This week, the online poker forum PocketFives.com welcomed 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner Joe Cada, who signed up for a PocketFives.com account using the moniker “jcada99.”
Check out the audio: [audio:111909.mp3]
Cada appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on Tuesday night in a four-minute segment following actress Penelope Cruz. On his interview with the longtime CBS host, Cada told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “It was very exciting. I was probably more nervous to do that than the final table. It was cool to meet Dave. He’s a funny guy.” Letterman and Cada covered a substantial amount of ground during the terse interview, with topics ranging from Cada’s backers to his beginnings in the game.
Preparing for November’s resumption of the $10,000 buy-in tournament meant over 100 days of waiting for play to kick off. While several at the table sought coaching and some escaped on vacation, Cada relayed how he spent the downtime: “I just tried to remain focused and not think about the money. I wanted to play the best poker that I could and not play scared either.” As a result of his win, Cada will parlay his fame into continued involvement with the poker world. He noted, “I’ll continue to play poker and I’ll always play poker. We have a few big tournaments coming up, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas and the Five Diamond at the Bellagio. I’m going to continue to play big tournaments and play online.”
His parents, though initially gun shy about his poker endeavors, have ultimately come around to support the new millionaire. Cada revealed, “My family has been very supportive and my friends have been very supportive too. There have been a lot of people helping me through this and I’m very appreciative of all of that. I’ve been really busy, so I haven’t had too much time to talk to them yet.” His girlfriend served as his ambassador at the Rio during the Main Event final table, answering Cada’s phone and keeping him company throughout the off-day before heads-up play.
Cada is a heads-up online poker specialist and, holding better than a 2:1 chip lead when play was down to two against Maryland logger Darvin Moon, was considered to be favored by most. However, Moon put up a fight, leaving Cada to admit, “Darvin Moon did impress me with his heads-up play. He played really well and put me to a lot of tough decisions. He wanted to play very aggressively, which he did, and put me in a lot of tough spots. Darvin played excellent heads-up poker and took it to me for the beginning part of the match.”
Moon showed down monsters leading up to the nine-handed final table, developing an image as a rock in a table full of experienced poker players. Cada picked up on the same image, telling PocketFives.com Podcast Host David Huber, “Darvin came to the final table with an image that he didn’t bluff too much, barely at all. He always had a monster and tried to use that image to his advantage at the final table. He put in a lot of big raises and tried to put people in a lot of tough spots.”
While Moon turned up the tempo at the final table, poker pros Jeff Shulman and Team Full Tilt member Phil Ivey clamped down, playing mostly ABC poker. On the tightness of the two pros, Cada commented, “I was very surprised, especially when I saw the video. I was surprised that Shulman folded nines on the button when Ivey shipped. I was also surprised to see Ivey fold jacks when he got 3bet. Those hands surprised me and they were playing really tight throughout the 17 hours. Shulman opened up more as we got shorter-handed and I had 18 big blinds, which was my reason to ship with threes.”
Finally, after watching the WSOP Main Event unfold on ESPN, Cada relayed his thoughts on the network’s coverage, which will continue until at least April of 2018: “I wish they would have shown more hands that I was involved with, but they did a good job. There was a ton of footage, so it was hard to see a lot of the interesting hands. They didn’t show a few of my 4bets and there was a crucial hand against Darvin heads-up that I thought they were going to show where he 3bet and I 4bet with 10-3 and he ended up folding fours.”
Cada has looked and sounded professional throughout his various media appearances, coached in interviewing by PokerRoad’s Joe Stapleton and Top Set Management. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest Joe Cada interviews.
