WSOP 2018: Cada can’t make it two, loses flip to bust in fifth

The identity of the first player to win more than $2 million from the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is now known, but it’s the one man for whom such a sum represents more disappointment than success.

Joe Cada, the 30-year-old pro from Shelby Township, Mich., is out in fifth, falling agonisingly short of a remarkable double. As all poker fans already know, Cada was the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion and his progress to the final table again was the single most compelling narrative of this remarkable tournament.

Joe Cada: End of the road for the 2009 champion

Having outlasted a field of 6,494 to win $8,547,042 nine years ago, as a fresh-faced 21-year-old, Cada beat 7,869 this time. But crucially four others were still left when Cada took his long walk down the Rio Hotel & Casino’s Convention Center corridor, dodging reporters, and the double dream is now over.

Cada’s final hand was an enormous flip: Tony Miles had A♥ K♣ to Cada’s 10♠ 10♥ . The got it in pre-flop for Cada’s 47.65 million stack. The K♠ fell on the flop and Miles’s supporters erupted, and celebrated afresh when the rest of the board ran out blank.

Joe Cada, right, is comforted by Tony Miles at the end of his Main Event

Miles could have knocked Cada out earlier, but he folded pocket sevens to Cada’s three-bet shove (with Michael Dyer also in the hand). Cada had pocket fives. But Miles’s patience paid off as he now has a nine-figure stack too: 104.450 million with which to challenge Dyer’s supremacy.

Tony Miles: Is this real life?

As for Cada, who won the third WSOP career bracelet at the beginning of this series, he is going to feel sick to his stomach. But it was a history-making run even so. His career earnings now close in on $13 million, and he has proved yet again that he deserves mention in conversations about the very best.

Latest chip counts

Blinds: 500,000-1 million

Name	Country	Chips/Payout
Michael Dyer	USA	167,350,000
Tony Miles	USA	104,450,000
Nicolas Manion	USA	83,750,000
John Cynn	USA	38,225,000
Joe Cada	USA	5th – $2.15 million
Aram Zobian	USA	6th – $1.8 million
Alex Lynskey	Australia	7th – $1.5 million
Artem Metalidi	Ukraine	8th – $1.25 million
Antoine Labat	France	9th – $1 million

Selected previous 2018 WSOP coverage: