Cha Ching! Nic Manion and Joe Cada Make WSOP Main Event Final Table

Muskegon's Nic Manion will be the chip leader when Day 8 of the Main Event kicks off on Thursday. (Photo: WSOP)

His opponents late Wednesday night might have been wise to take the same route. Manion, who played pretty conservative most of the day on Wednesday, watched the pocket ace shortly before midnight. The first to act, he raised, was called by the pocket kings of Antoine Labat, then a third player, Yueqi Zhu, moved all in – also, and surprisingly, with kings of poached. Manion did the easy all-in, and Labat, after thinking about it a little bit, also made the chips.

The two pairs of kings virtually canceling each other, Manion was almost badured of winning the hand That's what is known in the poker world as the " cooler "ultimate.

The table has no flush opportunities for his opponents, Zhu was eliminated in 10th place and Labat, who had covered both players, the short stack coming into play Thursday. The monster's hand dropped Manion to 112,775,000 chips in the 8th day, which means he has nearly 30% of all remaining chips in play.

"It's sick," Cada said on ESPN – wearing a smile.

Manion and Cada were both very close, Day 2 – Manion was about 11,000 chips, and Cada about 9,000 chips, but, against all odds, they rallied to the final table. [19659008Managementhasbeeninamorecomfortablepositionthatlastestdaysmallingmorequicklyathisdivestniveaudayday2

Cada has been short-stacking most of the tournament, but has found a way to survive, and can now become the first man to win several Main Events in the era of poker-boom – or, since In the early 2000s, players' entries reached thousands. Cada broke 6,494 in 2009 to win the Main Event and $ 8.5 million.

He has already gone into history by becoming the first Main Event champion of the poker-boom era to make a second final table. The best performance forward was in 2008 Peter Eastgate, the winner in 2008 who finished 78th in 2009.

Cada showed his poker chops on several occasions on Wednesday 7, sitting under the warm, bright lights of the table on PokerGo and ESPN. He seemed to be doing all the right stuff, all the good bets – and an amazing bluff.

Just before midnight, Cada bet the flop and the turn, then pushed all his chips in the middle against Alex Lynskey, who thought it was over for a while before bending. Cada had zilch, but his big bet made Lynskey lose his kings. (He later told Lynskey, "You made me smash my bad.")

In another hand, before the flop and his as-queen of hearts dominated by the bad 10 of his opponent, Cada shot the river to survive.

"We saw a champion 's heart of him more than once," said Norman Chad, an badyst at ESPN. "The Kid" could become "The Legend".

Another ESPN badyst, Lon McEachern, chose Cada to win the tournament even before he started

Ryan Riess of Clarkston (2013), Cada (2009) and Tom McEvoy of Grand Rapids (1983) are the men of Michigan who won the Main Event. 19659008] Here's how the stack of chips will start on Thursday: Manion (112,775,000), Michael Dyer (109,175,000), Tony Miles (42,750,000), John Cynn (37,075,000), Lynskey (25,925,000), Cada (23,675,000), Aram Zobian (18,875,000), Artem Metalidi (15,475,000) and Labat (8,050,000) [19659007] After first place ($ 8.8 million), second pays $ 5 million, third, $ 3.75 million, fourth $ 2.825 million, fifth $ 2.15 million, sixth $ 1.8 million, seventh $ 1.5 million million and ninth million $.

Game resumes Thursday, day 8, at 2:30 pm Eastern Time, with a cover first on the PokerGo app, then on ESPN, and they will play until the final six. On Friday, they will play the last three. And Saturday or Sunday, depending on the duration, a champion will be crowned.

And Michcigan has a better chance than most.