Darus Suharto

The PokerStars qualifier almost become the next Moneymaker….

Darus Suharto’s journey to the final nine has echoes of Chris Moneymaker’s rags to riches story from 2003.

The amateur qualified for the Main Event via an $80 satellite on PokerStars, which got him through to a $650 satellite, which in turn brought him to the poker infamy of the November Nine.

Like Moneymaker, he is an accountant by day (he was expected back from vacation the day he made the November Nine) and has just one previous live cash to his name: ironically in the 2006 ME (where he finished 448th for $26,389).

Indonesian-born Suharto relocated to Canada at a young age and now resides in Toronto, where he only gets to play at weekends (he says he can fit in about 15 hours a week of poker).

He has an MBA from Indiana University and started playing poker there two years ago, ‘just for fun’, with friends. In fact, he said he didn’t know what the WSOP was until he saw a Stars qualifier running in 2005 which got him to his first Main Event.

Darus appears to be very modest about his poker ability and in an interview with Poker Listings he said: “It was my second Main Event. I played in 2006; I was a donkey. I’m still a donkey. Hey, but the good thing is, I was a donkey in 2006 and I made the money!”

The 39 year-old also said that he started playing poker to try and pay off his mortgage; with over $2.4million in the bank for a 6th place finish its fair to say he has achieved that objective.