American poker has whined about not having an ambassador for poker for years. Online poker has whined the same thing.  Now, poker may have its face.  Okay, poker is a game and can’t technically whine, but the people that play it certainly do. And when they look for another face for the game Jaime Gold and Jerry Yang for two very different reasons, weren’t up to snuff. They weren’t quite up to snuff on the poker table either. Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem were also lacking, one in English and the other in wearing his Australianism more like Ian Thorpe and less like Paul Hogan. One you can embrace the other you aren’t so sure about.

Greg Raymer did a fine job as an ambassador, in fact he still does. He’s the thinking man’s representative and he contemplated running for the White House to advance the causes of poker. Thing about Greg is he’s not really marketable. Sure he could endorse fossils or holographic specs but that’s about it and while he can hold his own on CNBC people aren’t exactly stopping the dial to hear him talk.

21-year old Joe Cada, that’s another story. The winner of the 2009 World Series of Poker, is decent looking, is but 21 with his whole life in front of him. He manages to not wear the Internet Geek cologne too strongly and has a vested cause in advocating poker is a game of skill vs. chance. Not that it will justify his winning the Main Event, because that was clearly chance… cough… I mean skill.

Cada from the get go has stated he wants to be at the forefront of poker’s causes. An online poker pro who likes to play heads up when he does play online poker.  He’s old beyond his years, and the 21 year old’s calm in the maelstrom after his win evokes the surprising maturity of a young Lebron James his first couple of years in the NBA. Cada, clearly loves the game that means so much to him, and wants to prove, probably moreso than any recent champion save maybe Hachem, his wasn’t a fluke win.

The irony is, it will be hard to convince anybody that his finally table run had as much skill as it did luck.  What everbody remembers is him getting his money in bad time and time again, and catching a set, time and time again.  What nobody remembers and what they saw little of on ESPN, was all the skill it took Cada to wade through the massive field of the Main Event.  Every champion has run good a little bit to win, and Cada ran good at the right time.  No shame in that.  Also noteworthy was his excellence in heads up play against the unpredictable Darvin Moon. 

Cada wasn’t just talking the talk after the Main Event, he’ll be walking the walk and will be on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby Congress for online gaming rights.  Cada won more than $8 million, though he had to give half to his backers, and half again to the IRS.  He became the youngest person ever to hold the title. Peter Eastgate who was 22 at his win, held that title for a year, but as a 21 year old, Cada can only be beaten by months not by years.  Though he looks like he should be in high school the kid could be dean of his own poker school.

Cada primarily plays poker online so his trip to D.C. on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance makes a lot of sense. Afterall he is advocating online poker.  His draw to gambling might have something to do with his mother being a blackjack dealer at a local Michigan casino. Makes sense that Cada will meet with Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), as well as others in the Michigan delegation. The kid is saying all the right things, as The Hill points out:

“I support the right to play poker online,” Cada said recently in an interview with Time magazine. “Poker isn’t gambling. It’s a hobby, an activity, a game. It’s not about luck — it’s about logic, decision-making, math.”

It also mentions that in preparing for his big day this week, young Joe Cada went to a beltway restaurant.   Ray’s the Steaks, in Arlington, Va.  Get it…  raise the stakes.