Joe McKeehen

Joe McKeehen is a professional poker player and the winner of the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Joe McKeehen was born in North Wales, Pennsylvania and learned to play poker during the Moneymaker boom after seeing the game played on television. Although he wasn’t old enough to legally play, he started honing his skills and began playing at Turning Stone Resort Casino once he turned eighteen.

It only took two years for McKeehen to score his first six figure cash when he won the $2k NLHE event at the 2012 PCA and took home $116k. Over the next two years, he consistently raked in wins and deep runs in tournament after tournament in Atlantic City, Foxwoods, and casinos around Pennsylvania.

In 2014, he had another six figure score when he won the $2k NLHE event at the Deepstack Extravaganza in Las Vegas, earning $101k. That same summer, he showed players at the WSOP that he was a serious contender after entering the $1,500 Monster Stack event and taking second place for $820k, the largest cash of his career before the 2015 Main Event. If that score wasn’t enough to earn the attention of top players, his domination at the 2015 Main Event would ensure he earned their respect.

Throughout the Main Event, McKeehen won pot after pot against the competition, consistently ranking towards the top throughout the seven days of the tournament in July. Going into the final table, he had 63 million in chips, enough to have the largest lead in at least ten years. Those chips include busting Daniel Negreanu, who made the deepest run he has made since 2001. In addition to Negreanu, he busted six straight players leading into, and including, the final table.

Going into the final table, Joe was the most visibly calm player, stressing that to him it is just another tournament. Rather than running simulations and doing in depth work regarding his opponents at the table, he decided to simply keep playing his game and even took down another tournament, the $1,500 at the Wynn Fall Classic, for $90k while the rest of the table was busy studying. He did, however, stress that he pays incredibly close attention to players at the table. His signature stare is unsettling to many, but he credits it with giving him reads that his opponents will not be able to beat. This is perhaps why he plays in a way that seems as if he always folds when he is behind and raises when he is ahead.

At the final table, he continued to dominate the competition, leaving Blumenfield and Beckley with nowhere to run as he made hand after hand, seemingly unable to miss a flop.

With 77 cashes and 12 wins, he has time and again proven himself as a strong player. Before winning the Main Event, he had nearly $3 million in wins live and online, more than the rest of the final table. Including his recent Main Event bracelet, his total winnings now come to an incredible $9.7 million at only twenty-four years of age.