Joe McKeehen Triumphs At WPT Bay 101 High-Roller

While many WSOP Main Event winners have faded into relative poker obscurity following their monumental victories, for others its business as usual as they continue to rack up impressive results. One such player is the 2015 Main Event champion, Joe McKeehen, who this year has already made it all the way through to five final tables, and notched up some solid cashes along the way.
In the latest example of his poker prowess, Joe McKeehen has taken down the $25,000 WPT high-roller event held at Bay 101 in San Jose, whilst adding a further $156,966 to his burgeoning bankroll. Although just 17 players had entered the tournament, it was nonetheless packed with top talent, with the last four competitors subsequently agreeing to increase the paid positions from two to four players. As McKeehen tweeted at the time:
“We did a four way icm chop in this high roller and are playing for 50k. Also jumped the blinds and sped them up.”
Ultimately, cash payouts were received by Nick Petrangelo in 4th ($77,379), and Darren Elias in 3rd (85,413), leaving Joe McKeehen to face-off against Byron Kaverman for the title, a skilled pro who also won a gold bracelet at the 2015 WSOP $10k Six-Max NLHE Championship for $657,351.
After an intense heads-up battle, the two eventually got it all-in with McKeehen’s K-K up against the A-K of Kaverman. With his pocket kings holding, Joe McKeehen subsequently claimed the WPT Bay 101 High-roller title, while Kaverman had to settle for a runner-up position worth $96,742.
As a result, Joe McKeehen now boosts his live tournament earnings to $11,545,712, placing him at number 25 on poker’s ‘All Time Money List’. While all but $3,862,366 of that amount comes from his WSOP victory, McKeehen has managed to amass an impressive $1,724,429 in 2016 alone. The 24 year-old pro has also won a further $1,173,693 playing online under the screen name ‘Dude904’.