WSOP Champion Wins 2026 SHRPO Main Event

After winning a World Series of Poker main event title, some champions take a step back from major tournament poker, while others double down. Few have continued following the tournament circuit with as much volume and as consistent a record of success as Joe McKeehen.

The 2015 WSOP main event champion continued to add to his list of marquee tournament victories this week as he won the 2026 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open championship for $462,600. McKeehen outlasted a field of 673 entrants in the $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, one of the longest-running and most prestigious tournaments in South Florida. The three-time bracelet winner’s career earnings now sit at $22,601,442. Nearly $15 million of that has come from results outside of his championship run over a decade ago.

The SHRPO championship has alternated with several other yearly series at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood as part of the World Poker Tour schedule at various points in its history.

McKeehen fought through a talented final table his way to this latest title, which included multi-time bracelet winners Loni Hui (3rd – $250,000) and Darren Rabinowitz (9th – $51,000), among other accomplished players.

McKeehen earned 1,680 Card Player Player of the Year points for this win, pushing his total to 2,540 POY points for the year. That puts the 35-year-old pro from Pennsylvania in 84th place in the POY standings presented by CoinPoker.

Big Action In South Florida

The SHRPO Championship stands as the culmination of a two-week festival with over 60 tournaments on offer. Outside of the WSOP and other Las Vegas events over the course of the summer, the SHRPO offers the widest range of games and buy-ins of any series in the United States in any given year.

In the $5,300 championship event, there were two starting flights with the opportunity to re-enter once per session. By the close of late registration late on day 1B of the tournament, 673 entries produced a total prize pool of $3,262,704.

85 players finished in the money, including WSOP bracelet winner Andrew Ostapchenko (85th), 2023 SHRPO winner Farid Jattin (79th), Natasha Mercier (55th), two-time WPT champion Aaron Mermelstein (52nd), four-time WPT winner Darren Elias (50th), Jerry Wong (45th), two-time bracelet winner Ben Zamani (24th), Jon Turner (15th), and Triton champion Roman Hrabec (11th).

Heading into the final table, two players stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field. David Greufe of Kansas City held the chip lead, with Hui comfortable in second place. McKeehen sat in a distant third place, but he was well ahead of the other six remaining players in contention.

A Frantic Start

Rabinowitz was the shortest stack going into the fourth and final day of the tournament, and ultimately ran Q♠J♦ into Frankie Rivera’s pocket kings. Rabinowitz turned a diamond flush draw, but couldn’t hit the river.

Hui picked up the next elimination, coolering Robert-Andrei Burlacu out of the tournament in eighth place ($65,000) with pocket aces against A♥K♥. Hui was later behind with Q♥2♦ against a short-stacked Jose Nadal’s A♠4♥ in a battle of the blinds, but picked up her second consecutive elimination by rivering a heart flush. Nadal went out in seventh place ($83,000).

Hui got aces again, which defeated Dan Chalifour’s (6th – $108,000) pocket fives for a third knockout in a row. McKeehen then picked off a bluff from Greufe with top pair, no kicker, and started to build some momentum of his own. By the first break of the day, only five players remained. Hui had the chip lead with almost double any other player, with McKeehen and Greufe in the middle pack, and Rivera and Eddie Pak surviving on short stacks.

Rivera was the next player at risk. His A♥K♠ had a perfectly fair chance against Greufe’s pocket nines, until Greufe flopped quad nines and left Rivera drawing dead immediately. Rivera settled for $142,000 as the fifth-place finisher.

Greufe continued to build when he knocked out Pak in fourth place ($188,000). His pocket kings dwarfed Pak’s A♠9♥, and a flopped set gave Greufe the pot and another elimination.

A Path To Victory

McKeehen evened the playing field early on in three-handed play. He claimed a massive pot with Q♥9♦ after flopping trip queens against Hui’s pocket kings. Things went from bad to worse when Hui ran pocket eights directly into McKeehen’s pocket queens. The board offered no reprieve, and a short time after Hui held a considerable chip lead, she was out in third place ($250,000). The two-time bracelet winner now boasts career earnings of over $4.4 million.

McKeehen threatened to run away with the trophy early on in his heads-up match with Greufe. He made trip queens again, and then rivered a heart flush to open up a lead of 18:1 over Greufe in short order.

Greufe doubled up on four separate occasions to bring the match even. Then Greufe took a big lead of his own. On a board of A♠10♦9♥3♠10♥, Greufe coolered McKeehen. Each player rivered trip tens, but Greufe’s queen kicker pipped McKeehen’s jack kicker. Suddenly, Greufe had a lead of almost 3:1. That lead swelled to 11:1, with McKeehen left holding just nine big blinds.

But McKeehen chipped away, and then won a timely double-up with a turned ace-high flush against a rivered jack-high straight for Greufe. McKeehen fought all the way back from the brink and back into the lead, and set himself up for the win. On the final hand, McKeehen limped the button, Greufe shoved 15 big blinds with K♦9♦, and McKeehen called with A♦Q♦.

The board ran out Q♣6♦2♣4♦8♣, and McKeehen’s pair of queen secured the win, the $462,600 payday, and the SHRPO guitar tower trophy.

Final Table Results

Photo credits: Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Poker Blog