Darvin Moon (October 1, 1963 – September 19, 2020) was an American self-employed logger and amateur

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player who was the runner-up of the

2009 World Series of Poker The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No ...

, (WSOP) US$10,000 no-limit

Texas hold'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in ...

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

. It was his first time playing in the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

. Moon, who taught himself how to play poker, ran a small logging company in the Maryland Panhandle before earning a 2009 World Series seat by winning a $130

satellite tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. Moon earned the chip lead early in the tournament, and eventually entered the final table as the chip leader, with about 30 percent of the chips in play. Although Moon briefly lost the lead, he eventually regained it after eliminating veteran players like Steve Begleiter and

Phil Ivey Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. (born February 1, 1977) is an American professional poker player who has won eleven World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title, and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables. Ivey is regarded by num ...

. Moon ultimately lost heads up against Joe Cada, earning Moon US$5.18 million for his second-place finish. Although some criticized his playing style and lack of experience, Moon was also praised for his working stiff personality and self-deprecating manner. Moon participated in the 2010

National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network. It is a $25,000 "buy-in" invitation-only tournament organized as a series of heads up poker, one-on-one ...

, but lost in the second round to poker professional

Annie Duke Anne LaBarr Duke (née Lederer; born September 13, 1965) is an American former professional poker player and author in cognitive-behavioral decision science and decision education. She holds a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet from 2004 ...

. He also competed in the

2010 World Series of Poker The 2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, and ran from May 28 to July 17. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Ho ...

Main Event, but was eliminated on Day 2.

Early life

Moon lived in the western

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

town of

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, at the foot of

Backbone Mountain Backbone Mountain is a ridge of the Allegheny Mountains of the central Appalachian Mountain Range. It is situated in the U.S. states of West Virginia and Maryland and forms a portion of the Eastern Continental Divide. Within the state of Maryland ...

. Prior to entering the

, Moon lived in a trailer with his wife, Wendy. Moon owned and operated a small

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckspine forests scattered throughout the Maryland Panhandle. Moon taught himself how to play poker, and he first started playing with his grandfather at a young age. He started playing frequently around 2006 and studied the game by watching televised poker. Moon regularly played home games at such places as fire departments, Elks Lodges, and

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...

buildings. In 1988, Moon's long time girlfriend Cathy Ford went missing from

Gormania, West Virginia Gormania is an unincorporated community along the North Branch Potomac River in Grant County, West Virginia. Gormania lies on the Northwestern Turnpike ( US 50), which crosses the North Branch into Gorman, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U ...

. Despite her body never being found,

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...

deputy sheriff Paul Ferrell was convicted of her abduction and murder.

2009 World Series of Poker

Moon earned his seat in the

no-limit

Main Event by winning a $130

at the Wheeling Island Casino in Wheeling,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. He lost in two Wheeling Island tournaments before finishing in first place on his third attempt, winning a $10,000 main event seat and $6,000 for expenses. The event marked Moon's first time playing in the WSOP, as well as visiting

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

and riding in a commercial plane. Due to the economic downturn's impact on the logging business, Moon considered keeping the $10,000 instead of entering the tournament, but decided to play after visiting the

Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino The Rio is a hotel and casino near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by Dreamscape Companies LLC. It includes a casino and 2,520 suites. It features a Brazilian theme based on Rio Carnival. The Ri ...

and watching World Series games there. On the first day of the tournament, Moon was dealt pocket aces six times and got three-of-a-kind on the

flop Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate measur ...

three times. He performed well on the first day and continued a successful streak throughout the tournament, although he himself proclaimed it was luck. He eliminated several professional poker players during the tournament, including David Benyamine. He eventually obtained the chip lead and kept it until the seventh day of play. At that time, he fell to tenth place, but won a few big hands to recover and ended the day back in the lead. He eliminated Billy Kopp in one of the biggest hands in the tournament when his led to a higher flush than Kopp's . Moon entered the final table as the chip leader, holding 58.6 million chips, or about 30 percent of the chips in play. During the final table, Moon eliminated Steve Begleiter in sixth place and seasoned professional

in seventh place. In both cases, Moon was behind but caught cards to win; Ivey lost with A-K to Moon's A-Q when a queen came up on the flop, and Begleiter's pocket queens lost to Moon's A-Q when he caught an ace on the river. Moon lost the chip lead during the

November Nine The November Nine was the name used to refer to the final nine contestants, or final table, at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from 2008 to 2016. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker. ...

game, but his elimination of Begleiter brought him back into the chip lead with 63.9 million chips. He made it to the final two players and went heads up against Joe Cada, with Moon at 58.85 million and Cada at 135.95 million. Moon briefly recovered the chip lead from Cada, but lost it during the 79th heads-up hand, where Cada bet 3 million chips with his J-9 on a 10-5-9-10 turn after the flop was checked, Moon check-raised all in with 8–7. Cada called with his remaining 58 million chips, won the hand and regained the chip lead and the momentum for the duration of the match. Commentators later criticized Moon for making such an expensive bluff for a small pot, and Moon seemed visibly disappointed after the game. Storms Reback, of ''All In Magazine'', said the hand was a crucial moment for Moon, and that his fatigue from it may have resulted in a bad call in the final hand of the tournament. After 18 hours of play, Moon ended up finishing second against Cada when his succumbed to Cada's .Reback, p. 52 He won $5,182,601 for his second-place finish. After the tournament ended, Moon was congratulated by professional poker player

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record seventeen World Series of Poker bracelets, the majority in no-limit hold'em. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Se ...

