Joe Cada breaks the Main Event Champions' curse by winning his second bracelet

Joe Cada managed to end a long streak of Main Event champions who have been unable to follow up their Main Event victories with another bracelet win, earning his second by topping a tough field of 264 in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship.

Carlos Mortensen won his Main Event title in 2001, then followed it up with a second bracelet win a couple of years later, but no ME champ since then has managed to follow suit until last night. Indeed, all but one of the 12 Main Event champs since 2002 remain single-bracelet winners, the exception being 2012 champ Greg Merson who won an event prior to winning his Main Event title.

Since becoming the youngest-ever Main Event champion in 2009, Cada has come close to winning WSOP events before, having notched two fourth-place finishes a year ago to follow a runner-up finish in 2012. The Michigan-based pro finally broke through last night, however, and against one of the most talent-laden fields at the WSOP this summer.

Speaking of players seeking multiple bracelets, seven of the 13 players returning yesterday for the third and final day of Event #32 were former WSOP bracelet winners, and four of them would make the six-handed final table following the knockouts of Layne Flack (13th, $28,414), Scott Clements (11th, $36,975), and George Danzer (ninth, $49,061).

Cada had the chip lead to start the final table, but Jeremy Ausmus would grab it away after he knocked out Dario Sammartino to end the Italian’s run in sixth. Erick Lindgren followed in fifth, then Ausmus knocked out JC Tran in fourth and Cada eliminated start-of-day-3 chip leader Max Silver in third to set up heads-up play.

Ausmus had nearly 4.9 million to Cada’s stack of just over 3 million start their duel, and Ausmus would maintain the advantage for nearly 40 hands until Cada secured a huge double-up when his held in a race versus Ausmus’s . Five hands later Ausmus was all in with versus Cada’s , and when the board brought Ausmus no help Cada had won the bracelet and $670,041 first prize.

Event #32: $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship Final Table Results