Matt Keikoan Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 29
NEWS FLASH:  Matt Keikoan Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 29
 
Northern California Poker Pro Gets Second WSOP Victory


Matt Keikoan was the winner of the $10,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  This marked his second career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  He previously won the $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event in 2008.

Keikoan, from San Rafael, CA is a 42-year-old professional poker player.  Keikoan started out working as a poker prop for about eight years before phasing gradually into the life of a working poker pro.  Keikoan played at Casino San Pablo in the San Francisco Bay area.  While working as a poker prop, some of Keikoan's regular co-workers included fellow highly-accomplished pros Bill Edler, Erick Lindgren, Bill Gazes, Matt Lefkowitz, and others.  

This victory paid $425,969, which was his second-biggest poker payday ever.  Keikoan collected $550,529 when he won his first gold bracelet.  Keikoan also finished 63rd-place in the 2007 Main Event, worth $154,194.  With his hefty cash place in this event, Keikoan now has in excess of $3.2 million in overall career tournament winnings.

The runner up, Dan Idema, is a 27-year-old poker pro from Vancouver, BC (Canada).  Prior to playing poker for a living, Idema played ice hockey in the Western Hockey League.  Idema nearly became the fourth Canadian to win a gold bracelet this year, after fellow countrymen Aadam Daya, Pascal Lefrancois and Miguel Proulx (today) won their WSOP victories.  Second place paid a nice consolation prize amounting to $195,147.  

The top 54 finishers collected prize money.  Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Matt Keikoan (1st) , Michael Mizrachi (8th), and David Chiu (9th).

Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi is having a phenomenal WSOP, thus far.  He won the Poker Players Championship (Event #2) and made his third final table this year.  Mizrachi now has a 1st, 6th, and 8th place finish at this year’s series.

With his ninth-place finish, David Chiu now has 50 career cashes.  This currently ranks 11th on the all-time WSOP cashes list.

A full report of this event will be posted shortly.

For official tournament results and additional details, please CLICK HERE.