10 Nov 09

WSOP Main Event: New Champion Revealed

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