McKeehen Shocks No One with Championship Win at 2015 WSOP Main Event

From the moment the 2015 World Series of Poker’s November Nine was formed, right down to the very last chip entering his stack, Joe McKeehen held a dominating lead. On Tuesday evening, at approximately 8:00pm PST, the 25 year old from Pennsylvania secured the victory, shocking no one as he collected the coveted WSOP Championship Gold Bracelet and USD $7.68 million.

Young McKeehen’s path to victory seemed to be pre-paved as he mercilessly bored his way through one opponent after another. Amazingly, he was personally responsible for the elimination of all three players who exited the table on the first day of play, and three more as the series played out (6 of 8 total).

2015 WSOP November Nine – Day 1

As the final table reconvened last Sunday, it took only two hands for the PA poker pro to eliminate the November Nine’s first victim, Patrick Chan (9^th, $1,001,020).

About three hours later, McKeehen swiped the remaining chips of Italy’s fan-favorite, Federico Butteroni (8^th, $1,097,056), who had entered the final table as the lowest on the chip-stack totem pole. Then, the first day’s action came to a close when he struck down his third casualty of the night, Pierre Neuville (7^th, $1,203,293) when McKeehen pulled a miracle-flush on the river.

2015 WSOP November Nine – Day 2

Entering Day 2, McKeehen had built his lead to almost half of the chips in play, with a near 3-to-1 lead over his nearest opponent, Ofer Zvi Stern.

The first the leave the table that day was Thomas Cannuli (6^th, $1,426,283), not at the hands of McKeehen, but the table’s only WSOP bracelet holder going into the November Nine, Max Steingberg. After a series of bad hands, Ofer Zvi Stern (5^th, $1911,423) found his stack dwindling, eventually succumbing to Neil Blumenfield.

Finally closing out Day 2 was the elimination of the 2015 WSOP Main Event’s most sharp dressed man, Max Steinberg (4^th, $2,615,361). With 111mm chips under his wing, McKeehen had no trouble scooping the last of Steinberg’s 16.5mm to bring the day to an end.

2015 WSOP November Nine – 3^rd and Final Day

Tuesday afternoon, the final table of three resumed with McKeehen holding 128mm, just over 2/3 of all the chips. Blumenfield returned with 40.125mm while Josh Beckley held the short stack of 23.7mm.

While Beckley steadily worked to increase his stack, Blumenfield was running slowly in the opposite direction. At approximately 7:30pm, McKeehen stepped up to the plate, knocking Neil Blumenfield (3^rd, $3,398,298) out of the ballpark and bringing up heads-up play between the two 25 year old American poker pro’s from Pennsylvania and New Jersey (Beckley). At that point, McKeehen already had a 4.5 to 1 lead in the counts, and it took only 12 hands to claim the last of them.

Final Hand of 2015 WSOP Main Event

On the final deal of the 2015 WSOP Championship, Josh open-shipped 19.4mm into the middle. Only a few seconds ticked by as McKeehen made the call, tabling Ah 10d to Beckley’s 4c 4d. With only a slight advantage to Beckly, the race was on…

The Flop: Qs 10c 5s

Joe immediately raised his hands in the air, having bested Beckley’s pair. Josh would have to land a 4 to stay alive.

The 5d on the turn failed to help, as did the Jc on the river, sending Josh Beckly home with a highly respectable 2^nd place payday worth $4,470,896. McKeehen was named the 2015 World Series of Poker Champion, receiving the gold bracelet and $7,683,346.

Joe McKeehen Languishes over $7.68 Million 2015 WSOP Championship Win
photo by Chase Stevens, Las Vegas Review-Journal