November Nine:

Cada and Moon emerge as Main Event’s final two

Sam Morris

A packed Penn and Teller Theater watches the final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the Rio.

By Case Keefer (contact)

Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 | 6:55 a.m.

Joe Cada — 136,925,000
Darvin Moon — 58,895,000
Antoine Saout - 0
Eric Buchman — 0
Jeff Shulman — 0
Steven Begleiter — 0
Phil Ivey — 0
Kevin Schaffel — 0
James Akenhead — 0

Jeff Shulman, who finished fifth in the 2009 World Series of Poker, answered questions from Las Vegas Sun readers Monday.

WSOP Final Table

You need to upgrade your Flash Player

Showing Their Cards

Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player

With the final table set, ESPN's Norman Chad and Lon McEachern weigh in on life behind the scenes of the World Series of Poker.

World Series of Poker 2009

Joe Cada and Darvin Moon are about as different as two people could come.

Cada is a 21-year old poker professional, who was drawn to the game at a young age by nature.

“I’ve always been real good with math and logic,” Cada said. “Poker was a natural fit.”

Moon is a 45-year old logger from western Maryland. He only recently started playing poker with hometown friends.

Cada prides himself on being able to make quick, rational decisions. Moon prides himself on catching good cards.

“I don’t know nothing,” Moon said. “If I have cards, I bet. Sometimes if I don’t have them, I bet.”

Come 10 p.m. Monday night, Cada and Moon will meet on poker’s biggest stage at the Penn & Teller Theater inside the Rio. They will play heads-up for the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event championship.

They were the two who survived the longest final table in Main Event history Saturday — the duration was more than 17 hours — at the Rio. Cada, who could become the youngest Main Event champion ever, has a major advantage as he enters with 136 million chips. Moon trails with 58 million chips.

Moon pointed out another advantage for Cada.

“They say he’s some kind of specialist heads-up online,” Moon said. “I’m not online to watch or see or anything.”

In fact, Moon says he has only played poker heads-up once before.

“Always back home, we always get down to two and drop it,” Moon said. “This will be a learning experience for me. We’ll see how it goes.”

There will be no “dropping it” in this tournament. There’s too much at stake.

The winner will take home the coveted gold bracelet and $8.5 million in prize money. The second place prize is $5.1 million.

“I have to see where it goes,” Cada said. “Darvin mixed up his game a lot. He played really tight back four months ago and today he mixed it up a lot. He did a lot of unordinary things.”

That’s an understatement. Moon drew ire from some poker enthusiasts by knocking out both Phil Ivey and Steven Begleiter with an inferior starting hand Friday.

Moon caught an Ace on the river against Begleiter to make his Ace-Queen beat Beglieter’s pocket queens. Moon also cracked Ivey’s Ace-King with Ace-Queen.

Moon also made a couple notable blunders early in the round Friday to lose big pots. But Moon said he was able to shake both of them off without much worry.

“You’ve got to spend money to make money,” Moon said.

Cada had his fair share of luck Friday, too. He knocked out Antoine Saout in third place on the final hand thanks to a river card.

A King appeared on the river to pair Cada’s Ace-King against Saout’s pocket eights. Moments earlier, Cada’s pocket deuces beat Saout’s pocket queens.

“I always get these crazy ideas in my head,” Cada said. “They end up working out.”

But much more than luck got Cada to this point. He put together a monumental comeback.

At one point, Cada was short-stacked with less than $2 million chips — the lowest point any player reached without busting. But Cada survived a couple of all ins and thrived from there.

Despite playing with Cada from noon until 6 a.m., Moon said he did not have any reads on him. He doesn’t think about that stuff. Of course, Cada said he learned a lot about Moon from his performance.

Need one last major difference? Cada will be decked out in Pokerstars.net gear Monday as the online poker site is his sponsor. Moon will not accept any sponsorship deal.

“I don’t want a boss or someone telling me you need to do this, you need to do that,” Moon said. “If I was going to sign with them guys, we’d be in a lawsuit within a month because they’d want me to do something and I wouldn’t do it.”

Discussion: 9 comments so far…

By ynotjohn

11/8/09 at 9:17 a.m.

Suggest removal

After reading the WSOP blog on the hands you can see that luck played a major portion in both Moon and Cada being in the heads up portion.

Cada had two coin flips go his way and no logic in re-raising a three bet with a pair of 2 knowing at best he could hope for is a coin flip instead he was down big time to a pair of Queens.

Moon was lucky too while being dominated AK to his AQ and pulling it out with a pair of Queens.

This final table is proving that lady luck is all you need to win.
By ynotjohn

11/8/09 at 9:25 a.m.

Suggest removal

After today, I will not feel so bad when my overpairs get cracked or my dominating hand gets rivered by a 2 or 3 out draw as at least I only play for a few dollars not millions:)
By Phargo

11/8/09 at 9:39 a.m.

Suggest removal

Just like when I golf.Best two balls I hit all day was when I stepped on a rake.
By wolf85023

11/8/09 at 9:46 a.m.

Suggest removal

I see babyface is a loser again
By vegasfun01

11/8/09 at 10:54 a.m.

Suggest removal

If Moon wins, it will be great for the game. every loser out there will think they have a chance at making money playing poker. Can you say Moneymaker Two. Go Moon go.
By GrandmaCrabby

11/8/09 at 12:45 p.m.

Suggest removal

I'm sure people will focus on certain hands at the final table, but the fact is that everybody at the final table had some significant luck just to get there. For example, Buchman, who was chip leader at the final table for a while, had been all in with the worst hand on day 5 or day 6 and sucked out. If he hadn't hit a lucky draw there, we never would have heard of him.

In fact, everybody who finished in the top 200 of the Main Event had some serious luck at some point. Nevertheless, as Tom McEvoy always says, you have to play well enough to put yourself in a position to get lucky. You have to play some good poker to put yourself in position to take advantage of good luck when it happens.

I feel bad for Saout. He played very well. It must be tough to get knocked out by back to back bad beats when you have played your heart out for 9 days.

As somebody who was there at the bitter end just before 6 am, it was a lot of fun to watch. This was one of the most exciting events I've ever seen.

Both of the final two players appear to be genuinely nice guys. I wish them both luck.
By Kenn

11/8/09 at 2:09 p.m.

Suggest removal

To anyone who want to learn the rules of Texas Holdem poker, check out http://www.poker-rules.me/
By PeterGun

11/8/09 at 7:28 p.m.

Suggest removal

I predicted that Cada would be the first guy out underneath a previous WSOP article so I'm looking like a genius right now.

:(
By lvdjlv

11/9/09 at 12:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

Cada has a 2-1 chip count, so Moon could double through and have the 2-1 lead quite easily.

If the deck doesn't give us an A-A vs. K-K matchup early, and if the blinds & antes aren't too high, this heads-up match might have some roller coaster rides for both contestants.

I would imagine that whoever has the 2-1 lead will be trying to land the knock out punch instead of grinding away. Who knows, I could be wrong.

I grew up about 10 minutes west of Cada, but I like the fact that Moon wears a New Orleans Saints hat (my brother is a bartender in the French Quarter) and passed on being sponsored.

No matter what happens, both of them are millionaires in the Great Recession. One of them gets the title for a year (assuming neither wins the Main Event in 2010). Good luck to both of them. I won't lie, I wish it was me instead of them... :-D

« Previous Ten Next Ten »

Live chat: Tuesday, noon PST; Chat with Krista Creelman; Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question