What’s the big deal about $8.5m? I don’t know*, but the bundle of money that currently sits between Joe Cada and Darvin Moon in the Penn and Teller Theater is certainly attracting a good deal of attention. It was around 10pm yesterday that it made its first appearance, tipped out of about seven silver briefcases by seven burly security guards. It then sat on a glorified coffee table for the next umpteen hours as seven players saw their chances of acquiring it go up in smoke.

Flash forward to this evening and the money has now been deposited centre stage, on the middle of a single green battleground. Men in suits spent about 30 minutes arranging it in carefully-crafted random piles, then a clutch of dealers posed behind it, arms around the swag whose ultimate destination will be decided by their work tonight. All this took place in the moments before play began this evening, but now those heads-up competitors are out there, slugging it out across the baize for the right to call themselves world champion.

Darvin Moon, left, and Joe Cada

Moon v Cada. Cada v Moon. They’re the two fighters now going at it bare-knuckled. Check back here soon for full information about the first hour; the jabs and the ducks, the swipes and the parries. Someone might even be on the canvass. We’ll let you know.

In the meantime, share the thoughts of PokerStars’ Joe Cada. He’s our horse.

*I do really.

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