The Final Table, Part Two
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Seven players left and we’re an hour into the coverage. Expect fireworks!
Peter Eastgate sitting with Doyle Brunson, after Eastgate blew off a photo session during the WSOP that had Doyle steaming. Hopefully the young buck made amends to the Big Poppa.
Phil Ivey folds pocket Jacks to a re-raise from Antoine Saout holding pocket sevens and it’s like the world’s turned upside down. Did I just SEE that?? Apparently Ivey doesn’t speak French, even when it comes to non-verbal communication.
Jeff Shulman doubles through Joe Cada and leaves the youngster with just 1% of the chips in play. 2 million. 5 big blinds. Oh well, gg, right?
Interesting approach by Jeff Shulman, setting up a nine-handed table and having players simulate how his final-table opponents will play. I’m not sure how folding pocket nines to a raise from Phil Ivey fits in there but it’s kinda hard to simulate Phil Ivey.
Can’t be a good feeling to be all-in for your tournament life and it’s Phil Ivey holding the door open for you. But it must be an awesome feeling to see that final card fall on the river and know you’ve doubled up and have new life. Which is just what happened to Joe Cada as his pocket fours held against Ivey’s A-8.
Antoine Saout was kinda the forgotten man of the November Nine, in large part because he’s French. But there were three Frenchmen who went deep in the Main Event and for a time it seemed like half of Media Row was from la belle France. Seriously, during the WSOP I’d say that more than half of the media in attendance was from across the Pond. It’s an international game, believe it.
I like apples, they’re tasty and nutritious, but Phil Ivey might be the first person since Adam to make eating an apple look cool. Unfortunately, as with Adam, eating an apple was unlucky for the best player in the world. All-in with Ace-King and dominating Darvin Moon’s Ace-Queen, the flop had a Queen in the door. After an obligatory Mike Matusow expletive Ivey continued munching away on his apple and waited to see his fate. And then that was that and hearing the keening from the audience you’d think someone had died. And then the ovation as Ivey walked off the stage and the complexion of the final table took a sudden turn. Up to then you had the impression that everyone, including the other players at the table, were focused on Ivey. With him gone everyone realized that someone else was gonna win the title.
Gotta say this for Darvin Moon–the guy wasn’t afraid to get his chips in the middle. He didn’t turtle and try to fold his way up the money ladder, he was blasting away with both barrels. And he sure didn’t fear playing Ace-Queen, cards that are considered a diabolical trap-hand by many players. Then again if you flop a Queen to beat Ace-King, as Moon did to Ivey, or river an Ace to beat pocket Queens, as Moon did to Steve Begleiter, it gives you a bit more confidence with those two cards. Good Lord, Darvin Moon runs good.
Hey, there’s Tony, the head of security at the WSOP carrying the briefcases of cash! When the Stanley Cup came to the Amazon Room for the NHL Charity Event (shortly after my beloved Penguins won it) I thought about running over to hug it, but the thought of Tony tasering me and then tossing my body in a dumpster held me in place. Probably would’ve lost my press pass, too.
Wow, Joe Cada won with pocket threes to Jeff Shulman’s pocket Jacks. I guess we all have one big double-up like that in our poker careers…
Nice to see ESPN showing Joe rocking the UB logo before the November Nine was set. Do we hold a grudge against Joe for signing with PokerStars the enemy another online site? Not all all, we’re all bigger than that.
And then Cada quickly doubles when Moon decides to bully and finds out you can’t bully a guy holding pocket Aces, as Cada was. Moon’s K-9 is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight and Lon McEachren uses that word, “Destiny”, for the first time to describe Cada.
Jeff Shulman doubled through Cada but couldn’t win that next big hand to catapult him into contention. He lost a race with pocket sevens to Saout’s A-9 and sometimes that’s how the end comes, with a whimper not a bang. After playing so many hours in July, then dealing with the hype and the waiting, to have it end on the losing end of a race has gotta feel both crushing and anti-climatic.
I should say here that the COVERAGE tonight hasn’t been anti-climatic. It’s been great, especially when you consider they turned this around in just a few days. Standing O to the ESPN team, great work all around.
Once again Ace-Queen takes center stage, as Eric Buchman tried to shove Saout around but ran into the Frenchman’s Big Slick. I believe that was the biggest pot up to that point, Saout was the first player close to 90 million. And somewhere my French journo friend Benjo was going nuts.
