Phil Ivey and Darvin Moon both survived Day 1 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. (photo courtesy of Washington Post)

All four Day 1's of the WSOP Main Event are in the books, and a few of the biggest names from last year's November Nine are still in the hunt. Phil Ivey survived a bit of a rocky start, and sits at 27,875 chips, just 2,125 off the starting chip stack of 30,000. Darvin Moon, the everyman hero (or complete donk, as some in the poker community refer to him) and runner-up in last year's Main Event, had a pretty good Day 1, finishing at 78,400 chips. Last year's champ, Joe Cada, also managed to more than double his starting chip stack, finishing with 67,150.

Despite ending up close to his starting stack, Ivey's day was full of ups and downs. A few smallish losses ate away at his stack, including one hand where he had his opponent all-in, while holding Q9h, with a Ax-Jh-10h flop. His opponent turned over Ah-8x for top pair, but giving Ivey lots of outs. The turn and river came Jd-3d, and Phil was knocked down to 24,000 chips. He spent the rest of his Day 1 slowly climbing back towards 30k.

Of course there's still a whole lot of poker to play before anyone starts making money, or thinking about how that new World Series of Poker bracelet will look. But with lots of top contenders already eliminated from the main event, it's something of an accomplishment just to survive a first day full of nervous amateurs with a penchant for drastic all-in moves. Some of the big names that suffered an early exit this year include: Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem and Jeff Madsen.

Was there something sneaky going on at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event? The runner-up in that event seems to think so. Darvin Moon just did an interview where he not only hinted at some shenanigans, but in doing so also offered an explanation for a hand that had people talking after the event.

Let's go back to November, during a showdown between Darvin Moon and Steven Begleiter at the final table. Moon had KQ, while Begleiter was holding AsQs. After some back and forth betting, initiated by Moon by the way, the flop came down 3-4-2 with two spades. Begleiter was a big favorite at that point, but that didn't stop Moon re-raising to $15 million. Begleiter called in, pushing only an additional $6 million into the pot. Moon folded, which wasn't such a bad play at that point. But when Moon had a quick huddle with his wife after the hand, he lied to her and told her he had a pair of queens and had put Begleiter on AKs. The lie seemed like an odd move, given that the whole thing was going to be on TV.

But in yesterday's interview, Moon explained that his lie to his wife was actually a strategic move. According to him, he believed that people backstage were listening in on his private conversation with his wife, via his live microphone, and were feeding that information to people in the gallery, who were then using that info to coach the other players at the final table.

So, does Moon really believe this conspiracy theory of some behind-the-scenes sneakiness? Or was the whole thing just an elaborate way of covering up the fact that he had just lied to his wife? Only Moon knows for sure.

Brandise held the chip lead heading into the final table of the 2009 United States Poker Championship and unlike Moon's WSOP Main Event performance, he didn't blow it.

Brandise eliminated Men "The Master" Nguyen heads-up to win the USPC and $261,800. Nguyen, who won the USPC in 2001, collected $138,600 for his runner-up performance this year. The $5,000 buy-in event attracted 132 players to put the total prize pool for the four day event at $770,000.

Some of the big name pros who made their way to the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City included Adam Junglen, Joe Udine, Allen Kessler and Liv Boeree. Brothers Michael and Nick Binger also played the events with Nick finishing 6th in the Main Event while Michael made the final table in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament.

The 2009 USPC will be televised for the first time in two years when SPIKE TV airs the final table of both the No Limit Hold'em Main Event and the Pot Limit Omaha Event at a later date.

Previous USPC winners include Daniel Negreanu, John Hennigan, Toto Leonidas as well as Nguyen.

Last spotted buying a church parking lot, WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon will appear on Monday Night Football, in support of his favorite team. The upcoming game features the 7-3 New England Patriots taking on the undefeated New Orleans Saints in Louisiana.

Moon, as you'll most likely remember, was part of the November Nine, and finished second in the event, scoring a $5.18 million dollar payday. He famously wore his Saints ball cap throughout the WSOP Main Event, turning down any and all sponsorship offers from online poker sites so he could sport the colors of his favorite team rather than a poker logo. Now that devotion seems to have paid off with some TV face time and, reportedly, Saints season tickets.

