Joe Cada
Encyclopedia
Joseph "Joe" Cada is an American professional poker
player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan
, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker
(WSOP).
By winning the Main Event at the age of 21, Cada surpassed Peter Eastgate
as the youngest champion ever. Cada had two previous WSOP cash wins, both in 2009. Cada had been a regular online poker
player for several years prior to winning the live WSOP event. He is primarily an online poker player, with more than $500,000 in online tournament winnings at present. As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $8,550,000. Cada became a representative of Team PokerStars in 2009 in the weeks prior to becoming World Champion.
He is from a family of card enthusiasts although his parents disapproved of his chosen profession. His agent dubbed him "The Kid" and he has also taken on the role as a statesman of the profession in the media and political circles, where he is a proponent of legalization of gambling.
at about the age of 16. He twice staked accounts, but lost all the money in the accounts that he shared with his brother Jerome. His first online account was with PartyPoker
. Although he was not legally able to play in casinos prior to age 21 in the United States, he could in Canada at age 19 and play online. After a brief sabbatical from the game subsequent to losing his money, he began to play at a casino
in Windsor, Ontario
across the Canadian border from his Detroit-area home. He earned enough to enter contests in the Bahamas and Costa Rica.
At the time of his WSOP success, he was playing approximately 2,000 hands per day online at PokerStars
under the User ID jcada99. Cada had been a professional poker player for six years at the time of his world championship. Between the end of 2008 and the 2009 November Nine
, Cada had earned $551,788 online. Prior to the tournament, he had a $150,000 downswing that necessitated him finding a financial backer for the WSOP. Professional poker financiers Eric Haber and Cliff Josephy paid his online fee in exchange for half of his winnings.
Cada enjoys playing the "Sunday Major" tournaments at various online sites and says he honed his skill pursuing the knowledge and experience of better players at online training sites. He typically hosts many poker playing friends on Sundays to keep each other company while going through the grueling Sundays of playing the various majors. Usually, on Sundays, Cada hosts about fifteen friends to play online at his house. According to his CardPlayer magazine profile, Cada used several similar aliases to play with various online poker hosts: jcada99 and Joe Cada on the Full Tilt Poker
website, jcada99 on PokerStars and JCADA99 on Absolute Poker.
he had three in the money finishes (all in No limit Texas hold 'em
): 64th in the 1,088-entrant June 5–7 Event 13, $2,500 No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $6,681; 17th in the 2,095-entrant June 16–18 Event 35, $1,500 No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $21,533; and 1st in the 6,494-entrant July 3–15, November 7 and November 9 Event 57 $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $8,546,435.
Prior to his final table victory, Cada earned a $1 million contract with PokerStars that pays for all his hotels, travels, and some of his buy-ins. His signing with Pokerstars resulted from an interview on ESPN
with Phil Gordon
where he expressed an interest in signing with that specific company. His agent had already procured him offers from UltimateBet and PokerHost as a result of his November Nine qualification. Cada was represented by agent Dan Frank.
In the main event, Cada was the tournament chip leader after day 1C, which was the third of the four opening day sessions, but he began the final table with the fifth largest chipstack. In the 122nd final table hand Cada's stack was reduced to 2,275,000—enough for only four big blind
s and about 1.2% of the combined total stack at play—due to calling Jeff Shulman
's "all in" pre-flop with against . No community cards hit either player, and Shulman was rewarded by his better high card. Cada later went all in twice pre-flop with small pocket pairs and was dominated by higher pocket pairs on both occasions, once with vs. and the other with vs . Both times Cada flopped the winning three of a kind. By the time the field was reduced to two players he had 135 million chips to 58 million for Darvin Moon
. During the final heads-up duel, Cada surrendered the chip lead, but he eventually climbed back to 120.1 million before the last hand of the heads-up with Moon. He regained the chip lead on the 80th hand. His winning hand was , which he got all-in pre-flop against Moon's . The board ran . This hand was the 88th hand of heads-up play between Cada and Moon.
