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At the start of the summer, 888Ride kicked off its World Series of Poker season with none other than 2015 Main Event champion Joe McKeehen.
In the first episode of the 888poker series, McKeehen joined David Tuchman for a ride through memory lane, revisiting his dominant run to $7.6 million and reflecting on what makes him such a threat in large-field events.
With another WSOP behind him, McKeehen’s insights still offer a sharp look into what it takes to win on poker’s biggest stage.
In Event #26: $25,000 NLHE High Roller, McKeehen finished sixth for $325,757, his biggest WSOP cash since 2016. While he did earn $352,985 during the 2020 WSOP Online by winning a $3,200 bracelet event, that result marked his strongest in-person result at the WSOP in nearly a decade.
Across six cashes at the 2025 WSOP, McKeehen banked $391,877. He also added another $91,446 in payouts from events at Wynn Las Vegas, bringing his total haul for the summer to just over $480,000.
So what makes him so effective in massive-field tournaments? That’s what Tuchman wanted to know during their chat. He said McKeehen would be one of his top picks in any event with more than 1,500 players
Asked what sets him apart, McKeehen initially downplayed it, saying “I don’t know, probably just positive short-term variance clouding your judgment,”
But he quickly followed up with a clearer explanation. “I am pretty good. I know what to do. I can figure out people. I’ve played enough live poker to understand… you kind of figure out your opponent,” he said. “I think I’m good at seeing someone do something one time and understanding their thought process, then going against that. I make it tough on people.”
McKeehen said one of his strengths is knowing how to stay out of trouble. “I don’t put myself in jeopardy too often if I don’t have to. Survival is a bit of a skill.”
That doesn’t mean he’s afraid to gamble when the time is right. “If the spot’s good, you’ve got to put the money in,” he said. “If you’re lucky enough to win four flips in a row, you have a lot of chips. You look like you’re really good at poker, just because you won some flips sometimes.”
“Nobody remembers the guy who lost the flip that would’ve given them the chip lead.”
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Heading into the 2015 Main Event final table, Joe McKeehen held an overwhelming chip lead.
“I had to win,” he said. “I didn’t have any other mindset.”
That year’s November Nine format gave players four months to prepare before the final table resumed in Las Vegas. According to McKeehen, the long break worked in his favor, especially once his opponents realized the high-pressure ICM situation they were walking into.
“They gave us four months or something to figure it out,” he said. “Everybody learned, given the situation, they should be playing pretty tight and trying not to get in conflict with me, because the real money jumps are millions of dollars.”
With such massive pay jumps on the line, McKeehen knew it was rarely in his opponents’ best interest to play back at him. “Even if they come out ahead in one fight, I’m still going to have more chips than them and still be in a dominating position,” he explained.
It also helped that the cards cooperated. “If you watched the final table, I just made a lot of hands anyway,” he said. “So even if they tried to battle me, they probably wouldn’t have come out ahead. That was one of those situations where the deck decided I was going to win from the beginning.”
Another factor McKeehen mentioned was table position. The players he considered most dangerous were seated to his right, which allowed him to control when and how he engaged with them. “They didn’t really get to choose battling me very often,” he said.
Meanwhile, the players to his left—those acting after him—were shorter stacked and less experienced. “They were a bit newer to the scene,” he said. “It made it a little easier for me specifically because I got to beat up on the people that were there for the fun and experience.”
As for the months-long gap between the summer and the final table, McKeehen admitted he would’ve preferred to keep the momentum going. “I wanted to play the next day because I was doing so well and I thought I had a beat on everybody,” he said.
While many players spent that break studying and preparing, McKeehen didn’t feel like he gained much from the extra time off. “I actually think everyone else probably ended up getting much better than I did in that four months,” he said. “I didn’t really learn a lot that I didn’t think I already knew.”
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