One of the summer’s biggest surprises arrived here in the final days of the 49th Annual World Series of Poker.

Fresh off his fifth-place finish in the 2018 Main Event, 2009 Main Event Champion Joe Cada found a way to close out Event #75: $1,500 The Closer for his second bracelet of the series.

At the same time that Cada was making history, the massive $1,000,000 Big One For One Drop saw some of the biggest names in poker enter in what, no doubt, be an explosive finish for another epic WSOP.

Cada Is The Closer

When Joe Cada busted in fifth-place in the 2018 Main Event, he didn’t speak to the media. He quickly made his exit, opting not to answer questions about how it felt to come so close to being the only player in the post-Moneymaker era to have a shot at winning two Main Event titles. While there have been a handful of players who had made the final table multiple times in their career, what Cada put together in his 2018 Main Event run topped them all.

If not being able to close out the Main Event weighed on Cada, he certainly didn’t show it.

Cada was right back in the thick of the action as he snap-entered Event #75: $1,500 THE CLOSER. Three days later Cada would be taking yet another winner’s photo having topped the field of 3,120 for his second bracelet of the summer and adding another $612,886 to his 2018 earnings.

“I feel amazing. What a way to cap it off,” Cada said. “I’ve been running good and deep in every tournament, and the tournaments I busted, I feel good about how I played. I haven’t played many tournaments this summer, and I’m kind of upset that I didn’t play more, but it feels good to close it out.”

This summer at the WSOP Cada cashed in seven different events, two of which he won, one of which was his fifth place $2.15 million score. In total, Cada earned over $3 million at the 2018 series.

Cade is now a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, holding the most of any of the post-poker boom Main Event winners. Fewer than 50 players all-time hold four or more gold bracelets. He also joins a club that includes Brian Rast, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Shaun Deeb all of whom earned their fourth career WSOP bracelet in 2018.

Event #75: $1,500 The Closer Final Table Payouts

1. Joe Cada – $612,886
2. Paawan Bansal – $378,765
3. Jeffrey Tanouye – $278,774
4. Richard Ali – $206, 813
5. Eric Afrait – $154,660
6. Richard Cox – $116,595
7. Jimmy Poper – $88,615
8. Brayden Gazlay – $67,904
9. Joshua Turner – $52,465

One Last Tournament

In the final event of the summer, 24 players made their way to the cage to buy into the nosebleed contest that is the $1,000,000 Big One For One Drop. Many of the biggest names in poker were seated side by side, battling it out for what will likely be the largest first-place prize of the summer.

At the end of the say, 19 of the 24 players survived the day with two of poker’s biggest names currently sitting in the top three. Leading the way is Hollywood high-stakes home game reg Rick Solomon. Hot on his heels though are a pair of poker legends in Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu who sit second and third in chips respectively.

Unfortunately for 2012 One Drop champion Antonio Esfandiari, he will not be the first to repeat as a One Drop champion as he couldn’t find a bag at the end of the day. Joining him on the rail was David Peters, Bryn Kenney, Isaac Haxton and Jake Schindler.

The final numbers on both participants and prize pool will be generated at the start of Day 2. Players who would like to max late reg have the ability to enter before the start of the second day and will have 50 big blinds.

It should be noted that while the players will be vying for a massive score, $80,000 of every entry is donated to Guy Laliberte‘s One Drop Charity. That means that event if no other players register, the clean water initiative will still receive over $1.9 million from the poker world.

Where To Watch The One Drop