When 21-year-old online poker phenom Joe Cada became the youngest person ever to win the poker's largest, longest-running, richest, and most prestigious tournament, he did so in a manner that set the poker world on its ear. With skill and huge portions of luck, he went the verge of elimination to chip leader going into heads-up competition with Darvin Moon.
Last issue we covered the play-down from nine to two. Now we'll take you inside the key hands that enabled the 21-year-old to defeat Maryland logger Darvin Moon and win the WSOP. Although he was just nine days shy of his twenty-second birthday the night he made poker history, Cada is no poker novice. In fact, his previous winnings enabled him to pay cash for his first home at age 19, and he added more than $8.5 million to his bankroll with the record-setting win.
When play began at 10:36 p.m., Cada had 135,950,000 in chips, a 9-to-4 chip lead over his opponent, Darvin Moon, who had 58,850,000.
But play went back and forth throughout the night, with the chip leading changing multiple times before. Cada finally clinched the win about 2 a.m. Pacific Time, after 87 hands. On the very first hand Darvin Moon won 25 million from Cada.
Darvin Moon called when Cada raised to 3.5 million. The flop was 3s-Ks-2d and Cada bet 3.5 million. Moon raised to 10 million, and Cada called.
Cada then checked when the Ad fell on the turn, but Cada called when Moon fired another ten million into the pot. The Kc on the river caused both players to check. Cada showed 9d-9c. Moon showed Qs-Qd to take the huge first pot.
Twenty minutes later Moon took the chip lead when he won a pot with trip queens and had 101 million chips at that point to Cada's 94 million.
Even at this early juncture, Moon's strategy was clear: He was looking to play big pots with Cada, rather than play small-ball and have the younger, but much more experienced Cada grind him down. It's a strategy that's worked before. When Chris Ferguson won the WSOP by beating the vastly more experienced T.J. Cloutier, he knew his best chance was to try for a quick knockout rather than play a long, tactical match in which the edge favored Cloutier. Ferguson went all-in with a hand that did not figure to be the best one, but he was fortunate enough to catch the card he needed and win with it. He was also skillful enough to come up with a strategy that gave him his best chance for victory, and it worked. Now Darvin Moon seemed to be following Ferguson's model.
Ten minutes later Cada regained the chip lead when he made a 35 million river bet that Moon didn't call. Now Cada held 120 million chips to Moon's 75 million. As they passed the two hour mark, Cada reached his low point when he raised to 3 million from the button. Moon called and the flop was 3h-5d-Ac. Moon bet 5 million. Cada paused, and then pushed 13 million chips into the pot. Moon began reaching for his chips and started to shove a massive stack from his staging area toward the pot. They never got there. As soon as Moon began to push, Cada fired his cards into the muck. Moon now had a 3-to-1 chip lead over Joe Cada, with 145,200,000 chips to Cada's 49,600,000.
But a half-hour later Moon's failed semi-bluff and miss on the river returned the chip lead back to Cada.
Cada raised to 3 million on the button. Moon called, the flop was 10c-5d-9h, and both players checked. Cada bet 3 million and moon-holding 8s-7s, for a straight draw-announced an all-in check raise. Cada agonized. He was holding Jh-9d and calling with second pair is always tough, but a call here would be for his tournament life. When he called and they tabled their cards, Cada was in the lead with two pair, but Moon had eight outs to a straight draw and the championship. When the 3h fell on the river, Moon's draw collapsed Cada was back up to a chip lead of 108 to 86 million.
Ten minutes later Moon lost another big hand to Cada, and was now trailing 2.5-to-1 in the chip count. Nearly 40 minutes later, at 1:57 a.m., Cada made his now standard raise to 3 million on the button.
Moon re-raised to 8 million, Cada double-checked his cards, and then said, "All-in." Moon looked back at his own cards, and with his tournament on the line, he made the call.
Cada was in the lead, with 9c-9d. Darvin Moon has two suited overcards, Qd-Jd, and would have to hit to win.
The flop of 8c-2c-7h was a complete whiff. Moon stood up behind his chair. Cada wouldn't watch and was back in the stands. The turn was the Kh, and another miss for Moon. Now Cada was one card away from victory, and Moon would need a queen or a jack on the river to stay alive.
With tension continuing to mount, the dealer flipped over the 7c on the river. Cada's pair of nines faded the board and after two hours and 21 minutes, 87 hands of heads-up play, and four lead changes, it was all over. Cada won the main event championship and the $8.1 million that goes along with it, while Moon took home a consolation prize of more than $5.1 million for his second-place finish.
"It's only money," Moon said with a smile after the event. "The more you win, the more you owe to the government. I play for the game."
"I've dreamed of winning this tournament, and to do it the first year out of the gate is unbelievable," Cada said after his victory. "This is just amazing."
In the online webcast that accompanied the final table, Phil Hellmuth said he thought that Joe Cada would be regarded as the luckiest winner in WSOP history. After all, he went from short-stacked and all-in twice with underpairs-only to flop sets both times-when the November Nine were playing. He was all-in against Moon and survived too. Then Hellmuth added that Cada's run of good luck didn't mean he wasn't a skillful player. Hellmuth, the all-time leader in WSOP bracelets won, said that he considered Cada a very skillful player, but the WSOP is not won on skill alone. To win it, you have to get lucky at key times, and support that luck with skillful play and good decisions.
Joe Cada did all of that, survived an extremely skillful November Nine, and defeated a very tough Darvin Moon to win it all.
After the match Cada said, "I definitely plan on playing in all the big tournaments, and traveling, and continue to play professionally. When asked about his goals for the future, he added, "To win it again next year, to win back to back."
RIO ALL-SUITES CASINO 11/8/09
2009 WORLD SERIES OF POKER
NO LIMIT HOLD'EM MAIN EVENT
BUY-IN $10,000 + $0
PLAYERS 6,494
PRIZE POOL $61,043,600
1. Joe Cada . . . . . . . .$8,547,042
2. Darvin Moon . . . .$5,182,928
3. Antoine Saout . . .$3,479,670
4. Eric Buchman . . .$2,502,890
5. Jeff Shulman . . . .$1,953,452
6. Steven Begleiter . .$1,587,160
7. Phil Ivey . . . . . . . .$1,404,014
8. Kevin Schaffel . . .$1,300,231
9. James Akenhead .$1,263,602
