Cada Wins

Cada Wins Joe Cada won it last night to become the youngest WSOP main-event champ. Hin 99 held up agains QJ suited on the final hand. While Moon proclaims to have rebuffed sponsorship offers from the onlines, I've heard he didn't make a deal only because they wouldn't meet his price.

Cada is from my neck of the woods, so there has been a lot of coverage on him, here are a couple of stories: Family, friends in awe of poker phenom Joe Cada BY KORIE WILKINS AND TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS A few years ago, Joe Cada was a little kid peeking over the table edge at family gatherings, watching his mom, dad and aunts and uncles playing cards. Now his family is watching in awe as Cada, 21, celebrates winning $8.5 million and the World Series of Poker. “We’re talking when he was young,” one of Joe’s nine aunts and uncles, Jim Cada, said today from his home in Almont. “It always seemed to end up in a card game. So the kids would hang around and watch. The games went on over the years, and he got older. But that was probably just his introduction to it.” The games continued in Joe Cada’s home. His mother, Ann, has been a dealer at the MotorCity Casino for more than five years, most recently on the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift at the blackjack tables. “His family played poker around the kitchen table,” his uncle said. “He just loves the game. He just loves to play.” Friend Anthony Zanti, 22, of Shelby Township, said he was blown away when the text messages started rolling in about Cada’s win. He’s known Cada since their days at Utica High School and played in on an indoor soccer tournament with him this summer. The fame and money haven’t changed his laid-back, quiet friend, he said. “I wish I was there to celebrate,” said Zanti. “He deserves it.” He said he used to play poker with Cada in high school, just small-time $10 or $20 games with a group of other pals. “He always did good,” he said. Joe Cada took a few classes at Macomb Community College after graduating in 2006 from Utica High School. But the poker bug that bit him as a teen with his brother, Jerry, led him to online competitions. He started winning big during the past couple of years, competing in person in tournaments as far away as Monaco, the Bahamas and England, his uncle said. “This is something new – now he’s traveling and playing,” his uncle said. “I’m very happy for him of course. I’m hoping he can use his money wisely and invest it and set himself up for a very long time and hopefully go back to school and get an education.” Cada has dozens of friends with him in Las Vegas, Zanti said, and they celebrated into the wee morning hours. Many, Zanti said, wore University of Michigan colors to the tournament in support of Cada. On Tuesday, Zanti awoke to a text message from a friend who had sent a picture of Cada wearing the gold bracelet he won. “I know they were up all night,” he said. “I haven’t talked to Joe. I haven’t tried. But I’m sure he’s enjoying it.” The new world champ’s uncle doesn’t picture his nephew frittering his new winnings away on things like high-priced sports cars and fancy accoutrements. “I don’t think he’ll be like that; he’s pretty level-headed,” his uncle said. “He’s a cool-headed kid. He’s always been a wonderful kid – quiet and polite – and just a good person. So he deserves it.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can you count on having Cada's poker success? Don't bet on it BY RON DZWONKOWSKI FREE PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR I have to admire the stamina and smarts that Joe Cada displayed in becoming, at 21, the youngest person ever to win the World Series of Poker. The 2006 Utica High graduate claimed an $8.55-million prize early today at the tournament in Las Vegas. But I hope Cada doesn’t become an inspiration. He’s an exception. Most gamblers lose. If they didn’t, Las Vegas wouldn’t exist and the three casinos in Detroit wouldn’t be holding up as well as they are in the nation’s worst economy. Poker, whether played online or in person, can be fun, challenging — and, in a very few hands, expensive. It’s seldom a solution. “Does his success worry me?” said Dennis Martell, coordinator of health education at Michigan State University. “What worries me more is that we’ve got a perfect storm going with this Michigan economy, and a point-and-click generation that wants instant gratification, that thinks they can get lucky and, in many cases, really needs the money.” Martell said surveys show that the number of MSU students who admit that online gaming — which includes gambling — is affecting their academic work has more than doubled from 9% in 2000 to 18.5% today. By comparison, the number of students who cite alcohol use as a problem has dipped from 9.1% in 2002 to 8.7%. And this is just among students who admit it. “It is the fastest-rising health care issue on campus,” Martell said. “Among male students, it’s up to 22% admitting it’s a problem.” According to the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling, the first sign of trouble is when gambling “causes disruptions in any major area of life: psychological, physical, social or vocational.” The association says about 2% of all Michigan residents have a gambling problem and 4.1% have had one at some time in their lives. Martell says the possibility of quick money can be hugely tempting, especially in times that, he says, have seen students waiting some mornings outside the doors of the MSU Food Bank to get a handout. “We know there are financial problems, in some cases because of parents who have lost jobs,” he said. “We’ve seen our food bank requests just about double in one year.” There aren’t enough poker jackpots available to fix that. Sure, college can be a gamble, too. You spend a lot of money and you’re not sure how it’s going to turn out. But the odds on succeeding in life are better with an education than with a gambling problem. So congratulations to Joe Cada, whose card-playing acumen — and luck — made him a multimillionaire at 21. I hope he spends most of it in Michigan. But most 21-year-olds — heck, most people — are not going to have the ride that Joe Cada did. He’s a winner all right. But he shouldn’t become an inspiration.

