Darvin Moon's WSOP demonstrates the thin line of poker success

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The first hand of Darvin Moon’s heads-up battle with Joe Cada is a microcosm of poker: Sometimes you do the wrong thing and it works out for you: His final hand of the night showed that sometimes you do the wrong thing and it doesn’t work out so well.

In the first hand of the evening Moon limped in with QQ; Cada raised to 3.5 million with 99; and Moon simply called the raise. Now this is a very unorthodox betting line to take –I believe Mike Caro would classify this as a clear case of Fancy Play Syndrome—and one you wouldn’t see a player with more experience take: Simply too many things can go wrong.

Moon’s worst nightmare came on the flop in the form of a King, and it only got worse when an Ace appeared on the turn. However, both players managed to make it to showdown and Moon’s Queens held up. The unorthodox play is simply another day in the life of an amateur poker player.

The final hand of the evening shows us how poker can often reward a bad play –fortunately for Cada the poker gods decided to give him a pass and let his pocket 99 hold-up.

After re-raising to 8 million, Moon called Cada’s 3-bet all-in with a meager JQs! Now, JQs is a pretty hand, but not one you want to risk your tournament life, and $3 million on! Luckily for Moon, Cada had one of the few possible holdings that didn’t have him dominated, 99. Showing once again how tenuous poker can be: Moon makes a horrible call and is basically a coin-flip in the hand. This time however Moon’s play wasn’t rewarded, and the 2009 WSOP champion is the 21 year-old Joe Cada.

Moon’s decisions throughout the final table show how close a good amateur and professional player are in skill: Each making 100’s of decisions, and the difference coming down to one or two poor choices: Sometimes these decisions work out for the amateur, but more often they end up costing them.

Previous entries: 10 days out: 9 days out: 8 days out: 7 days out: 5 days out:  4 days out: 3 days out: WSOP begins tomorrow: WSOP final table starts today: WSOP down to two players: Heads-Up battle concludes tonight