Joe McKeehen, the 2015 Main Event winner, continues to prove he’s one of the best in the game. The Pennsylvania native shipped Event #14 of the WSOP Online Bracelet Series — the $3,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller — for $352,985 on Tuesday.
The former world champ beat a field of 368 players — 486 total entries after rebuys — to win his third bracelet. He also took down the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for $311,817 at the 2017 World Series of Poker.
McKeehen (“fanofdapoker”) wasn’t the only familiar face playing in Tuesday’s bracelet event. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson (“Camdi”), another past Main Event champion (2000), took a tumble in the worst possible spot. The 2017 WSOP Player of the Year lost a race with A-K against Ryan Depaulo’s pocket 10s for all of his chips on the direct bubble.
Depaulo (“joeyisamush”) has been one of the top performers during the WSOP Online Bracelet Series. He shipped a bracelet on Sunday while playing from his car outside a New Jersey Whole Foods store. On Tuesday, he finished in 16th place for $11,459, a profit of $6,059 after entering twice.
McKeehen’s No Fluke
Many poker fans often refer to certain past Main Event champions as “flukes.” McKeehen isn’t one of them. His poker resume outside of the 2015 Main Event is quite impressive. He now has two additional bracelets, 26 cashes in bracelet events, and $16.6 million in overall live tournament cashes.
On Tuesday, in the largest buy-in tournament of the 31-event WSOP.com series, he again dominated a field that included numerous accomplished pros including Daniel Negreanu (“DNegs”), Phil Hellmuth (“Lumestackin”), recent runner-up Chance Kornuth (“bingshui”), and the bubble boy, Chris Ferguson.
McKeehen defeated Frank Funaro (“thewholefunk”) heads-up to earn his first online bracelet. Funaro scored his biggest tournament cash by a bunch — $219,089. His previous largest score was $12,870 for winning a $300 buy-in Borgata Poker Deepstacks Challenge event in 2019.
Notable $3,200 High Roller Cashes
- Joe McKeehen (“fanofdapoker”): 1st for $352,985
- Ryan Depaulo (“joeyisamush”): 16th for $11,459
- Loren Klein (“BabyJesus”): 18th $11,459
- Ryan Laplante (“protential”): 29th for $8,293
- Maria Konnikova (“bluerat”): 56th for $6,031
In total, 63 players (17.1%) went home with money, a smaller amount than the 23% who make the money in cheaper WSOP Online Bracelet Series events.
The series resumes Wednesday with Event #15, $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Max at 3 pm PT. GGPoker will begin its bracelet series on Thursday when it launches a $100 tournament, the cheapest entry for a bracelet event in the WSOP’s 51-year history, and a record that will be broken on Aug. 23 with the $50 Big 50, also on GGPoker.