Michigan ace wins poker title, $8.55 million ASSOCIATED PRESS Joe Cada of Shelby Township won the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas early today, winning $8.55 million and becoming the youngest player to win the tournament in its 40-year history. The 21-year-old Michigan poker professional who chose cards over college, turned over a pair of nines early after 46-year old Darvin Moon called his all-in wager with a suited queen-jack, setting up an about-even race for most of the chips on the table. But a board of two sevens, a king, an eight and a deuce didn’t connect with either player’s cards and gave Cada the win. “I ran really well and I never really thought this was possible,” Cada said. “It was one of those dreams and I’m thankful it came true.” MORE: • Joe Cada builds fan base online • Joe Cada, 21, takes on Vegas The hand abruptly ended a final table that saw Moon, a logger from western Maryland, bounce back to a dominant chip lead after being down 2-1 in chips to start the night. “I knew if I could catch, I got him,” Moon said of the final hand. “I just took a shot.” Cada broke a record for the tournament’s youngest winner set last year by Peter Eastgate of Denmark. Cada is 340 days younger than Eastgate. The record was previously held for two decades by 11-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who posed for pictures with Cada after the win. He also posed with his mother, Ann Cada, a dealer at MotorCity Casino Hotel in downtown Detroit. “My baby,” Ann Cada said as she approached her son with cameras snapping. When asked what’s next for him after reaching the pinnacle for poker so early in his career, Cada said: “To win it back-to-back.” Moon and Cada traded the lead several times in 88 hands spanning nearly three hours of play, with one 20-minute break. Moon erased Cada’s lead in 12 hands, revealing a pair of queens during a showdown to rake in a pot worth millions of chips. Cada shook his head after he lost and briefly stood up from the table, walking over and chatting with two of his supporters. After some chip-shifting, Cada was ahead by less than 4 million chips after 52 hands, with 194.8 million chips in play. But Moon stormed to nearly a 100 million-chip lead after the break, visibly frustrating Cada and leaning on him to make tougher decisions. Fortunes changed when Moon pounced on a board with two 10s, a nine and a five to put Cada’s entire tournament at risk. After a sip of bottled water and several minutes of thinking, Cada called the bet and flipped over a nine for a pair. Moon held a straight draw but didn’t hit his hand on the river, giving the lead back to Cada and drawing roars from the crowd. “I should have went all-in on the flop. He made a phenomenal call,” Moon said. “That’s why he’s the champion.” Moon won $5.18 million for second place. “I only play good when my back’s against the wall,” said Cada, who was nearly ousted from the tournament on Saturday when he held about 1 percent of the chips in play after 123 hands. The players traded chips atop a table with a stack of cash and a gold bracelet on its felt, and in front of nearly 1,500 screaming fans in a capacity crowd at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Their tug-of-war ended an epic tournament that began with 6,494 players in July. After a 115-day break, Cada and Moon endured more than 14 1/2 hours through 276 hands at the final table on Saturday and early Sunday, when they outlasted seven others to make it to heads-up play. Unlike Cada, who said he regularly plays about a dozen tournaments at a time online or three at a time in heads-up cash games, Moon hasn’t played a single hand of online poker. He doesn’t even own a computer or have an e-mail address.

Cada is from my neck of the woods, so there has been a lot of coverage on him, here are a couple of stories: Family, friends in awe of poker phenom Joe Cada BY KORIE WILKINS AND TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS A few years ago, Joe Cada was a little kid peeking over the table edge at family gatherings, watching his mom, dad and aunts and uncles playing cards. Now his family is watching in awe as Cada, 21, celebrates winning $8.5 million and the World Series of Poker. “We’re talking when he was young,” one of Joe’s nine aunts and uncles, Jim Cada, said today from his home in Almont. “It always seemed to end up in a card game. So the kids would hang around and watch. The games went on over the years, and he got older. But that was probably just his introduction to it.” The games continued in Joe Cada’s home. His mother, Ann, has been a dealer at the MotorCity Casino for more than five years, most recently on the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift at the blackjack tables. “His family played poker around the kitchen table,” his uncle said. “He just loves the game. He just loves to play.” Friend Anthony Zanti, 22, of Shelby Township, said he was blown away when the text messages started rolling in about Cada’s win. He’s known Cada since their days at Utica High School and played in on an indoor soccer tournament with him this summer. The fame and money haven’t changed his laid-back, quiet friend, he said. “I wish I was there to celebrate,” said Zanti. “He deserves it.” He said he used to play poker with Cada in high school, just small-time $10 or $20 games with a group of other pals. “He always did good,” he said. Joe Cada took a few classes at Macomb Community College after graduating in 2006 from Utica High School. But the poker bug that bit him as a teen with his brother, Jerry, led him to online competitions. He started winning big during the past couple of years, competing in person in tournaments as far away as Monaco, the Bahamas and England, his uncle said. “This is something new – now he’s traveling and playing,” his uncle said. “I’m very happy for him of course. I’m hoping he can use his money wisely and invest it and set himself up for a very long time and hopefully go back to school and get an education.” Cada has dozens of friends with him in Las Vegas, Zanti said, and they celebrated into the wee morning hours. Many, Zanti said, wore University of Michigan colors to the tournament in support of Cada. On Tuesday, Zanti awoke to a text message from a friend who had sent a picture of Cada wearing the gold bracelet he won. “I know they were up all night,” he said. “I haven’t talked to Joe. I haven’t tried. But I’m sure he’s enjoying it.” The new world champ’s uncle doesn’t picture his nephew frittering his new winnings away on things like high-priced sports cars and fancy accoutrements. “I don’t think he’ll be like that; he’s pretty level-headed,” his uncle said. “He’s a cool-headed kid. He’s always been a wonderful kid – quiet and polite – and just a good person. So he deserves it.”