The youngest WSOP Champion~ Joseph "Joe" Cada

Joseph "Joe" Cada (b. November 18, 1987) is a 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 cashes, both in 2009. He is primarily an online poker player, with more than $500,000 in online tournament winnings at present.As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $8,550,000.

Career

Cada started playing online poker 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. He earned enough to enter contests in the Bahamas and Costa Rica. He is now a regular player who plays 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 2008 and the 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.

2009 World Series of Poker

At the 2009 World Series of 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.

In the main event, Cada 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 blinds and about 1.2% of the combined total stack at play – due to calling Jeff Shulman's "all in" pre-flop with A♦ J♣ against A♣ K♥. No community cards hit either player, and Shulman was rewarded by his better high card. However, Cada eventually climbed back to 120.1 million before the last hand of the heads-up with Darvin Moon. His winning hand was 9♣ 9♦, which he got all-in pre-flop against Moon's Q♦ J♦. The board ran 8♣ 2♣ 7♠ K♥ 7♣. 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. Prior to his victory, Cada earned a $1 million contract with PokerStars that pays for all his hotels, travels, and some of his buy-ins.

Personal

Anne Cada, Joe's mother, is a blackjack 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. In an interview in Time, Cada estimates he had about 100 friends in his cheering section. On Sundays, Cada hosts about fifteen friends to play online at his house.

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." Cada also plays indoor soccer. He is considering purchasing a second home in Las Vegas, Nevada and possibly opening a bar.

Famous Female Poker Player~~ Annie Duke

How far would you go if you played at World Poker Tour for the first time? When Annie Duke made her first major public appearance in the poker scene, she showed the world that females can play poker too. Many years of experience with cards and competition made her last until 14th place, and a total of $70,000 richer.

Annie was born in Concord, New Hampshire and educated in the prestigious St. Paul's prep school. Feeling like she never fit in there, she matriculated at Columbia University and tried her luck in the big city. Following her parents steps, she decided to become a teacher, but instead, she ended up at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in cognitive psychology.

In 1991, she married her old friend Ben Duke and decided to leave everything behind, including the studies. She moved in with Ben and began playing poker at local poker rooms to pay the morgage on their very first home.

This is how her story began. Her first victory at World Poker Tour made the Dukes realize that they had to move to the city of gambling, Las Vegas. Since her big WPT debut in 1994, she has attended numerous events and even finished at 10th place in World Series of Poker 2000. Inspired by her success, online poker room signed a contract with Annie who became a spokesperson for the company (and still is).

In 2004, Annie Duke became a super poker celebrity after winning a $2,000,000 event in the inaugural World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. A total of 10 players participated, including her own brother Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and more. Additionally, she won the 2004 State Poker Championship of California and tutored Ben Affleck, who came to win the State Poker Championship of California the year after that. Annie Duke appeared on the David Letterman show a few times, which boosted her career even further.

Annie Duke plays poker until today and is involved in numerous activities, owns a poker camp and participates in tournaments.

Quotes
Annie Duke: By limiting your losses to 30 big bets, you are effectively minimizing the time you spend playing with a poor table image, playing passively, or steaming at the table and maximizing the amount of time you spend playing your A-game. If you don't go beyond 30 big bets, you won't dump off large sums when you are playing poorly or are in a bad game. Loss limiting acts as an objective stop-gap.

Annie Duke: My two daughters are now engaged in a scribbling rivalry.

Annie Duke: DD Tournament Poker is a great game for introducing people to the world of Texas Hold'em poker. One of the biggest challenges for new players is to learn the game at their own pace without risking any money. DD Tournament Poker solves this problem by allowing novice and intermediate players to play against savvy computer opponents and to develop a solid understanding of the game before venturing into cash games.

Poker Bluffing

What is Poker bluffing?

A Poker bluff is when you act - by betting or raising, or making others do so - according to a hand you want others to think is better than what it really is.

Most people consider Poker bluffing a key moment in the game, perhaps due to several films made in which a Poker table is featured with hotshot players making poker faces at each other and ravaging the pot with a weak hand in the end. It is true that bluffing is important in a Poker match. When a Poker bluff is successful, especially if the pot is high, nothing beats the agitation around a Poker table during the hand showdown. Fortunes have been won and lost with a few good bluffs. Never forget, however, miracles do not take part in this game, and the winning element in a Poker game is playing the right hands and being in the right Poker position.

Bluffing in Poker is a deceptive move, along with its counterpart, slowplaying. If slowplaying implies you have a weak hand when, in reality, you have a strong one; Poker bluffing suggests the opposite. Poker is all about manoeuvring your hand and your capacity to deceive your opponent into playing according to what he thinks you have. If you succeed in making him take a false move based on what you led him to believe, you are doing things right.

What is the right way of bluffing in Poker?

A player who never bluffs in Poker cannot expect to win quite as much (or have quite as much fun) as one who bluffs just the right amount of times at the right moment. On the other hand, most novice Poker players tend to bluff too much, not considering the stakes and sometimes foolishly wasting real Poker bluffing opportunities (along with all their money). When and how much to bluff is a mastered art that comes only with playing experience and a lot of casino Poker observation. It helps if you adapt your play to your Poker opponents.

Poker bluffing can become a reputation attached to a certain Poker player. Players known to bluff much will get more calls and this can work in their advantage if they play their cards right. It follows that Poker bluffing - or the thought that you might be bluffing on a given Poker match - is a perfect way of keeping your opponent on the edge of his seat, never knowing what to really expect. If you bluff occasionally, not only the other players are led into thinking you have a good hand when you do not, as you may cover your good hands when you indeed have them.

As in everything, the key is to balance the Poker bluffing frequency. Bluffing, in order to be effective, has to be done the right amount of times, at the right moment, in a random way. Otherwise, you lose the opportunity to win much more. The good Poker bluffer keeps his adversaries guessing, forcing them into making difficult decisions based on what they think your hand is - and making false moves, like raises or calls, accordingly.

Some of the best online casinos kept the Poker bluffing element alive. You can practice your Poker bluffing skills in our selected online Poker rooms and try to get the best out of your Poker strategy.