he bluffed "all in" with King high. Farha folded a pair of nines, quickly changing the momentum of the match. Moneymaker eventually won the WSOP when his beat Farha's on a board of , giving Moneymaker a full house. After winning the WSOP, he quit his job to serve as a celebrity spokesman for Series owner Harrah's Entertainment as well as PokerStars. He also began traveling to play in more large buy-in tournaments.

Other poker tournaments

On the World Poker Tour Moneymaker finished second at the 2004 Shooting Stars event and won $200,000.

During Event 5 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker which was a $10,300 buy-in of No Limit Hold'em, Moneymaker finished in sixth place, taking home over $139,000. He also did well in Event 16, the $215 Pot Limit Omaha with ReBuys, where he finished fifth, earning over $28,000.

Moneymaker finished in first place in the Deep Stack Pot Limit Omaha event of the World Poker Open tournament in July 2009 and won $15,889.

As of April 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,000,000, the majority of which, $2,532,041, have come at the WSOP.