The Monday night action will be broadcast on ESPN which is, coincidentally or not, the same network that airs the WSOP. Moon will enjoy the game from the comfort of the team's corporate box and is even scheduled to visit the Saints locker room.

The Saints VP of Communications, Greg Bensel, said this of Moon: "He first came to our attention as the long guy in the tournament who refused money so he could keep his Saints hat on. He is a typical Saints fan, passionate and in love with his team..."

Darvin Moon's runner-up performance in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event earned the man $5,182,601. He bought himself a new modular home and truck but the strangest purchase might be the parking lot he bought for a church he never attends.

Moon was featured in the Howard County Times Wednesday, his hometown newspaper, where he talked about life as a "poker sensation". Having been back home in Maryland for ten days now the 46 year old still hasn't had time to cash his check.

"What do you do with a check with that amount of money? No one is worth that kind of money. I've got to get this to the bank," Moon told the Times of the check for a little more than $3.18 million.

When he returned home in July with the $1.2 million every member of the November Nine was given - equivalent to ninth place money - Moon took care of a new home for his family, bought himself a Chevy Silverado and then donated some money to a local church so they could pay for a new parking lot. The funny thing is, Moon doesn't go to church.

As for what Moon plans to do now that he's a poker celebrity the answer might surprise even the most hardened poker player. His hometown Elks Club has a weekly poker tournament with a $30 buy-in and that's where you'll find the man who was playing for millions of dollars only two weeks ago.

"Come on by," he says. "Game starts at 7 p.m., so come over about 6:30."

Phil Ivey didn't help. The youngest champion in World Series of Poker couldn't draw them in. Even the ultimate everyman, the Delaware lumberjack, didn't make a difference. Despite all the great stories and action at the final table of the 2009 WSOP, the number of viewers watching the event on TV was actually lower than back in 2008. Not a whole lot lower, but a bit.

In 2008, the final table got a 1.9 household rating. This year, that number shrunk slightly, to 1.8. Now, I'm no expert, but my sources (Wikipedia) tell me that each ratings point represents 1.14 million viewers. But for those who love poker on TV, there's not too much to worry about. Viewership in both 2008 and 2009 was up, compared to back in 2007, before they delayed the final table until November. So the whole idea of building hype by having the final table play months after the rest of the event does seem to be working. Oh, and ratings were up by 13% among the all-important, beloved-by-advertisers, male 25-54 demographic.

Oh, and if anyone's paying really close attention, they may have noticed that I'm 0 for 2 in recent predictions. In an earlier post, I said my money was on Steven Begleiter to take the bracelet. And a couple days ago, I predicted the TV ratings for 2009 would be way up over 2008. Since bad things come in threes, I'm going to make one more prediction...I hereby prognosticate that I'm not going to win $10,000 on a scratch n' win lottery ticket tomorrow.

Last night on ESPN, the long-awaited November Nine got their time in the sun, as the TV network aired two and a half hours of highlights from the final table. For those who were actually following the final table as it happened, via websites, blogs or in the flesh, the outcome wasn't particularly surprising of course. Joe Cada still won, Darvin Moon still played with his now-trademark mix of luck, randomness and occasionally brilliant reads, and Phil Ivey still didn't do anything.

But since viewers of the broadcast could now see the player's hole cards, there were still plenty of fascinating moments along the way. And considering how low Cada's chip stack got, down to five big blinds at one point, it was fun to watch how he clawed his way back to eventually take the bracelet and the huge pile of money.

One of the hands that has people talking was a battle between Steven Begleiter and eventual runner-up Darvin Moon. The logger from Delaware raised to $1.3 million with K-Q and Begleiter raised to $3.9 million with his As-Qs. The flop favored Begleiter in a big way, 3-4-2 with two spades. Begleiter had a 93% advantage at this point, with his overcard, and a handful of straight and flush draws. Begleiter bet $5.3 million, which Moon quickly raised to $15 million. At this point Begleiter went all-in with his final $6 million in chips. Despite the relatively small bet and the huge pile of chips in the middle, Moon folded his K-Q. And in a moment that will have Moon hiding the TV remote from his wife for the next few weeks, he told her he had a pair of Queens, but that he put Begleiter on AKs.

