Benjamin Keeline Wins 2016 World Series of Poker Colossus II EventPoker Pro Tops Second Largest Live Tournament Field In History To Win $1 Million |
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The 2016 World Series of Poker Colossus II $565 buy-in no-limit hold’em event drew a total of 21,613 entries, the second most in live tournament poker history behind only last year’s inaugural running of this tournament. The massive turnout still easily surpassed the event’s $7 million guarantee to build a $10,806,500 prize pool.
After six days of action, the title went to St. Louis, Missouri native Benjamin Keeline, a 30-year-old who splits his time between playing poker and driving for Uber. The Boulder, Colorado resident earned his fourth career WSOP cash, this time for $1 million.
But what makes Keeline’s accomplishment even more impressive is that late on the first day of play, his stack was left crippled down to just one 500 chip, which was worth just one ante. Somehow, he was able to recover and pull out the victory almost a week later.
“I’ve had a really hard time lately,” Keeline said afterward. “I’m elated. I can’t even think about what this means, not just the money, but the gold bracelet. This is something I could not have imagined would happen just a few days ago. Sure, I thought it could happen and I thought I could win if I played well, but to have it go the way it went, well – that’s more than I express how I feel right now. It’s going to take some time for this to all sink in.”
Keeline now has just over $1.56 million in career live tournament earnings. His previous largest score was $218,762 for finishing second in the WSOP Circuit main event at Choctaw. He also won a WSOP Circuit ring back in 2013.
Other notables to make deep runs in the event included Jonathan Borenstein (8th), Amir Lehavot (36th), Ylon Schwartz (46th), Marco Johnson (47th), David Baker (66th), Nam Le (92nd) and Ryan Laplante (94th).
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
| 1 | Benjamin Keeline | $1,000,000 | 720 |
| 2 | Jiri Horak | $618,000 | 600 |
| 3 | Farhad Davoudzadeh | $462,749 | 480 |
| 4 | Richard Carr | $348,462 | 360 |
| 5 | Marek Ohnisko | $263,962 | 300 |
| 6 | Christopher Renaudette | $201,151 | 240 |
| 7 | Alex Benjamen | $154,208 | 180 |
| 8 | Jonathan Borenstein | $118,937 | 120 |
| 9 | Xiu Deng | $92,291 | 60 |
For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.
Winner photo courtesy of WSOP.
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