Home / Poker News November 2009 / Congrats to Joe “The Kid” Cada, the youngest ever WSOP Main Event Champion
Congrats to Joe “The Kid” Cada, the youngest ever WSOP Main Event Champion
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2009-11-10 08:43
That’s right, The Kid is the new champ and as today’s heads-up battle against Darvin Moon has proved, he more than deserves the title. His win sets yet another
WSOP record: he is now the youngest ever Big Dance winner, as he hasn’t even had his 22nd birthday yet. Last year, Peter Eastgate managed to topple Phil Hellmuth’s long standing record as the youngest Main Event champion, but he only held that record for year.
Cada came into the November Nine showdown as one of the least likely figures to walk away with the gold. He wasn’t a short-stack, but he wasn’t a front-runner either, and with all the press hype focused on Phil Ivey, few pundits even considered his name when it came to making predictions.
Cada did take a few hits at the final table, his not-so-impressive stack further dwindling, but he managed to catch a few crucial double ups to stay in contention. As the big guns began disappearing from the November Nine table, Cada’s presence was increasingly felt by his remaining opponents. Antoine Saout’s elimination in 3rd place gave him the chip lead heading into the heads-up stage against Darvin Moon.
The heads-up affair was by no means smooth sailing for either of the involved players. The chip lead changed hands several times, and Moon wasn’t going to let the youngster push him around on account of his larger stack. The logger struck back and soon took over the chip lead, pushing Cada to just about 49 million chips at one point.
Cada managed to catch a double up when it mattered most though, dodging Moon’s open ended straight draw to take the chip lead right back. From there on, it was all downhill for Moon. The final hand saw Cada’s pocket nines hold up against Moon’s Jd, Qd and another page in the WSOP’s history has been written.
As he received his bracelet, Cada thanked his supporters (who were highly vocal all through the heads-up action), and asked for applause for all November Nine members, and especially for Darvin Moon.
