At the beginning of the summer season, 888Ride kicked off its World Collection of Poker season with none apart from 2015 Important Occasion champion Joe McKeehen.
Within the first episode of the 888poker collection, McKeehen joined David Tuchman for a trip by way of reminiscence lane, revisiting his dominant run to $7.6 million and reflecting on what makes him such a menace in large-field occasions.
With one other WSOP behind him, McKeehen’s insights nonetheless provide a pointy look into what it takes to win on poker’s greatest stage.
How So Good in Massive Discipline Occasions
In Occasion #26: $25,000 NLHE Excessive Curler, McKeehen completed sixth for $325,757, his greatest WSOP money since 2016. Whereas he did earn $352,985 in the course of the 2020 WSOP On-line by successful a $3,200 bracelet occasion, that end result marked his strongest in-person end result on the WSOP in almost a decade.
Throughout six cashes on the 2025 WSOP, McKeehen banked $391,877. He additionally added one other $91,446 in payouts from occasions at Wynn Las Vegas, bringing his whole haul for the summer season to simply over $480,000.
So what makes him so efficient in massive-field tournaments? That’s what Tuchman wished to know throughout their chat. He stated McKeehen can be one in all his high picks in any occasion with greater than 1,500 gamers
Requested what units him aside, McKeehen initially downplayed it, saying “I don’t know, in all probability simply optimistic short-term variance clouding your judgment,”
However he rapidly adopted up with a clearer rationalization. “I’m fairly good. I do know what to do. I can work out individuals. I’ve performed sufficient dwell poker to grasp… you sort of work out your opponent,” he stated. “I believe I’m good at seeing somebody do one thing one time and understanding their thought course of, then going towards that. I make it powerful on individuals.”
McKeehen stated one in all his strengths is realizing how one can keep out of hassle. “I don’t put myself in jeopardy too typically if I don’t must. Survival is a little bit of a ability.”
That doesn’t imply he’s afraid to gamble when the time is correct. “If the spot’s good, you’ve acquired to place the cash in,” he stated. “In case you’re fortunate sufficient to win 4 flips in a row, you may have a number of chips. You seem like you’re actually good at poker, simply since you gained some flips typically.”
“No one remembers the man who misplaced the flip that will’ve given them the chip lead.”
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Revisiting That Dominating 2015 Important Occasion Run
Heading into the 2015 Important Occasion closing desk, Joe McKeehen held an amazing chip lead.
“I needed to win,” he stated. “I didn’t have every other mindset.”
That 12 months’s November 9 format gave gamers 4 months to organize earlier than the ultimate desk resumed in Las Vegas. In line with McKeehen, the lengthy break labored in his favor, particularly as soon as his opponents realized the high-pressure ICM state of affairs they had been strolling into.
“They gave us 4 months or one thing to determine it out,” he stated. “Everyone discovered, given the state of affairs, they need to be taking part in fairly tight and attempting to not get in battle with me, as a result of the true cash jumps are hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.”
With such huge pay jumps on the road, McKeehen knew it was hardly ever in his opponents’ finest curiosity to play again at him. “Even when they arrive out forward in a single battle, I’m nonetheless going to have extra chips than them and nonetheless be in a dominating place,” he defined.
It additionally helped that the playing cards cooperated. “In case you watched the ultimate desk, I simply made a number of palms anyway,” he stated. “So even when they tried to battle me, they in all probability wouldn’t have come out forward. That was a type of conditions the place the deck determined I used to be going to win from the start.”
One other issue McKeehen talked about was desk place. The gamers he thought of most harmful had been seated to his proper, which allowed him to manage when and the way he engaged with them. “They didn’t actually get to decide on battling me fairly often,” he stated.
In the meantime, the gamers to his left—these performing after him—had been shorter stacked and fewer skilled. “They had been a bit newer to the scene,” he stated. “It made it a bit simpler for me particularly as a result of I acquired to beat up on the those that had been there for the enjoyable and expertise.”
As for the months-long hole between the summer season and the ultimate desk, McKeehen admitted he would’ve most well-liked to maintain the momentum going. “I wished to play the subsequent day as a result of I used to be doing so effectively and I assumed I had a beat on all people,” he stated.
Whereas many gamers spent that break learning and making ready, McKeehen didn’t really feel like he gained a lot from the additional day without work. “I truly suppose everybody else in all probability ended up getting significantly better than I did in that 4 months,” he stated. “I didn’t actually be taught loads that I didn’t suppose I already knew.”
Watch the Full Interview
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Calum Grant
Senior Editor & Stay Occasions Govt
