Poker champion crowned — man from S.F. is third
“It was just my days for three days in a row.” Joe McKeehen, champion, World Series of Poker
LAS VEGAS — Pennsylvania poker pro Joe McKeehen never gave up his lead in the World Series of Poker’s championship event, and took home $7.68 million Tuesday night as the victor.
The 25-year-old McKeehen won when his ace-10 turned into a pair of 10s on the flop, ensuring his victory in a faceoff with Joshua Beckley of New Jersey, who had gone all-in with a pair of fours.
McKeehen held an overwhelming lead in poker chips coming into the finale and the entire three-day event.
“I thought it was the Joe Show,” said ESPN analyst and poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, who said McKeehen played nearly perfect poker. “He played great, he ran great, and you can’t overcome that combination. He did exactly what he needed to do to not give up the chip lead ever,” he said.
Calm winner
McKeehen was characteristically nonchalant in the moments after winning. Asked if he had any plans for his $7.68 million: not yet.
“It was just my days for three days in a row,” he said of the ease holding his lead and eventually winning.
No-limit Texas Hold’em involves each player getting two cards unseen by the rest of the table and five community cards, the first three on the flop, the fourth on the turn, the fifth on the river, with betting between each.
The championship got its start in 1970 with an invite-only event at Benny Binion’s Las Vegas casino where the handful of men gathered around the table initially chose the winner. It has grown to a global contest that attracts thousands of poker players each year.
World Series of Poker tournament events began in May and continued for 51 days with 68 events, culminating with the annual Main Event. It’s a grueling multiday poker marathon that whittled down the competition from 6,420 entries at $10,000 each to a final table of nine players, all already guaranteed at least $1 million each.
Overwhelming lead
Before returning to the poker stage Sunday, McKeehen held 63.1 million chips, more than twice as many as the man in second. By the end of Monday, he had more than 128 million chips, more than three times as much as the next man.
Players eliminated before Tuesday night’s three-person matchup, in order, were 26-year-old Patrick Chan of New York, 25-year-old Federico Butteroni of Italy, 72-year-old Pierre Neuville of Belgium, 23-yearold Tom Cannuli of New Jersey, 37-year-old Ofer Svi Stern and 27-year-old Max Steinberg.
McKeehen sent home six of the nine final players in showdowns over the three days, including 61-year-old Neil Blumenfield of San Francisco, who went home with $3.4 million in third place when his pair of twos couldn’t improve to beat McKeehen’s pair of queens.
Former tech executive
“I’m not happy with how I played today, but obviously it was a great run. If you had asked me four months ago about finishing third, I would have been very excited about that,” Blumenfield said. The former tech executive who started a company and sold it to Intuit in 2013 said he’s done with the software business. He was laid off in the summer, which had him weighing the $10,000 entry fee, at first.
“There’s actually a lot of similarities between startup software and poker. In both cases only the top 10 percent cash, and among that 10 percent only the top one or two really make any money at all,” he said.
His ouster left McKeehen facing Beckley.
The two played on — sitting between stacks of cash and a prized, pricey World Series of Poker bracelet encrusted with diamonds and rubies — until McKeehen claimed the final victory, landing a lucky second 10.