2009 World Series of Poker comes to a close tonight in epic heads-up battle

 

Roughly $13.75 million will be at stake when Darvin Moon and Joe Cada take to the table tonight in the Penn & Teller Theatre at the Rio in Las Vegas. The heads-up battle will be the culmination of what has been one of the most interesting WSOP since Moneymaker’s infamous win in 2003.

It’s only fitting that either the amateur Darvin Moon –with his Moneymaker like qualities—or the 21 year-old pro Joe Cada will wind up with the $8.5 million first place prize. Both would be very interesting stories, but in my opinion only one of those stories would be good for poker in the long-run.

Moon is actually the anti-Moneymaker: Moneymaker had never played a live tournament when he won in 2003, and Moon has never played online poker! While it’s hard to root against Darvin Moon, the poker world is obviously rooting for Joe Cada: Cada will be a much better champion, travelling to events and so forth to help promote the game. The last thing the poker community wants is a player that will take the money and virtually disappear from the poker scene: a la Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang, who only seem to show up at the WSOP each year.

Joe Cada would also eclipse Peter Eastgate’s record, set last year, as the youngest Main Event champion ever. At 21 years-old it’s likely Cada would be offered several interviews in the mainstream media where he could help promote poker, and depending on his personality, Cada could become a prime player in the battle over UIGEA: Something Darvin Moon doesn’t offer, and doesn’t seem to be interested in.

It’s not that I’m against Darvin Moon; I just hope Cada wins for the sake of poker’s prosperity. Either way, with second place receiving over $5 million, they’re both winners!

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