Ron McMillen had never played in an online tournament before entering the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max online bracelet event on Thursday afternoon. He made the most out of his online debut with a thrilling victory that earned him his biggest career tournament cash ($188,214) and a World Series of Poker bracelet.
McMillen (MacDaddy15) and runner-up finisher Ryan Torgersen (Im.Sorry) appeared to be in for a long heads-up battle as they were virtually even in chips with more than 60 big blinds apiece. But the decisive hand of the matchup came less than 15 minutes after they went heads-up as the two players got all of the chips in preflop with “MacDaddy15” holding the 10♠ 10♣ and “Im.Sorry” slightly behind with the A♦ Q♣. The 10♦ in the window quickly took the suspense out of the massive flip as Torgersen was drawing dead on the turn, and McMillen took a pot containing 92.2% of the chips in play.
Iowa’s Ron "MacDaddy15" McMillen had never played online poker before, but that didn’t stop him from winning tonight’s @WSOP Online Event 9: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max for $188,214.
Even though the game is online this summer, we still get special moments like this! pic.twitter.com/6dnGXKhMTQ
— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) July 10, 2020
Many speculated that the online-only format of this year’s WSOP events would favor the younger generation of poker players. But the 70-year-old McMillen’s win continued a trend of old-school poker players faring well in the WSOP Online Bracelet Series. McMillen celebrated his hard-earned victory with his friends and a bottle of Dom Perignon at the ARIA.
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Results
- Ron McMillen (MacDaddy15) – $188,214
- Ryan Torgersen (Im.Sorry) – $116,379
- (WillowG23) – $81,972
- Ruth Ruffman (crazeelf666) – $58,482
- (moodeez) – $42,301
- Ian Steinman (apokerjoker2) – $30,995
Plenty of Notables in the Mix
Daniel Negreanu (DNegs) finished in 96th place on Thursday for $1,852. The cash was his fourth of the WSOP Online Poker Series so far. Negreanu’s deepest run and biggest score of the series came in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack 8-Max event where he finished in 18th place for $5,849.
Other notables who cashed in Event #9 include:
- 10th Ryan Leng (adopt_adogg0) – $10,332
- 17th Jon Turner (havuuuuuc) – $6,530
- 22nd Anthony Zinno (heheh) – $5,361
- 43rd Nick Schulman (cashUSklay) – $3,704
- 95th Kevin MacPhee (ImaLuckSac) – $1,852
- 105th Ari Engel (philivey) – $1,754
- 123rd Connor Drinan (666666) – $1,754
- 141st Chris Moorman (Robotbob47) – $1,657
More Chips Doesn’t Mean More Value in the Monster Stack
Friday’s WSOP Bracelet Event, the $600 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack, looks like one of the best value plays of the online series at a glance. Levels last for the standard 15 minutes and players start with a stack of 40,000 chips as opposed to the 15,000 or 20,000 they usually get. But a closer look at the structure reveals that those chips could be forced into action sooner than you’d expect.
The tournament starts at the same 25/50 level that most of the online series events do, but it’s very next level is 50/100, skipping over the 30/60 and 40/80 levels we’ve seen in other tournaments. By level 20, the blinds are at 2,500/5,000/500 compared to 1,400/2,800/350 in the standard structure. The action will be fast and furious after the money bubble breaks in this one.
