Gambling 911 Sits Down With Poker's Most Powerful Couple: Chris Moorman and Katie Lindsay
Chris Moorman and Katie Lindsay became the latest poker pros to sign on with Americas Cardroom, one of the world's top five largest online poker rooms. Gambling911.com Publisher Chris Costigan recently had a chance to sit down with the happily married Chris and Katie, considered individually two of the best players in the game today. Together, they make up the most powerful couple in poker.
G911: Congratulations on becoming the first married couple to serve as brand ambassadors for an online poker room. You are both accomplished players in live poker and online poker, so everyone wants to know: Who is the better player?
Chris: Katie’s poker game has come along way, and especially in the past few years, although she’s been putting up numbers both live and online for a while now. Obviously I’ve had an amazing amount of success over the years and have been logging huge volume in some of the toughest tournaments for the past 15 years, and I have had to work on and adapt my game a ton as people improve and play differently. I’ll always back myself as a player but she often gets the better of me when we battle on the felt.
Katie: Clearly Chris has accomplished more in poker than most people in the world. He works so hard and has a passion for the game that is unrivaled. I have taken several breaks in my poker career to work on other projects and I just don’t have the heart to play nonstop like he does so needless to say he will always be better. But, don’t count me out…I will always be in there battling!!
G911: Earlier this year, you played each other heads-up for the championship of a big WSOP circuit online tournament, which Chris won. What was that like?
Chris: For me it was one of those once in a lifetime experiences. Through all the tournaments I’ve won lifetime, I can count on one hand the number of times that I was heads up against a close friend. So to get heads up against my wife for an actual legitimate title was an incredible feeling. We both really enjoyed the moment and I’m not going to lie it was the first time I’ve ever felt bad to beat someone in something because I knew how much Katie wanted to get a ring and she outplayed me overall but lady-luck was on my side that time.
Katie: It was super fun. I had been out to dinner with a girlfriend while playing and then came home to see he was still in as well. We are very competitive and at one point I doubled up through him and was needling him from the other room. Once we got heads up I came into his office and sat across from him. I ran a big bluff on one hand where I jammed river having him covered and looked up at him and said the old Scotty Nguyen line, “if you call it’s all over baby.” He didn’t have a clue what to do and ended up folding and I died laughing telling him I just bluffed him. I was super sad not to win it as I have come so close to a ring so many times but hopefully I can win one soon and stop resenting him lol.
G911: Do you find that you are extra competitive when you play against each other?
Chris: We are both incredibly competitive people naturally and that translates to the poker felt against one another as well. There are plenty of bragging rights for who knocks out who or who does better in a certain tournament. Katie loves to bluff me and call me a nit if I fold!
Katie: 1000% I am always coming for him. I just think we are both so competitive in general when playing games so it actually makes it fun to battle against each other.
G911: When are you sitting around the house not playing in a tournament, do you play against each other for fun?
Chris: We play everything else but poker! I actually have never been one to play poker in my free time as I put so much energy into it in my life that I prefer to just take a complete break from it when I’m not in a big tournament. Some people love to play home games etc but that’s never been for me.
Katie: We love to play other games. We play a lot of gin, chinese and moss poker. It’s rare to find us out without a deck of cards in tow.
G911: What do you like playing better, live poker or online poker?
Chris: I always prefer to play online poker as it’s where I feel most comfortable and I love that you can control the pace of it. Live poker is always too slow for me on day one and I only really enjoy it when I’m getting deep. There really is no better feeling than winning a live tournament though so I like to have a solid mix of both but I just play the live events that I am really excited for such as the WSOP, WPT and other huge events.
Katie: I like live better because it’s super fun interacting with other people. I love chatting at the table and learning about the people I am playing with. There is nothing better than a fun table with people ready to engage and have a good time.
G911: You have a mixed marriage – Chris is British and Katie is American. What is that like and does it pose any special issues for you?
Chris: Katie is one of the most British Americans that I’ve ever met, she loves the UK and everything about it so there are never any difficulties for us really. When I first met her family they knew all about poker so I didn’t have to deal with that awkward conversation either.
Katie: I think other than having families on different continents and wanting to make sure to spend as much time with both as possible, it's pretty easy. We both have a very similar sense of humor and are always laughing together. We also watch a lot of UK TV shows that we enjoy and he always keeps a sense of home with him here in the US as he wakes to watch his football games at 4am sometimes!
G911: What country do you live in and how did you make that decision?
Chris: We live in Las Vegas but also have a holiday home in Puerta Vallerta in Mexico that we spend a lot of time in. I also try to get back to England as often as possible to see friends and family there. Back when we first met we spent a lot more time in Europe but quickly realized the online grind hours were impossible for us to maintain a healthy relationship so we have relocated to places where you can play online schedules on a much more social friendly timezone.
Katie: We split our time between our house in Las Vegas and our house in Mexico. It just made sense for both of us to be on this side of the world with poker and time zones for playing. I know he misses home but he tries to get back as much as he can. London is one of my favorite cities in the world so I am always happy to head that way.
G911: What made you decide to be brand ambassadors for an online poker room, and specifically, what made you choose Americas Cardroom?
Chris: I’ve grinded on Americas Cardroom for over 5 years and have always enjoyed the structures and tournaments they offer. They come up with amazing huge prizepool events such as the Venom and million dollar Sunday tourneys which I am all about. When they came to me about a potential deal I talked to them about future ideas and their principals in general and was excited to learn that we were on the same page and overall it just seamed a really good fit.
Katie: I never thought this would be something I would do. I never once got into poker with that intention or goal. Actually I had been an agent for other poker players for years so I was always more interested in promoting them and not myself. It felt really genuine to be offered this deal. I have been out there for the last few years grinding hard and so it kind of feels like it doesn’t go unnoticed, which is nice since I am so incredibly hard on myself. I love all the goals of increasing my live hendon scores and climbing the ladies GPI rankings. ACR just felt like a perfect fit. I love their easygoing and fun loving mentality. That is what poker should be, fun!
Chris: Thank you both for joining us and we here at Gambling911.com encourage our readers to check out Americas Cardroom to claim up to $2000 in free bonus money (100% of your deposit).
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
