A 21-year-old professional online poker player from Michigan hit a lucky king to cap a nearly impossible comeback at the World Series of Poker on Sunday, setting up a showdown in Las Vegas with a self-employed logger for the $8.55 million top prize in the tourney's main event.
Joe Cada, who at 123 hands into the session held just 1 percent of the chips in play, would become the youngest champion ever if he wins in the finale, which begins late tonight. The loser earns $5.18 million. Cada eliminated Antoine Saout when a river king gave Cada a better pair than Saout's eights, knocking Saout out, but he won $3.48 million for coming in third.
Cada faces Darvin Moon, 46, a logger from Maryland who had the chip lead at the start of the nine-way final table Saturday but now is at a chip disadvantage of nearly 2 to 1. Eric Buchman finished fourth ($2.5 million), poker pro Jeff Shulman was fifth ($1.95 million) and Steven Begleiter sixth ($1.58 million). Seventh place was worth $1.4 million to pro Phil Ivey. (News services)
Italy blanks America — Without Serena and Venus Williams on the roster, the United States was shut out by host Italy in the Fed Cup final. The clincher was Flavia Pennetta' s 7-5, 6-2 victory over Melanie Oudin. Both Williams sisters said they were too tired to play for the American team. The other U.S. singles player was Alexa Glatch, ranked 132nd in the world.
"I wanted to come here. I wanted to play for my country. ... Some people I guess didn't want to play as badly as I did," Oudin said. (AP)
Other tennis news — James Blake beat Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Paris Masters and will play fourth-seeded Andy Murray next. ... Murray, meanwhile, was in Spain, where he won his sixth title of the season, beating Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-2 in the Valencia Open final. It was Murray's first tournament since the U.S. Open, when he suffered a wrist injury. ... Top-ranked Roger Federer lost his hometown tournament, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to Novak Djokovic in the Swiss Indoors final in Basel. Djokovic earned his fourth title of the season and ended Federer's run of three straight titles at a tournament where he was once a ball boy. (AP)
American speedskaters win at World Cup — Tucker Fredricks upset the favored South Koreans to win the 500-meter race for his sixth career speedskating World Cup victory. Fredericks clocked 35.06 seconds to edge Lee Kang-seok and Lee Kyou-hyuk, both timed in 35.10, with Lee Kang-seok getting second on a photo finish.
American Shani Davis set a course record in winning the 1,500 meters. Davis, the 1,000-meter Olympic champion, covered the distance in 1:44.47 in the opening meet of the season. He was more than a second faster than Havard Bokko of Norway, who took second in 1:45.56. Denny Morrison of Canada was third in 1:45.69. (AP)
Illini top Quincy — Freshman D.J. Richardson had 23 points, including five 3-pointers, plus four assists and four rebounds to lead host Illinois to an 84-63 exhibition victory over Quincy. (AP)
Billikens sweep Xavier — St. Louis University's women's volleyball team stayed atop the Atlantic 10 Conference by beating Xavier 25-18, 25-19, 25-15. With their second victory this season over the Musketeers, the Billikens improved to 19-6 and 12-1 in the conference. (News reports)
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