These three events account for his total cumulative career live event earnings of over $8.5 million. With the November 2009 victory, which occurred just over a week before his 22nd birthday, Cada supplanted Peter Eastgate, who won at age 22, as the youngest World Series of Poker Main Event champion. He was 340 days younger than Eastgate had been at the time of becoming world champion. In the week following the WSOP win, Cada made numerous publicity appearances as a poker ambassador. His media events included appearances on CNN
, CBS News
, CNBC
, Late Show With David Letterman
, numerous ESPN
outlets including First Take
, The Scott Van Pelt Show, ESPNU
, ESPNews
, ESPN Inside Deal and ESPN.com
as well as a taping for SportsCenter
that was never aired plus a visit to WWE Raw
. During the publicity run, Dennis Phillips
served as Cada's advisor.
He has a total of five cashes in the World Series of Poker, with three in the 2009 event
and two in the 2011 event
card dealer
at the MotorCity Casino
. Cada has an older brother, Jerome. Cada's father, Jerry, was affected by the late-2000s recession when his automobile industry job was eliminated in a layoff. During the 2009 World Series of Poker's November Nine
, dozens of Cada's fans wore t-shirts with Michigan Wolverines
team colors (maize
and blue) with the words, "PokerStars Michigan Joe Cada 'The Kid'" emblazoned across the front and Michigan baseball caps with "The Kid" on the back. His agent came up with the nickname "The Kid". In an interview in Time
, Cada estimates he had about 100 friends in his cheering section.
In the Time interview, Cada expressed his thoughts on legislation related to the legality of gambling: "I support the right to play poker online. Poker isn't gambling. It's a hobby, an activity, a game. It's not about luck—it's about logic, decision-making, math. We all should be able to play poker on the Web if we want to, and I believe that making it illegal strips us of our rights. This is an important issue, and hopefully we'll see it resolved soon." Outside of poker, Cada also plays indoor soccer
. He is considering purchasing a second home in and possibly opening a bar.
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan
Shelby Charter Township, Michigan
-Demographics:The U.S. Census Bureau has also defined Shelby Township as a census-designated place in the 2000 Census so that the community would appear on the list of places as well on the list of county subdivisions...
, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker
2009 World Series of Poker
The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker . It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event...
(WSOP).
By winning the Main Event at the age of 21, Cada surpassed Peter Eastgate
Peter Eastgate
Peter Eastgate is a poker player from Denmark, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. At the time, he became the youngest player ever to win the event. He was consequently surpassed by Joe Cada in 2009.-Early life:Eastgate was raised in Dalum, a suburb of...
as the youngest champion ever. Cada had two previous WSOP cash wins, both in 2009. Cada had been a regular online poker
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
player for several years prior to winning the live WSOP event. He is primarily an online poker player, with more than $500,000 in online tournament winnings at present. As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $8,550,000. Cada became a representative of Team PokerStars in 2009 in the weeks prior to becoming World Champion.
He is from a family of card enthusiasts although his parents disapproved of his chosen profession. His agent dubbed him "The Kid" and he has also taken on the role as a statesman of the profession in the media and political circles, where he is a proponent of legalization of gambling.
Summary
Cada started playing online pokerOnline poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
at about the age of 16. He twice staked accounts, but lost all the money in the accounts that he shared with his brother Jerome. His first online account was with PartyPoker
PartyGaming
bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc is an online gambling company, formed by the March 2011 merger of PartyGaming plc and bwin. The world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it is best known for its online poker room PartyPoker.com and its sports betting brand Bwin. It is...
. Although he was not legally able to play in casinos prior to age 21 in the United States, he could in Canada at age 19 and play online. After a brief sabbatical from the game subsequent to losing his money, he began to play at a casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
across the Canadian border from his Detroit-area home. He earned enough to enter contests in the Bahamas and Costa Rica.
At the time of his WSOP success, he was playing approximately 2,000 hands per day online at PokerStars
PokerStars
PokerStars is the largest online poker cardroom in the world. PokerStars' satellite tournaments produced the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, Chris Moneymaker. 1983 champion Tom McEvoy, 2005 champion Joe Hachem, 2009 champion Joe Cada and 2010 champion Jonathan Duhamel and others also represent...
under the User ID jcada99. Cada had been a professional poker player for six years at the time of his world championship. Between the end of 2008 and the 2009 November Nine
November Nine
The November Nine is the name used to refer to the final nine contestants, or final table, at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker since 2008. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker....
