Stats from the Conclusion of the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table
The 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event concluded on Tuesday night, with Joe McKeehen becoming poker's next world champion to the tune of $7.7 million.
The final table resumed on Sunday and was played out over three days. Following each day, PokerNews took a look at the stats from play, and we'll be doing more of the same today.
On Tuesday, 41 hands were played in order to get the tournament from its final three players to the winner. Neil Blumenfield lasted 29 of those hands, busting in third place to McKeehen. Heads-up play lasted 12 hands before McKeehen sealed the deal and busted Josh Beckley in second place on the 184th hand of the final table.
Going back to 2006, the year Jamie Gold won the WSOP Main Event, this year's final table played the lowest amount of hands and second lowest amount of hands of heads-up play.
| Year | Champion | Hands at Final Table | Hands for Heads-Up Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Joe McKeehen | 184 | 12 |
| 2014 | Martin Jacobson | 328 | 35 |
| 2013 | Ryan Riess | 261 | 90 |
| 2012 | Greg Merson | 399 | 17 |
| 2011 | Pius Heinz | 301 | 119 |
| 2010 | Jonathan Duhamel | 262 | 43 |
| 2009 | Joe Cada | 364 | 88 |
| 2008 | Peter Eastgate | 274 | 105 |
| 2007 | Jerry Yang | 205 | 36 |
| 2006 | Jamie Gold | 236 | 7 |
On Tuesday, three players returned to action. For this stats piece, we'll first take a look at three-handed play before we take a peek at the heads-up stats. With the help of the live updates posted on WSOP.com, here's what we've got.
| Player | Hands Dealt | VPIP | PFR | PF 3-Bet | PF 4-Bet | PF 5-Bet | Walks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. McKeehen | 29 | 20 | 12 | 3 | -- | -- | 2 |
| J. Beckley | 29 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 1 | -- | -- |
| N. Blumenfield | 29 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | -- | -- |
Once again, and as expected, McKeehen was the most active player at the table. With the massive chip lead he held, it was without question that he would be the most active and most aggressive player at the table. He's been that person on the first two days, and he followed it up with more of the same on the third.
Blumenfield once again tried to come out firing, with a plan of attack that allowed him to fare very well on the first two days. The only problem here was that he ran an unsuccessful triple-barrel bluff against McKeehen and turtled a bit after that.
Both Beckley and Blumenfield were the only players to four-bet during three-handed play, and each time Blumenfield was on the losing end of those hands.
On the first, He three-bet Beckley's open on Hand #160, but folded to Beckley's four-bet shove. Then, on Hand #172 of the final table, Blumenfield cold four-bet shoved from the big blind with pocket twos after Beckley opened the button and McKeehen three-bet from the small blind. McKeehen held two queens, called Blumenfield's shove, and sent the 61-year-old to the rail.
During three-handed play, including all-in pots, four hands went to a showdown. McKeehen won three of them, and Beckley won one. There was 10 flops seen during this time, without counting Blumenfield's elimination hand, and 10 pots were won with a single preflop raise.
It's also worth noting that McKeehen won eight pots in a row from Hands #163-170.
After Blumenfield's bust in third place, McKeehen took a very healthy lead of 155.65 million in chips to 37 million into heads-up play — good for more than a 4.2-1 advantage. Of the 12 hands played between the two, McKeehen won nine of them. McKeehen also won the only two showdowns of the duel, which of course included the final hand when he eliminated Beckley in second place.
Here are the stats from heads-up play.
| Player | Hands Dealt | VPIP | PFR | PF 3-Bet | PF 4-Bet | PF 5-Bet | Walks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. McKeehen | 12 | 9 | 6 | -- | 1 | -- | 2 |
| J. Beckley | 12 | 8 | 3 | 2 | -- | -- | 1 |
Much like during three-handed play, McKeehen was the beneficiary of a failed three-barrel bluff by his opponent. This time, Beckley fired three streets after raising preflop in position against McKeehen. McKeehen's holding was a bit stronger this time, as he had flopped trip jacks.
Finally, when we combine all of the stats from the entire final table, below is what we get.
| Player | Hands Dealt | VPIP | PFR | PF 3-Bet | PF 4-Bet | PF 5-Bet | Walks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. McKeehen | 184 | 90 | 58 | 8 | 3 | -- | 9 |
| J. Beckley | 184 | 56 | 30 | 12 | 1 | -- | 1 |
| N. Blumenfield | 172 | 47 | 23 | 12 | 3 | 1 | -- |
| M. Steinberg | 143 | 27 | 17 | 6 | -- | -- | 1 |
| O. Stern | 121 | 39 | 23 | 5 | -- | -- | -- |
| T. Cannuli | 74 | 11 | 8 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| P. Neuville | 72 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | -- | -- |
| F. Butteroni | 35 | 2 | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| P. Chan | 2 | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
All in all, McKeehen dominated the final table. With his skill level and such a large chip lead going in, it was very much expected that he would play this sort of style at the final table. Outside of Blumenfield, his opponents didn't seem to want to do too much other than move up the payouts, and that really allowed McKeehen to have his way at the final table. He never had a lot of his stack at risk in a hand unless he was in a dominating position, and no one even sniffed him on the leaderboard. From Sunday to Tuesday, it was a great wire-to-wire win.
Looking back on McKeehen's overall run in the 2015 WSOP Main Event, McKeehen finished outside the top four on the leaderboard at the end of the day only once. He finished second after Day 3 out of the remaining 661 players, and had an average place on the leaderboard of 4.28 from that point on, including finishing as the chip leader on Day 4, Day 7, Day 8, and Day 9.
| Day | End-of-Day Chips | Rank | Players Left |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33,225 | 2,528 | 4,371 |
| 2 | 162,100 | 336 | 1,796 |
| 3 | 1,052,000 | 2 | 611 |
| 4 | 3,122,000 | 1 | 237 |
| 5 | 3,660,000 | 20 | 69 |
| 6 | 11,975,000 | 4 | 27 |
| 7 | 63,100,000 | 1 | 9 |
| 8 | 91,350,000 | 1 | 6 |
| 9 | 128,825,000 | 1 | 3 |
| 10 | 192,650,000 | 1 | 1 |
*Photo courtesy of 888poker.
Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
