WSOP 2009 Main Event Winner Joe Cada But Darvin Moon The Real Hero Of The Tournament

Joe Cada, aged 21, has become the youngest person ever to win the World Series Of Poker Main Event, in the longest heads-up battle in history, at over three hours.
In a WSOP tournament full of surprises, none is more astonishing than the runner-up who so very nearly took the crown himself. Darvin Moon has become a bit of an enigma throughout the event and many are wondering how this 46 year old down to earth Maryland logger almost managed to take down the prestigious title.
Moon says he has never read even a single page of a poker strategy book, has never played online poker and his only experience of the game came two years ago when he began watching poker on TV and playing low-stakes tournaments three nights every two weeks in and around Oakland. His reason for starting playing poker, he explains, is that he became too fat to continue playing his favourite game softball.
“I got fat. I’m up to 285,” he says. “That’s a little heavy to be only 5-11.”
The laconic and self-effacing Maryland logger, who jokes about himself as being just “a fat hillbilly” who “isn’t real intelligent,” doesn’t seem to have incredible mathematical skills or game theory knowledge, so what does he put his incredible run in the tournament down to? Moon believes he has a good ability to read people’s body language while not giving off any of his own:
“You can’t read me; I never change. But people around here will tell you that I can call your hand before you roll it over.”
Darvin Moon also said “I got incredible cards for eight days. No matter what I did, it seemed like it worked.”Be it luck, skill or a combination of the both, this fascinating character who won his seat at the 2009 WSOP Main Event via a $140 satellite tournament at Wheeling Island Casino in West Virginia, was a real inspiration throughout the whole extravaganza and as he walks away from the biggest tournament of his life $5.2 million in prize money richer and heads to his trailer where he still lives with his wife, this incredible man is unlikely to be affected by his new found fame and fortune.
After all he was the only player at the final table who passed up lucrative deals with big poker sites so he could wear his New Orleans Saints cap and a logo from Wheeling Island, the West Virginia casino where Moon won his WSOP seat in a satellite tournament, “And they’re not payin’ me nothin’ to wear it; I’m just doing it out of respect,” he says.
Good for you Darvin, and well done on your success at WSOP 2009. In many people’s eyes you will be the real champion of this year’s tournament.