Take a Flyer

[user253757]

Level 17 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

Joe McKeehen began the day squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of chip count, but after being dealt pocket pairs three times in the first 15 minutes of play, he has climbed the leaderboard in short order.

McKeehen told us "they held up again" while flashing and dragging in the blinds and antes, and according to the Philadelphia-based pro he has already held aces in the hole twice now. He also won an uncontested pot with a preflop raise holding , with the table now paying well-deserved respect to the dangerous player's opens.

In another pot that did reach the flop, McKeehen held just one in the hole, but of course two more bullets hit the board and he won yet another early pot.

McKeehen is a local legend of sorts, racking up over $888,000 in reported live earnings over his four-year career on the felt, with more than a dozen cashes coming right here in the East Coast's own poker hotspot. McKeehen took down a title last January at the Borgata Winter Poker Open, and now armed with a replenished stack he will surely be a force to contend with here today.