, Cada had earned $551,788 online. Prior to the tournament, he had a $150,000 downswing that necessitated him finding a financial backer for the WSOP. Professional poker financiers Eric Haber and Cliff Josephy paid his online fee in exchange for half of his winnings.
Cada enjoys playing the "Sunday Major" tournaments at various online sites and says he honed his skill pursuing the knowledge and experience of better players at online training sites. He typically hosts many poker playing friends on Sundays to keep each other company while going through the grueling Sundays of playing the various majors. Usually, on Sundays, Cada hosts about fifteen friends to play online at his house. According to his CardPlayer magazine profile, Cada used several similar aliases to play with various online poker hosts: jcada99 and Joe Cada on the Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room that opened in June 2004 with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson...
website, jcada99 on PokerStars and JCADA99 on Absolute Poker.
2009 World Series of Poker
At the 2009 World Series of Poker2009 World Series of Poker
The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker . It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event...
he had three in the money finishes (all in No limit Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
): 64th in the 1,088-entrant June 5–7 Event 13, $2,500 No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $6,681; 17th in the 2,095-entrant June 16–18 Event 35, $1,500 No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $21,533; and 1st in the 6,494-entrant July 3–15, November 7 and November 9 Event 57 $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em, which earned him $8,546,435.
Prior to his final table victory, Cada earned a $1 million contract with PokerStars that pays for all his hotels, travels, and some of his buy-ins. His signing with Pokerstars resulted from an interview on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
with Phil Gordon
Phil Gordon
Philip Stewart Gordon is an American professional poker player, commentator and author.-Personal life:Gordon was born in El Paso, Texas. He spent his formative years in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Gordon began attending Georgia Tech at the age of 15 while still attending high school...
where he expressed an interest in signing with that specific company. His agent had already procured him offers from UltimateBet and PokerHost as a result of his November Nine qualification. Cada was represented by agent Dan Frank.
In the main event, Cada was the tournament chip leader after day 1C, which was the third of the four opening day sessions, but he began the final table with the fifth largest chipstack. In the 122nd final table hand Cada's stack was reduced to 2,275,000—enough for only four big blind
Blind (poker)
The blinds are forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer button in flop-style poker games. The number of blinds is usually two, but it can range from none to three....
s and about 1.2% of the combined total stack at play—due to calling Jeff Shulman
Jeff Shulman
Jeff Shulman is the editor of Card Player Magazine, and an American poker player with a record of success in tournament play, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the son of Jan Shulman and Barry Shulman...
's "all in" pre-flop with against . No community cards hit either player, and Shulman was rewarded by his better high card. Cada later went all in twice pre-flop with small pocket pairs and was dominated by higher pocket pairs on both occasions, once with vs. and the other with vs . Both times Cada flopped the winning three of a kind. By the time the field was reduced to two players he had 135 million chips to 58 million for Darvin Moon
Darvin Moon
Darvin Moon is an American self-employed logger and amateur poker player who was the runner-up of the 2009 World Series of Poker US$10,000 no-limit Texas hold'em main event. It was his first time playing in the World Series of Poker...
. During the final heads-up duel, Cada surrendered the chip lead, but he eventually climbed back to 120.1 million before the last hand of the heads-up with Moon. He regained the chip lead on the 80th hand. His winning hand was , which he got all-in pre-flop against Moon's . The board ran . This hand was the 88th hand of heads-up play between Cada and Moon.
These three events account for his total cumulative career live event earnings of over $8.5 million. With the November 2009 victory, which occurred just over a week before his 22nd birthday, Cada supplanted Peter Eastgate, who won at age 22, as the youngest World Series of Poker Main Event champion. He was 340 days younger than Eastgate had been at the time of becoming world champion. In the week following the WSOP win, Cada made numerous publicity appearances as a poker ambassador. His media events included appearances on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
, Late Show With David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, numerous ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
outlets including First Take
ESPN First Take
ESPN First Take is an American morning sports talk program on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD. The show was formerly known as Cold Pizza. The official switch was made on May 7, 2007. Two back-to-back two-hour episodes air each weekday from Monday through Friday, with the live episode airing from 10 a.m...
