WSOP Main Event: New Champion Revealed

Published on 10 Nov 09 10:22 by Dendra

An intense battle was fought between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada for the WSOP ME title until one of them had to admit defeat. Despite his young age, Cada more than held his ground against Moon who unleashed a flurry of bluffs at his opponent.

It was a spectacular WSOP Main Event Final Table with many great plays as well as shocking bad beats. Even though Darvin Moon (pictured right) started with a clear chip advantage over the other November Niners, the battle for the title was far from over.

Many people rooted for Phil Ivey, but that didn't seem to please the poker gods who sent Ivey to the rails, as Moon's A-Q took out Ivey's A-K. After Ivey left the table, all eyes were set on Joe Cada - a 21 year old who has, despite his young age, already been playing poker for six years and makes a living out of it.

Cada had a long way to go to reach the heads-up battle for the title and despite being one of the shorter stacks, he managed to fight his way through and faced his last opponent, Darvin Moon, holding more than a 2:1 chip lead over him.

Moon's bluff backfires

Joe Cada (pictured right) held a stack of 136,925,000 in chips, while Darvin Moon had a lot of catching up to do with his stack of 58,875,000. However, Cada's chip lead didn't last for long, as Moon's aggressive style proved to be working great against Cada's style.

The battle for the chip lead went back and forth until one of Moon's bluffs backfired and marked the beginning of his end. Action began pre-flop with a 3 million raise from Cada and Moon called. The flop came

and both players checked.

The turn brought

and Moon checked again but Cada decided it was time to add a few more chips to the pot, firing a 3 million bet. Moon quickly raised, announcing all-in, which left Cada stunned, as he now had to make a decision which would put his tournament life at risk.

Eventually, Cada called and turned over

for two pair, while Moon revealed

for an open-ended straight draw. The situation looked good for Cada, but it was not the first time Moon was dominated and a chance to hit a saving card yet again was still hanging in the air. However, that was not the case in this hand, as the river came

and Cada doubled up, rocketing up to 108,300,000 in chips while Moon was down to 86,500,000.

Cada becomes the youngest champion ever

Several hands later and the battle for the Main Event title was over. Cada opened with a raise to 3 million, Moon re-raised to 8 million and Cada checked his cards twice before putting all of his chips in the middle. Moon had to double-check his cards as well before making the call with his remaining chips.

Cada showed

and Moon revealed

. The board came

and Cada was crowned for his efforts, becoming the youngest WSOP Main Event champion - breaking Peter Eastgate's record set last year. The two players earned $8,546,435 and $5,182,601 respectively. Here are the full results from the final table:

WSOP Main Event Final Table Results
Place	Name	Prize
1	Joe Cada	$8,546,435
2	Darvin Moon	$5,182,601
3	Antoine Saout	$3,479,485
4	Eric Buchman	$2,502,787
5	Jeff Shulman	$1,953,395
6	Steve Begleiter	$1,587,133
7	Phil Ivey	$1,404,002
8	Kevin Schaffel	$1,300,228
9	James Akenhead	$1,263,602

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Comments (14)

#1 MancaMulas, 10 Nov 09 13:18

go go go Joseph Cada!

#2 imoldovann, 10 Nov 09 13:44

I'm glad Cada won, Moon is a retard and I'm still amazed how he reached the final table.

Anyway, I hope Cada will prove to be better than the champions in recent years and confirm his skills in poker by winning some more live tourneys.

#3 nowyouseeme, 10 Nov 09 14:06

Why am I reading so much hate against Moono. Apart from having a cool name, hes just a bloke who chops wood for a living who hit a lucky streak at the right time. So what. Good on him I say. Give it to the wood chopper.

How can you NOT like someone who falls asleep at the final table of the WSOP main event?????????????????????

#4 elhh82, 10 Nov 09 14:32

Moon actually outplayed Cada on a big stretch of the HU match. Cada made a lot of open-raises, and Moon capitalised by 3-betting him light, donking the next street and check-raising him.

If i remember correctly, Cada was playing like 54/50/5 (VPIP/PFR/3-bet) while Moon was 70/40/10, or somewhere around there.

#5 Hahaownedlolz, 10 Nov 09 16:04

i think it's a bit rediculous to call him a donk. He couldn't have reached the final table with luck alone. I haven't seen him actualy play on tv so far though but from what i read here, he was dominating him and even took over the chiplead

he made a move at the right time, and he was just 1 card away from winning the title. So dont forget that.

I don't really care who would win. i hear alot of "joe cada is better ambasador of poker". but i couldn't care less.

but grats to both of them..

#6 raulfunkie, 10 Nov 09 17:10

Yeah, I hope to see more of Cada, now that he's of age, and can take up on the live tournaments.

Best of luck to him.

#7 vhallee, 10 Nov 09 17:13

"How can you NOT like someone who falls asleep at the final table of the WSOP main event?"

Well said #3... well said... Now I feel a little worse for not liking him :/

#8 CoreySteel, 11 Nov 09 13:55

Moon and Cada were probably the worst players at the final table... At least according to their play on FT. So many missplayed hands, which got lucky.

#9 quicksilverturk, 11 Nov 09 17:36

A wise man once said the hand isn't over until all 5 cards are on the board.
-
That wise man has probably lost a lot of money though.

#10 inf4my, 11 Nov 09 18:05

The main event is just a glamourized lottery. Sure there are a lot of great players participating, but the results of ONE tournament mean absolutely nothing.

Any donk can make the FT if he wins enough flips and sucks out on all the important hands. I'd love to see the EV graph of these players throughout the tournament.

#11 Waiboy, 11 Nov 09 20:20

Bit of a drop off in prize money from 8th to 9th place. :/

#12 Dendra, 11 Nov 09 22:08

cash game ftw, too much luck in tournaments :/ would be fun to see moon or cada go play cash game vs durrrr, ivey and others :)

#13 sirilidion, 12 Nov 09 02:57

don't know why people call moon a donk because as far as I saw he played pretty solid and still made some nice bluffs from time to time. Of course he got pretty lucky the way the deck hit him the hole tournament but I haven't seen many bad played which can't be said about other champions like gold and yang

#14 elhh82, 12 Nov 09 13:53

I like how Cada at one point told Moon something like. "From all the opponents i have played heads-up online, you are by far the ..."

then he stopped for a bit and said "a tough opponent." I think he was going to say something like "the toughest", but changed him mind.

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WSOP Main Event: New Champion Revealed

Moon's bluff backfires

Cada becomes the youngest champion ever

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