There were plenty of other dramatic moments along the way, but when all was said and done, the winner was Joe Cada, which we all already knew anyway. It remains to be seen if ESPN is a winner too. Considering Phil Ivey's presence at the final table, along with the media-hyped stories based on Begleiter and Moon's backgrounds, it would be a safe bet that more people watched last night's final table than 2008's. And we should find out soon enough exactly what the ratings were for last night's broadcast.

Joe Cada, 2009 WSOP Main Event winner. (Image Courtesy WSOP)

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - The 2009 WSOP Main Event was definitely one for the record books. Not only did it have the world longest Final Table but it was also won by the youngest player yet to win a WSOP Main Event.

Initial play saw Joe Cada and Darvin Moon exchange chips and eventually break even just before the break. When the two players came back almost dead even in chips Moon quickly took charge and cranked up the pressure leaving Joe Cada scrambling and eventually in a position where he had to start playing defensively – the death knell for a heads-up match.

Based on the attitude of the crowd in the Rio in Las Vegas, the buzz about the blogosphere and the tweets of Twitter, Moon is respected as a person but more or less reviled as a poker player.

In a world where poker players feel constantly obligated to defend themselves as practitioners of a skill game, Moon did them no favors by totally steamrolling his way to a chip lead at the Final Table and almost taking down the whole thing.

An interesting retrospective, PokerNews does a good job of going over the luck factor that led to both Moon’s and Cada’s ascension to the heads-up Final Table.

Cada for his part played an impressive heads-up match and didn't get rattled or make any big mistakes even as Moon reveresed the stacks by taking a 2-1 lead at one point. Moon however made a big misstep when after a small raise on the turn from Cada, he reraised all-in with an open-ended straight draw and was called by Cada who held two pair. Moon would never come back from being crippled and would eventually call a push from Cada and would race his Jd-Qd against Cada's pocket nines. The nines held and Cada took the WSOP bracelet and became the youngest ever WSOP Main Event winner. A record that will be extremely hard to break.

For those looking for the next “Ambassador of Poker” a big sigh of relief is in order. Moon had stated on numerous occasions that he intends to return to the woods of Maryland where he will continue with his logging business in relative obscurity whether he won or not. Cada on the other hand has shown keen interest in representing the game and even wore a Poker Player's Association patch for the Final Table. Expect to see a lot more of Joe Cada in the future.

For their efforts, Moon will take home $5.2 million and Cada will take home $8.6 million. Interestingly, Cada will actually end up taking home less money than Moon as he we will walk with only around $2.5 million after paying his backers and taxes.

Darvin Moon pulled ahead in the WSOP heads-up Final Table almost immediately. (Image Courtesy ESPN)

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - After only a few hands into the WSOP heads-up final and the logger from Maryland, Darvin Moon, has already taken the chip lead from Joe Cada.

The first hand of the night was the biggest of Moon’s victories when he called Cada’s pre-flop raise of 3.5 million.

The flop fell 3s-Ks-2d and Cada shot 3.5 million into the center. Moon didn’t hesitate to grab two large stacks of chips and push them forward for a raise to 10 million. Cada called.

The turn came the Ad and Cada checked to Moon who returned with another 10 million. Cada inst-called.

The river was a Kc and both players check and Moon showed Qs-Qd and Cada showed 9d-9c.

Moon continued this little burst of momentum which ended up bringing him into a slight lead by about 15 million.

Darvin Moon and Joe Cada square off before the 2009 WSOP Heads-up action.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack opened the ceremonies with a short speech that left pretty much everyone in the media room scratching their heads when he proclaimed this WSOP Final Table to be the most exciting ever played out.

Apparently Jeffrey wasn’t watching during the two four hour periods where absolutely nothing of note happened over the 17 hour Final Table. Although to be fair, the edited down ESPN coverage might end up being particularly good.

Following that, tournament direct Jack Effel took the mic and got the crowd worked up by asking who they were cheering for.

“If you want to see Darvin Moon win the bracelet let me hear you!” he called.

This was followed by a smattering of cheers and an overwhelming amount of booing. Joe Cada with a huge cheering section, is clearly a crowd favourite.

Cards are in the air now so stay tuned to the Cake Poker Blog for more live updates.