Ron 'MacDaddy15' McMillen Wins WSOP Bracelet In His First-Ever Online Tournament

Ron McMillen is no stranger to the live tournament poker scene. The 70-year-old Iowa native has cashed for more than $150,000 in events around the United States, with his largest score being $29,709 for a 12th-place finish in a $1,500 buy-in event at the 2014 World Series of Poker. While he had plenty of live experience, McMillen had reportedly never tried his hand at online poker until deciding to enter the ninth event of the 2020 WSOP Online, a $1,000 buy-in six-max no-limit hold’em tournament. The first time was a charm for McMillen, who outlasted a field of 1,026 total entries to secure his first WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $188,214.

McMillen played the event from Las Vegas under the screen name ‘MacDaddy15’. The WSOP’s official Twitter account shared a video clip of McMillen and some friends celebrating the moment when he took a decisive lead during heads-up play. McMillen won a key preflop race with pocket tens against the AQ of Ryan ‘Im.Sorry’ Torgersen to take nearly a 12:1 chip lead.

This is what it's all about ! pic.twitter.com/10UYvh8V1Y

— WSOP (@WSOP) July 10, 2020

With 658 unique players and 368 re-entries made, this event’s prize pool grew to $974,700. The top 143 finishers ultimately made the money, with the min-cash being worth $1,656. Among the notable players to make deep runs were Chris ‘Robotbob47’ Moorman (141st – $1,657), Maria ‘bluerat’ Konnikova (133rd – $1,657) Alan ‘mossadshark’ Sternberg (109th – $1,754), Daniel ‘DNegs’ Negreanu (96th – $1,852), Tara ‘bertperton’ Cain (79th – $2,242), Yong Keun ‘LuckySpewy1’ Kwon (56th – $2,729), Nick ‘cashUSklay’ Schulman (43rd – $3,704), Shawn ‘SayGoodNight’ Daniels (37th – $3,704), Joseph ‘bieuberry’ Cheong (30th – $4,386), Anthony ‘heheh"’ Zinno (22nd – $5,360), Jon ‘havuuuuuc’ Turner (17th – $6,530), Steve ‘Gborooo’ Gross (15th – $8,187), and Ryan “Adopt_aDogg0” Leng (10th – $10,332).

When the final table began it was Ruth ‘crazeelf666’ Ruffman who held the chip lead, with Wade ‘WillowG23’ Griffith and McMillen sitting with the next largest stacks. The first elimination of the final table took place when Ian ‘apokerjoker2’ Steinman got all-in with A9 up against the 22 of McMillen. Steinman flopped the nut flush draw to go along with his overcards, and turned a straight draw as well. Despite all of those outs, the tier paired the board to secure the pot for McMillen. Steinman earned $30,995 as the sixth-place finisher. This was his third cash and second final-table finish of the series, having placed 113th in event #3 and fifth in event #7.

Chris ‘moodeez’ Moody was the next to fall. He got all-in with J10 and was called by Ryan ‘Im.Sorry’ Torgersen, who held KJ. Moody was unable to improve and was sent to the rail in fifth place ($42,301). Torgersen continued his elimination spree just a few minutes later. He picked up QQ and four-bet all-in over the top of a three-bet from Ruffman, who called off with 1010. The queens held and Ruffman’s run ended in fourth place ($58,482).

Torgersen was not yet finished, though. His next big confrontation began with him limping in from the button holding 76. Griffith checked from the big blind holding K9. The flop came down K73 and Griffith checked. Torgersen bet 160,000 and Griffith called. The J on the turn saw Griffith check-call again, this time for 225,000. The 5 river prompted yet another check from Griffith. Torgersen moved all-in and Griffith called for their tournament life with their top pair, only to be shown the winning flush held by Torgersen. Griffith was sent packing with $81,972 for their strong showing in this event.

With that Torgersen took more than a 3:2 chip lead into heads-up play with McMillen. That gap was narrowed before the massive preflop showdown mentioned earlier in this article took place, with McMillen limp-reraising his pocket tens only to call all-in when Torgersen shoved with A-Q from the small blind. McMillen flopped a set and held from there to chip up to just shy of 19 million, while Torgersen was left with 1.6 million. Not long after that Torgersen got his last chips in with K4 and McMillen called holding 105. The K76 flop gave Torgersen the best hand, but McMillen picked up a flush draw. The Q on the turn completed that draw to leave Torgersen drawing dead. The 2 on the river was a mere formality, and Torgersen was knocked out in second place ($116,379).

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

McMillan photo credit: Bay 101 News blog. Steinman photo via WPT/ Joe Giron.

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