Darvin Moon’s preparations for a run at the $8.55 million top prize at the World Series of Poker included an extended hunting trip last month in Wyoming where he slept in a two-room cabin without electricity and pretty much avoided any contact with the outside world.
The 46-year-old self-employed logger from Oakland, Md., will get plenty of attention this weekend as the chip leader heading into Saturday’s final table of the richest tournament in poker.
Moon was in Wyoming preparing for a mental marathon at the no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em main event — 14 to 17 hours, he predicts, to narrow nine players down to two who will go head to head Monday night.
“I’m not going to come in ninth. . . . My plan is to come in first,” Moon said. “You have to have patience.”
And plenty of luck, too, which Moon credits for propelling himself and eight others to the top of a field of 6,494 players at the tournament that began play July 3 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Moon’s opponents include Phil Ivey, a 32-year-old poker professional from Las Vegas regarded by many as the best card player alive, and 47-year-old Steven Beg-leiter, a former executive at Bear Stearns in New York.
Five others at the final table make a living gambling, including 30-year-old Eric Buchman, 21-year-old Joe Cada, 52-year-old Kevin Schaffel, 25-year-old Antoine Saout and 26-year-old James Akenhead.
“Everybody has had dreams, has had nightmares, has been up in the middle of the night thinking about it — I don’t care who you are,” said Schaffel, who has the sixth-most chips.
Ivey, a seven-time gold-bracelet winner at the world series, is seventh on the table in chips.
“Phil Ivey’s always dangerous,” Moon said. “He can have one chip — one of the smallest chips on the table — and still be dangerous.”
