November Nine Profile: Darvin Moon

Darvin Moon is a man of few words. If he was writing this article it's likely that's where it would end.

He absolutely bulldozed the playdown to the final table back in July, building an enormous chip lead he'll carry into the final table.

58,930,000 represents about 30 per cent of the chips in play and they're all sitting on the patch of felt in front of the logger from Maryland.

Considering Eric Buchman is second with just 34.8 million, Moon has a distinct advantage in the chip department.

Despite his commanding lead few people see Darvin Moon winning this tournament. Moon himself, funnily enough, can be counted among the skeptics.

Just watch the Main Event broadcast and you'll see Moon wasn't exaggerating when he said he got hit with the deck. Moon ran like God and he's the first one to admit it.

The other players at the table must see a target when they look at him but Moon says he doesn't feel a whole lot of pressure to win. He feels lucky to have made it this far and he'll only feel luckier if he goes all the way.

Simple could describe Moon, but not with the connotations you might be imagining. Moon is a blue-collar man who owns and operates a logging business on the East Coast and, according to him, that's exactly what he'll remain whether he wins the Main Event or not.

It's very questionable what kind of ambassador he would make for the game, should he end up winning. He won't be putting much of the money back into poker and he won't be doing a lot of traveling to grow the game.

In fact, he's still not accepting any sponsorship or wearing any patches at the final table.

On the flip side Darvin Moon is an everyman and if he can win the Main Event, with Phil Ivey at the table no less, anyone can.

Maybe we'll see a massive influx of self-employed loggers taking up the game.

Whatever the end result, just making the final nine has wildly exceeded his expectations. We'll have to wait for Saturday to see how it's all going to shake out.

Check out the video we did with Darvin Moon back in Las Vegas and follow all the action with our live Ccoverage of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table, starting this Saturday at noon.

More 2009 WSOP Main Event final table profiles

• Phil Ivey November Nine Profile
  
• Kevin Schaffel November Nine Profile
• Steven Begleiter November Nine
• Jeff Shulman November Nine Profile
• Joe Cada November Nine Profile