Joe Cada Wins $45,000

Joe Cada, who won a seat at the final table at the World Series of Poker Texas Hold-em Main Event to be played in Las Vegas on Nov. 7, took second place in a $150-rebuy online tournament through Full Tilt Poker on Sunday, winning $45,000.

“I planned on taking a little break from poker, but I always play on Sunday,” Cada said. “I had to play and just so happened to have won a little bit of money.”

Cada arrived back home in Shelby Township from Las Vegas on Friday to a festive gathering of family and friends. Cada has been in Las Vegas for the last four months playing in the World Series of Poker, a 57-event series of poker tournaments. He netted $28,214 placing in two small events and won a life-changing $1,263,602 for making the final table at the Main Event. The “November Nine” are playing for a first-place prize of $8,546,435.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook — mostly with numbers I don’t even recognize,” he said of being back in Michigan.

Cada said he’ll continue to play online every Sunday and is scheduled to play in a couple large poker tournaments before the Main Event final table in November. He said he plans on playing at the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif., on Aug. 22-26 as part of the World Poker Tour, and will play in an another event in Barcelona, Spain, in September.