Joe McKeehen Wins His Third World Series of Poker Bracelet In 2020 Online High Roller Event

Joe McKeehen defeated a field of 469 entries to win the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $3,200 no-limit hold’em high roller event, securing his third WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $352,985. In doing so, the 2015 WSOP main event champion became just the 104th player in poker history to win three or more bracelets. His first WSOP victory came when he topped the 6,420-player field to win $7,683,346 and the title of world champion. Two years later he secured his second piece of hardware in the $10,000 limit hold’em championship, earning $311,817 and bracelet number two.

This event attracted 368 unique players, who collectively re-entered a total of 128 times to create a final prize pool of $1,507,840 by the time registration closed. The top 63 finishers made the money, with Chris ‘camdi’ Ferguson ultimately being knocked out on the stone bubble. With his elimination the remaining players all locked up at least a $6,031 payday.

Among the notable players to make deep runs in this event were Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo ()58th – $6,031), Maria ‘bluerat’ Konnikova (56th – $6,031), Ali ‘sasukeuchiha’ Imsirovic (52nd – $6,484), Ryan ‘protential’ Laplante (29th – $8,293), Yong Keun ‘LUCKYSPEWY1’ Kwon (23rd – $9,650), Loren ‘BabyJesus’ Klein (18th – $11,460), recent bracelet winner Ryan ‘joeyisamush’ Depaulo (16th – $11,460), Blake ‘CheeetahGirl’ Bohn (15th – $14,023), Farid ‘GatoVolador’ Jattin (14th – $14,023)) and Shankar ‘burgersssss’ Pillai (10th – $17,491).

2016 WSOP online bracelet winner Clayton ‘nevarlucky’ Maguire held the chip[ lead when the eight-handed final table was set, while McKeehen sat in third chip position. The first elimination of the day took place when David ‘newjerz05’ Jackson got all-in with KQ, only to run into the AA of fellow short stack Lee’SoccerDJ’ Vlastaris. Jackson paired his king on the flop but was unable to improve any further and hit the rail in eighth place ($28,951).

Nathan ‘innate9’ Russler was the next to fall. He got his last chips in preflop with A5. Vlastaris called with AQ. Both players paired their ace, but Russler’s inferior kicker resulted in his being knocked out in seventh place. He earned $38,601 for his strong showing in this event.

Maguire came into the final table with the lead, but fell toward the bottom of the pack during six-handed play. In his final hand he shoved for just under 13 big blinds from the small blind holding J3. Frank ‘thewholefunk’ Funaro called from the big blind with A7. Both players paired their lower card and Funaro’s event were enough to send Maguire home as the sixth-place finisher with $52,624.

Despite scoring two early knockouts at the final table, Vlastaris was the next to run out of chips. He called off his last 1.7 million from the big blind with J10 facing a small-blind shove from Funaro, who held A3. Funaro made nines and threes by the end, which was good enough to eliminate Vlastaris in fifth place ($72,979).

Zhi Hong ‘Jaydestar17’ Huang’s run in this event came to an end when he got all-in on a Q43 flop holding 64. He was called by Funaro, who held 1010. The 9 turn and Q river kept the pocket tens ahead and Huang finished fourth, earning $103,136.

Roland ‘prngls12’ Israelashvili was the next player to get involved in a big preflop confrontation. He shoved all-in for around 17.5 big blinds with A9 from the small blind. Funaro picked up 66 in the big blind and made the call. The board ran out KK2103 and Israelashvili was knocked out in third place ($148,975). This was his sixth cash and second final-table finish of the series.

Funaro took nearly a 3:1 chip lead over McKeehen going into heads-up play for the bracelet. McKeehen found an early double up when both players flopped top pair on a seven-high board and all of the chips went in. McKeehen had the superior kicker, and made two pair on the turn. The river didn’t change anything and he doubled into the lead.

McKeehen was able to extend that advantage to a lead of roughly 3.5:1 by the time the final hand arose. He min-raised to 320,000 from the button with A9 and Funaro three-bet shoved all-in for 2,759,541 with 76. McKeehen called and the K844Q runout secured him the pot and the title. Funaro earned $219,089 as the runner-up finisher.

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

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