Interview With Joe Cada

In 2009, Joe Cada became the youngest player to the win the main event at the World Series of Poker, taking the top spot in a field of 6,494 players to take home more than $8.5 million. Joe is back in Vegas this summer, and THP caught up with him to talk about his six-bedroom house full of poker-playing buddies and the pressure involved with trying to pull off a repeat performance in 2010.

How’s it feel to be back at the Rio this year for the WSOP?

It’s good being back at the World Series. I’m not really used to getting stopped all the time for autographs and stuff, but it’s been fun getting back. The Series has been starting out pretty slow.

Have you met any particularly interesting fans?

Actually, this one family stopped me. They had this little girl, who was in like kindergarten, and she’d been in CardPlayer magazine, named as this poker prodigy. She’s only like 7, and she’s already played in a charity tournament and can do chip counts and add really big numbers. I met her and read the article about her.

After winning last year, do you feel the pressure this year to make a strong showing?

No … I just try to ignore all that. If it goes bad and there are people talking, then oh well. Tournaments are rough, and there’s a lot of high variance involved. I’ve just got to play the best poker I can – or at least try to – and hope it goes well.

How do you like living in Vegas for the summer?

I’m just like five miles off the strip, staying in a house with a bunch of my buddies. One of my roommates took 10th the year before me in the main event. Another buddy of mine won a bracelet in ’06. A lot of friends that play full time back home are out here staying in this six-bedroom house we’re renting for the summer. The place is pretty nice, and everyone is really competitive at the house. We’re all equally good at ping-pong, foosball, air hockey and Xbox … so we’ll always do little prop bets here and there. There’s also a volleyball court and a pool, so it’s real fun here.

Have you had much downtime away from the poker table?

My girlfriend got in this last weekend. I’ve been doing pretty bad in tournaments, so I took a break for like four days. We just went out and went to a few shows and that. So that was my time away from poker.

You’re a young guy, but you’ve been playing poker for a long time -- how did you first start?

I was always into cards, and I was a really competitive person when I was younger. I played a lot of card games with a few of my friends, and we learned Texas holdem before it even got big on TV. Then the whole Moneymaker year, it got even bigger, and everyone started playing in high school. There were a lot of home games, and that’s what you did – go play cards. So, I started doing really well in those games, and a few of my older friends played professionally online. So I went to them to improve and started playing online in ’06 and worked my way up through the years.

What was the experience of winning like last year?

It was kind of just shocking. You don’t really expect to win, and you’re playing for so many days. When I made that final table, I was just happy that it was all over with and I could go home and sleep. Then coming into the final table, there’s so much hype … I just wanted to get it all over with and then came out with a good result.

What did you do to celebrate?

I threw a party for all the ESPN crew and all the people who were involved with the Series and helped out. Cause it’s a long stretch, and it was nice to be able to throw a big party for everyone at the club. I didn’t really buy anything new. The only new purchase was some new WaveRunners – I’d had some old ones. I haven’t really bought anything else.

How have things changed since then?

It’s a little different now. It’s definitely a little overwhelming sometimes at the Rio – there are just so many people that as soon as you get stopped once, it’s kinda hard to get moving again. But lifestyle-wise, not much has really changed for me yet. I used to travel a lot before anyway, because when I wasn’t 21, I’d go to the Bahamas and Aruba to play. I actually played a lot more poker before than I do now. Right after the main event, there was a two or three-week period where every day there was something different – I’d be in New York or L.A. doing something. Now it’s slowed down – every month or two, I’ll have to go do a commercial or something over in London. It got a lot more relaxed after the first four weeks or so.

Now that you’re a known quantity at the WSOP, do you feel like you’ve been scouted out and have to change your game up?

Yeah, I do have to adjust my style a bit, I’ve noticed. It feels like people are more out to play against me. I get re-raised more than ever before. So, my image isn’t that great. I’ve tightened up my play a little bit, which is fine – there are always ways to adjust to how the table’s playing.

Nowadays, are you playing more live or online?

I’ve been playing a lot more live poker lately – more than I ever used to. I like online because it’s fast and less time-consuming, but I like the social interaction of live. It’s easier, too – the games online have gotten a lot tougher, especially the bigger stakes. I always like playing the big live tournaments like Monte Carlo.

If you weren’t playing poker full time, what do you think you’d be doing?

Probably something in the stock market or banking. The stock market has a little bit of gamble to it, too, kinda like poker. So I’ve always been intrigued by that. I went to college for two semesters and took general business classes – accounting and statistics. I kinda came into a lot of money when I was younger through poker, and I wanted something to show for it, so I was interested in starting my own business. But I was traveling a lot, and it was really hard to stay in school while playing poker full time, so I dropped out after those two semesters and just continued to play poker. I still might start a business at some point, but I don’t think I’ll go back to school.