He won the Main Event back when it was a popularity contest.

The 1970 WSOP was a popularity contest. Moss won the tournaments in 1971 and 1974.

The reason Moss won the popularity contest in 1970 was because he was acknowledged as the dominant player in the Texas and Nevada road games between 1950 and 1970.

I hope he wins cause he seems like a nice guy, even though the only time I spoke to him (on Kesslers FB) was arguing with him about 9/11 (he thinks it was an inside job, caused by controlled demolition).

I think John Cynn's feat of 11th in 2016 and final table this year should be mentioned with the above, even with a year in between, especially as he has no other tournament cashes greater than $20K.

Under the radar absurd feat - Merson winning the 10K six max and then the main immediately after in 2012. He played two straight weeks of tournament poker nearly every single day without busting.

For sure, I knew I'd miss someone

There have been some pretty impressive heaters at the WSOP. Lots of people have won multiple bracelets in the same year.

Just narrowing achievements down to the main event, this seems like a good short list:


Johnny Moss: Three main event wins (1970, 1971, 1974).

Stu Ungar: Three main event wins (1981, 1980, 1997).

Johnny Chan: 1-1-2 in 1987-1989.

Dan Harrington: 1st in 1995, 3rd in 2003, 4th in 2004.

Greg Raymer: 1st out 2,576 in 2004. 25th out of 5,619 in 2005.

Ben Lamb: 14th out of 6,924 in 2009. 3rd out of 6,875 in 2011. 9th out of 7,221 in 2017.

Mark Newhouse: Back to back FTs in 6300+ player fields.

Michael Ruane: 4th out of 6,737 in 2016. 10th out of 7,221 in 2017.


On the surface, the Moss/Ungar/Chan stuff looks the most impressive, but those fields were much smaller and you have to think that they were probably softer overall. I'm sure there were some great players back then, but the overall knowledge of the game was low compared with today.

Harrington and Raymer straddle the line with what they did in 2003-2005 because that's the era where poker was just blowing up and knowledge was just starting to spread. Running deep in huge fields was probably never easy, but I think it would've been far easier back then than when Newhouse and Ruane did it.

Making back-to-back FTs in consecutive years in fields this huge is just mind-blowing stuff that seems to defy all statistical probability. That said, I think Lamb's three top 15 finishes in the post-boom era is the most impressive achievement of the past 15 years of the main so far. Statistically, what are the odds of one guy finishing in the top 15 of a 6,000+ person tournament three times in a nine year span? It's a pretty amazing record.

Cada's achievement already belongs on this list even if he's the first to bust tonight, but if he can somehow pull it off and win then it could go down as the best main event achievement ever.

It would be huge. I could see him potentially being invited on talk shows and ****.

YOODGE

Cada will remain a distant umpteenth when it comes to getting poker endorsement money

It reminds me of the birthday paradox.
In short, as the number of years go by, it becomes more and more probable that someone that's been on the final table (or even won it) before will appear again, because more potential repeaters are added every year. I don't know exactly how many former ME winners were in the field this year, but there's obviously a much greater probability of "a former winner" making the final table, than Joe Cada specifically.

Please quote where I argued that.

And while you're at it, please demonstrate that he's not an excellent tournament player.

Also Antoine Saout who has a 3rd, 25th and 5th from 2009 - 2017

There are plenty of excellent tournament players who never sniff a deep run in the main. To run well enough to win one has to involve incredible run good. To win 2, like the reply stated, would have to make him the luckiest player ever.

I really like the guy (not as a commentator) so it's hard to say anything adverse about him, but that doesn't mean I don't see the incredible run good; yet, it also, doesn't mean I'm rooting against for that reason.

You 'served ' with them? LOL America.

inside joke. Vice Presidential Debate circa 1988

It will be a cool footnote in poker history but nothing big will happen.

What do you have against Jaime Gold?

I like Joe. I always respected the fact that after he won in 2009 and people here were trolling him and just hating that he posted and said he pretty much luck boxed it and had an insightful post about his play and win. Much respect as he didn't need to write or respond to dudes living in their mom's house.

It's not dying. Never said that

yes if you win the main event i don't care how good you are you're a luckbox
that isn't a knock on him

you realize there can be players just as good as his without anything resembling his success purely bc of variance right? this isn't that complicated.

Forgot about him. Impressive runs.

WTF

Cada just shipped Closer for 612k and 4th Bracelet

https://www.pokernews.com/tours/wsop...ips.232737.htm

Don't know about the icon part but I congratulate him on his awesome success!

Couldn't really happen to a nicer guy, Cada just seems like a good dude.