, The Scott Van Pelt Show, ESPNU
ESPNU
ESPNU is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced by, affiliated with and owned by parent network ESPN. ESPNU originates out of ESPN Regional Television's ESPNU (often referred to as The U) is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced...
, ESPNews
ESPNEWS
ESPNEWS , launched on November 1, 1996, is a 24-hour-a-day sports news television channel...
, ESPN Inside Deal and ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
as well as a taping for SportsCenter
SportsCenter
SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
that was never aired plus a visit to WWE Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
. During the publicity run, Dennis Phillips
Dennis Phillips (poker player)
Dennis N. Phillips is a poker player and an account manager for Broadway Trucks, a commercial trucking company in St Louis, Missouri. Phillips qualified for the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event through a $200 satellite tournament at Harrah's St. Louis, his local Harrah's casino...
served as Cada's advisor.
He has a total of five cashes in the World Series of Poker, with three in the 2009 event
2009 World Series of Poker
The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker . It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event...
and two in the 2011 event
2011 World Series of Poker
The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker . The WSOP is the most prestigious poker tournament in the world with the winner of the Main Event considered to be the World Champion. It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada between May...
Personal
Anne Cada, Joe's mother, is a blackjackBlackjack
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
card dealer
Croupier
A croupier or dealer is someone appointed at a gambling table to assist in the conduct of the game, especially in the distribution of bets and payouts. Croupiers are typically employed by casinos.-Origin of the word:...
at the MotorCity Casino
MotorCity Casino
MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit, Michigan is one of three casino resort hotels in the city, and one of four in the Detroit–Windsor area. The $825 million complex incorporates the historic Wagner Baking Company building designed c.1915 by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, who went on to design the...
. Cada has an older brother, Jerome. Cada's father, Jerry, was affected by the late-2000s recession when his automobile industry job was eliminated in a layoff. During the 2009 World Series of Poker's November Nine
November Nine
The November Nine is the name used to refer to the final nine contestants, or final table, at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker since 2008. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker....
, dozens of Cada's fans wore t-shirts with Michigan Wolverines
Michigan Wolverines
The Michigan Wolverines comprise 27 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except men's ice hockey which competes in the NCAA D1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and women's water polo, which...
team colors (maize
Maize (color)
The color maize or corn refers to a shade of yellow; it is named for the cereal of the same name—maize...
and blue) with the words, "PokerStars Michigan Joe Cada 'The Kid'" emblazoned across the front and Michigan baseball caps with "The Kid" on the back. His agent came up with the nickname "The Kid". In an interview in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Cada estimates he had about 100 friends in his cheering section.
In the Time interview, Cada expressed his thoughts on legislation related to the legality of gambling: "I support the right to play poker online. Poker isn't gambling. It's a hobby, an activity, a game. It's not about luck—it's about logic, decision-making, math. We all should be able to play poker on the Web if we want to, and I believe that making it illegal strips us of our rights. This is an important issue, and hopefully we'll see it resolved soon." Outside of poker, Cada also plays indoor soccer
Indoor soccer
Indoor soccer or arena soccer, or six-a-side football in the United Kingdom, is a game derived from association football adapted for play in an indoor arena such as a turf-covered hockey arena or skating rink. The most important difference in play is that the indoor field is surrounded by a wall...
. He is considering purchasing a second home in and possibly opening a bar.
External links
- Joseph Cada at Cardplayer.com – player profile
- Joseph Cada at WSOP.com – player profile
- Joseph Cada – player profile at Bluff MagazineBluff MagazineBluff Magazine is an American magazine specializing in the game of poker. Separate editions are also published for Europe, Latin America, South Africa and Australasia....
- Joseph Cada at Hendon Mob – player profile