, who said, "I'm proud of you, Darvin." Some were critical of both Moon and Cada.

Mike Matusow Michael Matusow (born April 30, 1968) is an American professional poker player residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "the Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table. Matusow began playing poker seriously ...

, a professional poker player with a reputation for

trash-talk Trash talk is a form of spoken insult usually found in sports events, although it is not exclusive to sports or similarly characterized events. It is often used to intimidate the opposition and/or make them less confident in their ability to wi ...

ing, called the heads-up contest between the two "a new low for poker as a skilled game". Storms Reback, of ''All In Magazine'', said Moon was "out of his league" at the tournament, and made a number of questionable calls and bets. As an example, Reback cited a hand in which Moon attempted to bluff by re-raising a bet by Begleiter for 15 million chips, then folding when Begleiter went all in for an additional 6 million, even though Moon was getting better than 7-to-1 odds on his money.Reback, pp. 50—51 Moon said he planned to spend some of his World Series winnings on putting relatives through college and charitable contributions to his home town, including a new youth ball field and recreation center. Moon said of his victory, "We ain't gonna change. The next time you see us, we'll be wearing jeans and everything else, like we always have."

Post-WSOP poker career

Moon played few major poker games after the 2009 World Series of Poker, preferring instead to play local games among friends in the Oakland area. When asked how he had done in those games, Moon replied, "I've done all right. I've held my own." Moon joined 63 other players in the 2010

at the

Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesar ...

in Las Vegas. He paid the $20,000 buy-in from his personal funds. Moon was paired against online qualifier William Huntress in the first round of the tournament on March 5.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

writer Gary Wise said Huntress stood "as good a chance of toppling an invited player as any qualifier ever has", and questioned why Moon participated in the tournament given Moon's past claims of disinterest in media exposure and sponsorship. However, PokerNews.com writer Mickey Doft predicted Moon would do well in the tournament due to his unpredictable play. Moon defeated Huntress when his held out against Huntress' . The flop was , giving Huntress the better draw, but Moon won with king-high when another club failed to come on the turn or river, advancing Moon to the second round. He lost in that round to

, whose three kings bested Moon's two pair of queens and tens. Duke went on to win the tournament. In August 2010, Moon joined Main Event champions

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a wor ...

and

Jonathan Duhamel Jonathan Duhamel (born August 24, 1987) is a Canadian poker professional from Boucherville, Quebec, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He has won three WSOP bracelets in his career. Poker career ...

in hosting the ''Mega Stack Series XVII'', a live poker tournament at

Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort Casino is an integrated resort owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their Indian reservation, reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casino ...

Ledyard, Connecticut Ledyard ( ) is a New England town, Town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States, located along the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. The town is named after Colonel William Ledyard, a American Revol ...

which drew 2,200 participants and had a total prize pool of more than $1 million. The next month, Moon entered the

no-limit Texas hold-em Main Event. Early in the tournament, Moon doubled up with pocket kings against a player with pocket jacks. He was eliminated on day two, however, after moving all in with on a flop. His opponent had pocket aces, and Moon received no help with a turn and river. Leaving the poker room, he said to his wife, "At least the pressure's off, honey." In 2011, Moon accepted a deal to become Tour Ambassador for

Heartland Poker Tour Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) is an internationally syndicated television program airing 52 weeks each year and a U.S.-based poker tour. Created by friends Greg Lang and Todd Anderson in 2005, HPT promotes the tagline "Real People, Unreal Money." ...

, wearing the patch of the nationally televised tour and playing in several HPT events. HPT President Todd Anderson of Moon: "Darvin is our kind of guy. He's worked hard his entire life and now lives the dream that attracts so many to the game." Moon became a fan favorite among HPT's tour regulars when he declined an invitation for the November Nine taping in 2010 to play an HPT stop in Iowa. A last minute replacement for an ill

Scotty Nguyen Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event an ...

, Moon bonded with HPT's crew and players. Moon said, "I'm very comfortable with the HPT folks. They're like family." Moon died on September 19, 2020, following complications from surgery. He was 56.

Personality and style

Moon displayed what he described as a humble and self-deprecating manner during the World Series of Poker, acknowledging his lack of poker experience throughout the course of the tournament, and often attributing his success to luck and a high number of strong cards, rather than talent. Moon adopted a phrase, "If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose," which reflected his casual approach to the game. Moon also said one of his philosophies was, "Make the other guy pay to see the cards", a strategy attributed to many re-raises Moon made during the 2009 World Series of Poker despite weak hands. Moon had almost no experience in heads-up poker, which some commentators said factored into his loss against Cada in the final hours of the 2009 World Series. Many fans and commentators praised his working stiff style, with some dubbing him "Darvin Gump", a reference to the underdog protagonist of the 1994 drama film, ''

Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the Forrest Gump (novel), 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title rol ...

''. Moon was also bestowed with the nickname the "Luddite Logger" because of his distaste for anything technological, including credit cards and

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

. Moon refused to sign a sponsorship deal with an Internet poker company during the 2009 tournament because he said he did not want to answer to anybody. Moon wore a

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

hat throughout the tournament because, "I like cheering for the underdog." Moon was invited as a guest at the Saints games for their entire playoff run in 2010, and was on hand to watch them win

Super Bowl XLIV Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) c ...

against the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

References

External links

''Bluff Magazine'' player profileCard Player profileHendon Mob profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Darvin 1963 births 2020 deaths American poker players People from Oakland, Maryland American loggers Amateur poker players