You don’t forget how to finish strong. Just ask Joe McKeehen, former winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, who saw off a field of 6,420 players to win $7.6M back in 2015.
McKeehen was back in the spotlight on Wednesday night, bagging another trophy and $174K after winning the final event of the PokerGO Tour (PGT) Sprint series.
The buy-in for event #7 of this series — $10,500 — may have been almost identical to that of his most famous victory, but the circumstances were far different.
PGT Sprint events take their name from their speed, with each of the seven events in the short series lasting just a single day as opposed to the marathon of the WSOP Main Event. And instead of a field of 6,400+ players there were just 53, though there would have been far fewer easy marks at the tables of the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Joe McKeehen's biggest win, 2015.These PGT events don’t tend to draw in the casual weekend warriors, especially as part of their appeal lies in the PGT leaderboard points available to those who cash. Rack up the points, make the top 40, and you bag yourself a seat in a freeroll with $500K to be won. Leaderboards reward volume, and pretty much everyone involved on Wednesday was used to the grind.
The freeroll in question, the PGT Championship, runs January 11-12, 2027 and opportunities to accrue points are running out.
McKeehen seized this opportunity, however, adding 175 points to his tally. It won’t be enough for him to crack the top 40 just yet, but there will be a few more chances before the end of the year.
Recurring characters star in season finale
The final event of this series drew a similar crowd to the previous six tournaments of the week: experienced pros. With Wednesday’s victory McKeehen adds his name to a roll-call of winners including Chino Rheem, Brock Wilson, Jesse Lonis, Sergei Kislinskii, Sam Soverel and Andrew Lichtenberger.
Eight spots were paid, but simultaneous eliminations on two different tables meant the players in 9th and 8th split the min-cash, with Patrick Leonard and Martin Zamani each taking $10,600 for a profit of $100 on the ticket price. Still, it beats flipping burgers.
That left a final table of seven, and the relatively small cast of players in this series meant we’d seen many of them at final tables this week already.
These include Brandon Wilson, who ran close in event #6; Neil Warren, who made the FT in event #1; Daniyal Gheba, who had a deep run in event #6; and Jamie Dwan, who finished 5th in event #2. McKeehen himself was playing his 3rd final table of the week.
Daniyal Gheba eliminated 3 of his final 4 opponents, but not the one that mattered most.Brandon Wilson and Neil Warren were first to leave the final table before action slowed five-handed. That was before Daniyal Gheba went on a run to KO Jamie Dwan, Nicholas Schulte and Darren Elias to reach heads-up play with a 2:1 lead on McKeehen.
The lead wouldn’t hold, however, as McKeehen quickly closed the gap, then closed out the victory.
PGT Sprint Event #7: Final results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe McKeehen | $174,900 |
| 2 | Daniyal Gheba | $111,300 |
| 3 | Darren Elias | $74,200 |
| 4 | Nicholas Schulte | $53,000 |
| 5 | Jamie Dwan | $42,400 |
| 6 | Neil Warren | $31,800 |
| 7 | Brandon Wilson | $21,200 |
| 8 | Martin Zamani | $10,600 |
| 9 | Patrick Leonard | $10,600 |
Chances running out for leaderboard points
Results from event #7 did not impact the top 10 of the PGT leaderboard (see our report on PGT Sprint event #6 for those standings), but it did move Daniyal Gheba and Jamie Dwan ever closer to the qualifying top 40.
Those towards the bottom of the top 40 — including Daniel Negreanu (35th, 1,052pts), Sam Laskowitz (37th, 1,015pts) and Justin Liberto (38th, 1,010pts) — may be looking over their shoulders as the opportunities to win points start to diminish.
The good news, for Negreanu at least, is that many of the bracelet events at the upcoming WSOP Paradise festival in December will be awarding PGT points. And we expect to see ‘KidPoker’ firing in most if not all of them.
Other opportunities in December include the WPT World Championship at Wynn, where points will be available in the $10K Main Event, two $10K PLO events, two $10K NLH events and the $25K High Roller.
After those, prospects will be limited to the aptly-named PGT Last Chance series in the new year, a run of six $10K events from January 4-9 that leads into the Championship itself.
The reigning PGT Championship winner is Chad Eveslage, who defeated Andrew Lichtenberger heads-up to claim $500K for free back in January. The prizes may have been reduced for the next edition in January, but the appetite for free money is as strong as ever.
Additional images courtesy of PGT/WSOP.