Man, Moon like putting his chips in there. Calling about 25 million with KING-JACK?? CALLING with it. Holy crap on a stick, what hand can you be ahead of there? Buchman had just lost a big hand, sure, but he still had enough chips to put a hurt on Moon. But he made the call, flopped a straight draw, turned a King. Cada and Saout had to be praying “Oh God (Mon Dieu), let me get Aces just one more time against Darvin. Just once…”
Here’s something you should know about the final table you’re watching–it was the longest in WSOP history. They played for nearly FIFTEEN HOURS. So it’s not like they were throwing haymakers all day. But it’s amazing how quickly these massive confrontations develop. Like the one between Cada and Saout, as Cada shipped in his entire stack holding pocket deuces and then looked sick when Saout said “Call”. You’re hoping you’re in a race, instead you find you’re crushed by pocket Queens. And then you flop ANOTHER SET to wriggle off the hook. Extraordinary…there’s luck, and then there’s Luck, and then there’s LUCK. At some point it almost has to become embarassing.
But not before Cada spiked a King on the river to knock Saout out of the tournament. Look, I’m a patriotic American and all, but I kinda wanted Saout to win. The poor guy played great, suffered the slings and arrows with an esprit I admired, but in the end he could not overcome Cada’s golden run. Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be, and for a poker player that has to be very, very difficult to accept.
Funny that Moon consoled Saout by saying “it should’ve been me and you” and Cada told his friends “this is the tournament” during the Ace-King vs. pocket Eights race. Neither seemed to think much of the other’s play, or it might’ve been be nervous bravado. Who’s to say.
Heads-up play begins to a full house. My friends covering the event said the line stretched from the Penn & Teller theater all the way back through the atrium and down the long hallway past the business center. For those of you who’ve been to the Rio you know that’s a freakin’ long line. Like three football fields, maybe?
I really thought the heads-up match would be over quickly and Moon’s rush to start things off did nothing to change my mind. He won a huge pot with QQ to Cada’s pocket nines (Cada probably felt fortunate not to double Darvin up) and then after Cada flopped top pair Moon check-raised with air yet made a pair of Queens on the river to take the pot and the chip lead. That had to stagger Cada, to be dealt a pocket pair and flop top pair yet lose the both pots.
Cada righted the ship in a hand where he won the pot with a huge 35 million bet on the river that had Moon thinking. We now know Moon had fourth-pair to Cada’s top two…hey, Moon might’ve called! And then, once again, we see Ace-Queen come into play, with Moon raising with Ace-Jack and Cada re-raising with AQ. Moon then stood and shoved 25 million into the pot and what do you do? It’s Ace-Queen. You’re dominated by lots of hands, you’re racing a pair…Cada mucked. “I had a monster,” Moon said, not exactly true, and Cada said he had a huge hand too. But the confrontation was averted.
Cada no doubt thought he was the better player and the longer the match went the better his chance at victory. Yet it’s hard to be patient and play small-ball when your unpredictable opponent keeps pushing chips forward. Cada had to bring all his skill and experience to the fore, and that’s what we saw in the hand where Cada regained the chip lead. With the board reading 10c-5d-9h-10d Moon made an all-in raise and Cada, after thinking a bit, made a monster call with Jh-9d. Moon was semi-bluffing outs with 7s-8s but, God, what a call! Sure, Moon probably doesn’t have a ten…but with Moon you can’t be sure. And he could have an overpair, he could have pocket fives, he could have K-9! Some of the play tonight has been questionable but not that hand. That, ladies and gentlemen, was poker.
Cada started the heads-up match with pocket nines, and one wonders what he was thinking when he looked down at them again. And decided to move in after Moon raised. And then heard Moon say, “I call”. But Moon didn’t have Queens this time, he had Queen-Jack, and perhaps Moon felt that he needed to win a decisive hand one way or another and with Cada’s chips in the middle now was the time to strike. Regardless, Moon called and the two were racing for the most prestigious title in poker. In-credible. And when the board failed to hit Moon and the final pot of the 2009 Main Event was pushed Joe Cada’s way, we had a new World Champion, and once again the winner is the youngest-ever champion. It was a remarkable weekend of poker and tonight was a fantastic showcase for the game. It’s sad to think that we have to wait over six months for the 2010 World Series of Poker to start. Let’s hope the time flies.
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Tags: 2009 november nine, 2009 wsop, darvin moon, joe cada, november nine, phil ivey, world series of poker
