Kehoe Turns $550 WPT Global Satellite into $269,900 WPT World Championship Cash

Ireland’s Stephen Kehoe took what he saw offered online by WPT Global and turned that into a trip to Las Vegas and an entry in the $15 Million Guarantee WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

His trip turned into one day of World Championship play, then another, and another, and concluded with a 14th place finish in the 2,960-entry event. His $269,900 cash more than doubled his career tournament winnings.

WPT Global ran numerous $550 satellites offering seats to the World Championship and a $2,000 travel allowance to each winner. 

More than 100 players entered the tournament from WPT Global satellites.

“I saw ads for it and played two satellites, I won my way in on the second satellite,” said Kehoe.

Once in Las Vegas, Kehoe said he did not have many specific goals about what he wanted to accomplish in the tournament. “I just wanted to play my best,” he said.

Big Stack After Day 1

He started off fast in the World Championship, bagging 722,000 in Day 1C, good for a top-20 stack from his flight. Quiet at the tables, Kehoe did not draw a lot of attention from the other players as he worked his way through the field.

The stack didn’t change much on Day 2, sitting at 711,000 as the field was reduced from 2,960 to just 396, coming back for Day 3 only 26 players away from a tournament cash. Day 3 wrapped up with 128 remaining and Kehoe doubled his stack to 1.4 million.

While his stack increased to 3.1 million on Day 5, Kehoe slid to 31 of the 37 remaining players in the tournament. He did not chip up much throughout the day, but kept finding spots to stay alive.

Late Tournament Strategy

Kehoe fell to fewer than 5bb late in the tournament, His preflop strategy at that point caught his challengers off-guard. He would bet about 80 percent of his stack preflop, getting everyone to fold. He did this on back-to-back hands at one stage with 18 players remaining, and he almost doubled his stack.

That preflop strategy helped Kehoe make a few more steps up the tournament pay ladder, up to his $269,900 pay day.

He was moved to the feature livestream table with 16 players remaining, eventually eliminated in 14th when his Kd . Jc could not get there against the Queens of as the board ran out 5s . 9c . Qh . 8h . Jh.

While many players leave a tournament looking disappointed when they bust out, Kehoe was all smiles in the Encore Ballroom hallways a few minutes after cashing out.

“You’ll see me playing more of the $10k buy-ins now,” he said. “I only played satellites (on WPT Global) but now I will be a regular player.”