Joe Cada Wins 2009 WSOP

Joe Cada, 2009 WSOP Main Event winner. (Image Courtesy WSOP)

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – The 2009 WSOP Main Event was definitely one for the record books. Not only did it have the world longest Final Table but it was also won by the youngest player yet to win a WSOP Main Event.

Initial play saw Joe Cada and Darvin Moon exchange chips and eventually break even just before the break. When the two players came back almost dead even in chips Moon quickly took charge and cranked up the pressure leaving Joe Cada scrambling and eventually in a position where he had to start playing defensively – the death knell for a heads-up match.

Based on the attitude of the crowd in the Rio in Las Vegas, the buzz about the blogosphere and the tweets of Twitter, Moon is respected as a person but more or less reviled as a poker player.

In a world where poker players feel constantly obligated to defend themselves as practitioners of a skill game, Moon did them no favors by totally steamrolling his way to a chip lead at the Final Table and almost taking down the whole thing.

An interesting retrospective, PokerNews does a good job of going over the luck factor that led to both Moon’s and Cada’s ascension to the heads-up Final Table.

Cada for his part played an impressive heads-up match and didn’t get rattled or make any big mistakes even as Moon reveresed the stacks by taking a 2-1 lead at one point. Moon however made a big misstep when after a small raise on the turn from Cada, he reraised all-in with an open-ended straight draw and was called by Cada who held two pair. Moon would never come back from being crippled and would eventually call a push from Cada and would race his Jd-Qd against Cada’s pocket nines. The nines held and Cada took the WSOP bracelet and became the youngest ever WSOP Main Event winner. A record that will be extremely hard to break.

For those looking for the next “Ambassador of Poker” a big sigh of relief is in order. Moon had stated on numerous occasions that he intends to return to the woods of Maryland where he will continue with his logging business in relative obscurity whether he won or not. Cada on the other hand has shown keen interest in representing the game and even wore a Poker Player’s Association patch for the Final Table. Expect to see a lot more of Joe Cada in the future.

For their efforts, Moon will take home $5.2 million and Cada will take home $8.6 million. Interestingly, Cada will actually end up taking home less money than Moon as he we will walk with only around $2.5 million after paying his backers and taxes.