Last two men standing sit at final table

Maryland logger Darvin Moon and 21-year-old Michigan resident Joseph Cada squared off late Monday night for the championship of the World Series of Poker.

The two began play on the stage of the Rio's Penn & Teller Theater with Cada holding an almost 2-to-1 tournament chip advantage over Moon, 46.

The winner of the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em world championship collects $8.5 million. The runner-up takes home $5.182 million.

Cada, who started play with 135.95 million in chips, and Moon, who had 58.85 million, outlasted seven other players and a 141/2-hour final table that began Saturday afternoon and ended Sunday just before 6 a.m. The field included one of poker's best players -- seven-time World Series of Poker individual event bracelet winner Phil Ivey -- and others with far more experience than the two finalists.

If Cada wins, he will break the record set a year ago by Denmark's Peter Eastgate as the youngest-ever World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. Cada turns 22 on Nov. 18.

Cada, who wasn't even old enough to watch play at the Rio a year ago and has dreamed of being a poker champion since he was a teenager, has won about $500,000 in online poker and played in 16 different World Series of Poker events this year, cashing in two.

Moon won his entry into the Main Event through a satellite game at a casino in Wheeling, W.Va., had never been to Las Vegas before July, doesn't play online and said the fiercest poker competition he has faced was at the local Elks Lodge in his 2,800-person hometown.

Highlights from Monday night and the final table action on the weekend will air from 6-8 p.m. today on ESPN.

The Main Event drew a field of 6,494 players when qualifying took place in July.

The 2009 World Series of Poker attracted a record 60,875 players who competed for more than $174 million in prize money over the 57-event, 50-day tournament.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871.