21-year-old, logger in World Series of Poker final

LAS VEGAS — A 21-year-old professional poker player from Michigan hit a lucky king to cap a nearly impossible comeback at the World Series of Poker Sunday morning, setting up a showdown with a self-employed logger for $8.55 million.

Joe Cada of Shelby Township, Mich., dodged elimination several times during the longest no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event final table in history. Cada — who at 123 hands into the session held just 1 percent of the chips in play — could become the youngest series champion ever in the finale Monday night.

“Luck always helps,” Cada said. “I’ll take all the luck I can get.”

Cada eliminated French poker professional Antoine Saout when a river king gave Cada a better pair than Saout’s eights.

The hand ended an improbable comeback Saout staged himself, climbing from eighth in chips to start the session to finish third. He won $3.48 million.

Cada faces Darvin Moon, 46, of Oakland Md., who finished the session with about the same number of chips he started with. He had the chip lead at the beginning of the nine-way final table Saturday afternoon, but begins Monday night with a nearly 2-1 chip disadvantage.

The finale pits the youthful professional who makes a living playing poker online against a self-employed logger who, until this year’s World Series of Poker, had never been on an airplane or gambled for high stakes.

“They say he’s some kind of specialist online,” Moon said of Cada. “But I’m not online to watch.”

Moon, who has so far downplayed his skills in outlasting nearly the entire field of 6,494 players, said he has played against a single opponent only once — in the satellite tournament that qualified him for the main event.

Saout won $3.48 million for third place in what was already the longest main event final table in history, stretching past 14½ hours and 274 hands.

Saout nearly eliminated Cada one hand after busting Eric Buchman in fourth place, but his dominating hand meant little after Cada hit three-of-a-kind and became the fifth chip leader of the session.

The loss was Saout’s first big drawback from a surge that began Saturday afternoon, after he started the final table eighth in chips.

He eliminated Jeff Shulman in fifth place when Shulman gambled his tournament life with pocket sevens against Saout’s ace-nine. Known in poker as a race, the hands had nearly an equal chance of winning against each other.

One of poker’s most famous faces was bounced from the event about three hours earlier, one of two quick eliminations.

Phil Ivey, a 32-year-old poker professional from Las Vegas, got unlucky against Moon for his last 6.5 million chips. Ivey gambled with an ace-king and found himself ahead of Darvin Moon’s ace-queen, but Moon hit a queen on the flop and Ivey failed to improve.

“It is definitely just about winning, so it’s disappointing I did not win,” Ivey said. “But I am happy with the way I played. I think I made pretty good decisions with the amount of chips that I had, and I think I gave myself as much possibility of winning it as I could.”

Minutes later, Moon was behind again with ace-queen against Steven Begleiter’s pocket queens, but a river ace eliminated Begleiter in sixth place and gave Moon a chip lead.

Begleiter, a 47-year-old former Bear Stearns Cos. executive, won $1.59 million for sixth place. Ivey won $1.4 million for seventh.

“I was one card from being back in the thick of it. I really thought the hand was mine,” Begleiter said. “I’d almost prefer to go out like that — it’s way easier.”

Asked what he planned to do after the final table, Begleiter said: “I want to go somewhere and cry a little bit.”

The rapid-fire eliminations by Moon quickly changed a final table that had developed into a slow grind Saturday after Kevin Schaffel and James Akenhead were eliminated early in the day.

Schaffel, a 52-year-old cash game player from Coral Springs, Fla., was eliminated in eighth place with the game’s best starting hand after he took out London pro James Akenhead in ninth place.

Akenhead delayed his elimination early on by tripling his chips, but he lost most of the stack on two hands to Schaffel. He busted out when his pocket pair of threes couldn’t improve against the pocket nines held by Schaffel.

He took home $1.26 million for ninth place, nothing beyond what each final table player was awarded in July when they made it to the top of a field of 6,494 entrants in the tournament.