Joe McKeehen Headlines Early World Poker Tour World Championship Winners From Wynn Las Vegas

The action is heating up at the 2024 World Poker Tour World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Several of the bigger events on the schedule are either set to wrap up (in the case of the $5 million guaranteed WPT Prime Championship) or kick off (the $10,400 WSP World Championship main event) in the next few days. The headline-grabbing $5 million invitational freeroll is also taking place over the weekend, driving even more hype at the festival.

Below we’ll take a closer look at some of the biggest stories from the early action at the series. We already covered the $1,000,000 guaranteed $800 buy-in that kicked off the action. Sergio Soto Banked $318,623 as the last player standing from a field of over 3,000 entries. Below are several more big winners from the first 10 days of play.

WPT World Championship $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo $100K GTD

The first $1,100 buy-in event that wrapped at this festival was a $100,000 guaranteed turbo. The 215-entry field was narrowed down to a champion in a single day, with World Series of Poker bracelet winner Barry Hutter hoisting the trophy in the end.

Hutter earned $49,342 for the win, growing his career tournament earnings to just shy of $8 million.

This event’s guarantee was more than doubled, with $210,700 paid out among the top 27 finishers. Plenty of notables made the money, including Will Failla (24th), bracelet winner Brandon Zuidema (16th), 2021 Wynn Millions champion Andrew Moreno (14th), 2024 WSOP ladies event champion Siina Okamoto (7th), and six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings (14th).

WPT World Championship At Wynn Las Vegas $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo $100K GTD

WPT World Championship $1,600 No-Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty $500K GTD

The $1,600 no-limit hold’em mystery bounty event drew 933 entries, resulting in a prize pool of $1,343,520 that nearly tripled the $500,000 guarantee.

The largest share of that money from the main prize pool was ultimately awarded to Ran Koller. The bracelet winner from Israel walked away with $158,027 as the champion. He also earned $9,000 in bounty payouts.

Koller now has nearly $1.1 million in lifetime cashes. His largest score remains the $269,478 he locked up as the winner of the 2021 WSOP $800 deepstack eight-max event.

Among the notables that ran deep were two-time bracelet winner Evan Sandberg (31st), WPT champion Wing Liu (13th), and two-time WSOP main event final tablist Mark Newhouse (8th).

WPT World Championship $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha $250K GTD

The four-card poker enthusiasts turned out for the $250,000 guaranteed $3,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event. The tournament drew 175 entries, resulting in a prize pool of $481,250.

Bradley Miller triumphed in the end, earning a career-best score of $117,780 after defeating Italian poker pro Alessio Isaia heads-up for the title. Miller’s lifetime earnings now sit at nearly $516,000 thanks to this marquee victory.

The top 23 finishers made the money, with bracelet winner Rob Wazwaz (16th), Kane Kalas (12th), bracelet winner Maksim Psarenko (8th), and 2022 Wynn Millions runner-up Isaac Kempton (5th) all earning a slice.

WPT World Championship $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six Max $250K GTD

2015 WSOP main event champion Joe McKeehen bested a field of 211 entries in the $3,000 buy-in six-max no-limit hold’em event. The $250,000 guarantee was more than doubled in the event with $580,250 in prize money awarded. McKeehen left with $120,943 as the champion, increasing his lifetime tournament haul to more than $21 million.

The three-time bracelet winner now has 26 recorded titles under his belt, with 291 cashes. While his win in the big dance nearly a decade ago accounted for nearly $7.7 million of his career earnings, he has also accumulated more than $13.3 million outside of that one career-defining triumph.

Plenty of highly-accomplished tournament grinders made deep runs. Among them were four-time bracelet winner Michael Gathy (27th), FiveThirtyEight founder and political analyst Nate Silver (13th), recent WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open main event winner Dylan Smith (11th), and bracelet winner Cherish Andrews (6th).

Photos credits: WPT / Wynn Poker Room X account.

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