Joe Cada

Joe Cada was born Joseph Cada in November 1988 in Shelby Charter Township, Michigan. Joe Cada began playing poker 6 years ago, at the age of 15. He played online poker with his brother where they generally won small amounts. One night they lost their entire bankroll. He continued to play online and soon realized that he had quite a talent for the game. He was right. After two semesters, Cada decided to quit college and began playing online poker full time. A mere six years after he started playing, Joe Cada walked away the winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2009! Cada plays under the nickname jcada99.

Cada's Poker History

Cada began playing poker at around the age of 16. He was not able to play at casinos in the US until the age of 21, but he could play in Canada where the legal age for gambling is 19. He won enough money playing in Canada to enter tournaments in Costa Rica and the Bahamas. He can often be found playing at PokerStars. In 2009, Cada won first prize in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) to walk away with prize money of $128,872. Before the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Cada had won over $550,000 in prize money. His prize money is now closer to $9 million. Joe Cada is a member of Team PokerStars after having turned down offers from PokerHost and Ultimate Bet Poker.

2009 WSOP Champion

Cada became a member of the WSOP 2009 November Nine. Playing against 6,494 other players, he secured himself a seat at the final table of the WSOP 2009 Main Event. This alone would have won him over US$1 million, but it did not end there for young Cada. At one point Cada's game was not looking hopeful when he held only $2.3 million in chips. This was only 5% of his opponent's chips. However, he clawed his way back. Playing against players such as Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman, Joe Cada walked away with a gold bracelet and $8,546,435 after taking first place against Darvin Moon. At the end, Cada held $136 million in chips compared with Moon's $56 million. Having just turned 21, Cada became the youngest player to become a WSOP Main Event Champion in the tournament's history. This title was taken from Peter Eastgate, a fellow Team PokerStars player who set the record just last year.

Before winning the Main Event championship title, Cada walked away with two other wins at the 40th annual 2009 WSOP championship. He won $21,533 in the no limit hold'em (event #34) $1,500 buy-in after placing 17th and he won $6,681 in the no limit hold'em (event #13) $2,500 buy-in after placing 64th.

Considering that Joe Cada has been playing poker professionally for only six years and has already walked away with a gold bracelet for the WSOP Main Event title, we can expect to see big things from the young poker player in years to come.