Joe Cada, the 21 year old from Michigan has won the World Series Of Poker 2009, becoming the youngest ever Main Event champion in the history of WSOP. Cada bested      Maryland player Darvin Moon for a top prize of $8.5 million! Moon earn $5.2 million for the his second place finish.

We’ve been watching this series since June this year when the final battle began, and what a rollercoaster ride is has been! We saw bit names Phil Ivey out this past weekend  and the final consisting of relative newcomers.

Moon began play at the final table in the heads up with a total of 5,000 in WSOP tournament chips, and Cada with an amount of 58,875,000 at the start of last nights 10PM  heads-up match. We saw an immensely amount of different play strategy throughout the game including the chip stacks totally reversing to Cada going from the chip leader  to having 1/3 of the tournament chips.

Play was fairly exciting but the 70th hand was where the action was. This hand let to the turnaround of game in which Cada started to figuratively fight back with a much  stronger chip stacks

The 88th hand was the monumental hand.

Cada raises

Moon re-raises

Cada goes all in

Moon calls!

Cada shows a pair of 9’s – Moon a couple of suited overcards

The flop came: 8C 2C 7S. No change

The Turn: KH. Nothing

The River: 7C.

Cada wins!

None the less, exciting as hell for Cada, and a hearty congratulations to him

So with Joe Cade featuring so prominently in the blogosphere and well as in the news I thought I’d start today’s post off with a bit of background about the WSOP and the history of this most coveted item.

The World Series of Poker Bracelet is pretty much the most coveted non-monetary prize that any poker player can win. Since 1976, one of these coveted prizes haves been given to the winner of every event at the tournament. During the first few year of the   WSOP there were only a couple of bracelets handed up, in 19990, there were 14, and by 200 it had increased by up to 24. This year 57 bracelets were given out and 4 at the World Series of Poker Europe. As the popularity of the WSOP has grown, as has the value   of the bracelet from a few hundred bucks to a prestige items designed by Corum

The Prestige of Winning a Bracelet

At first the bracelets were much of a gimmick not meaning anything to many of the players with even Doyle Brunson saying that his first bracelet pretty much meant nothing to it. There is a feeling amongst allot of pro poker players that there are just 2 types of  poker players. The bracelet winners and those who have not. There is a belief that those who have won a bracelet belong to a “special club”. I guess the bracelet could somewhat be compared to winning the FIFA world cup trophy or an Oscar but rather for the world that we live in.

History

The bracelet handout out tradition started in 1976 following the previous years where winner were given a sterling plate and before that nothing. The 1976 bracelet cost aprxiimently about $500. In the 1980s Mordechai Yerushalmi become the exclusive manufacturer of the WSOP bracelets until Harrahs Entertainment bought the rights to the WSOP in 2001 n 2005, Gold and Diamond International based in Memphis, TN won the bid from Harrah’s Entertainment to manufacture the 2005 WSOP bracelets.

In 2007, Corum became the official bracelet manufacturer for the WSOP. Some of the 2007 WSOP champions received both a watch and a bracelet from Corum. Corum designed four variations for the 2007 World Series of Poker Bracelets. The standard version that is presented to 53 winners features 53 diamonds. The Ladies World Champion receives a bracelet that is adorned with four black diamonds, two rubies and 87 blue sapphires. The $50,000 HORSE Champion Bracelet has 91 black diamonds and two rubies. The World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet has 120 diamonds on 136 grams of 18 carat (75 percent) white gold. The value of the 2007 bracelets have not been released, but the typical price of a Corum watch ranges from $1,500-$30,000

In 2008, the Main Event Bracelet had 291 diamonds, totaling 2.81 carats set 168 grams of 18kt white gold.

The other 54 event bracelets consisted of 55 diamonds, totaling 0.25 carats set in 80 grams of 14kt yellow gold.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the Information.

So, like most of the poker world, we’ve all been eagerly wathcing the WSOP 2009 in the Penbn & Teller Theatre at the Last Vegas Rio Hotel & Casino, and things are definately heating up. I’ve seen old names such as Jeff Shulman and Phil Ivey make the headlines  (as per usual) but they are joined by a mix of interesting players – 4 of them becoming overnight names since they become members of the November Nine.  All nine are fighting out for a prize pool of $8,546, 43.  Of course; on  the line as well in the one of the  much coveted WSOP Main Event Bracelet that will put these players into the list of ‘greatest of all time’.

The Facts:

Chip Leader Darvin Moon – Seat 1 – 58.9 mill in chips – Followed  by James Akenhead with 6.8mill, Phil Ivey (9.75), Kevin Schaffel (12.4), Steve Begleiter(29.89),Eric Buchman (34.8), Joe Cada (13.2), (Antoine Saout (9.5) and the well known Jeff Shulman (19.6)

The Action:

It’s level 33 of the tournmanet  structure (as much as I love poker, this is alot of poker to watch, and really I’ve not had the time) with the blinds being set at 120K/240K with a 30K ante.

Where my moneys at:

Like most bookmakers out there, I’m backing the big stack. Also might be the fact that Moon is literally just another amateur play like most of us. From what I’ve heard he’s a logger from Maryland, never ever played an online game of poker (Idea: Need to send him a PokerTime email ) and he won his seat from a $130 satellite in West Virgina. I’ve always been a fan of the underdog.

Where everyone else’s moneys at:

Phil Ivey. But in my humble opinion – he doesn’t have the chip count to play creatively.

The Benjamins:

That $8.5 million dollar check is the third largest in poker tournament history – Second place $5.2 million, and then payout trickling down to ‘measly’ $1.25 million for the last contender.

Predicitons:

My money goes to Shulman, but I’m really hoping for Moon to hit the final 3