Matthew Sesso Wins 2020 Potomac Winter Poker Open Main Event; McKeehen Runner-Up

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Feb 18, 2020 4 min read

After just over seven hours of play on the final day of the 2020 Potomac Winter Poker Open $3,000 Main Event, it was Matthew Sesso who would walk away from the final table with the trophy and his biggest live tournament cash ever for $189,965. He defeated the 2015 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe McKeehen heads-up after a battle of almost 2.5 hours. The inaugural event attracted 294 entries over three starting days with 30 getting paid.

Local favorite Sesso has been playing poker for almost ten years but is predominantly a cash game player. The 34-year old chopped an event here in Maryland a month ago for $54,418 and scored his biggest cash ever when he finished in sixth place for $108,028 at a $1,100 MSPT event in the Venetian in Las Vegas last June.

“I normally play cash but I got the bug now. I am going to play more tournaments after all this. I will go to Las Vegas for the summer to play. I’ll play at Borgata in Florida as I have family there,” Sesso commented after the win. “Maybe I’ll play more of the East Coast Poker Tour too,” he added when he found out the next ECPT event will be the Borgata Spring Poker Open.

2020 Potomac Winter Poker Open $3,000 Main Event Final Table Results

Final Day Action

Today started with a change of scenery as the final table was set up in the High Limit Poker Room instead of the MGM Grand Ballroom of the MGM National Harbor. With the sounds of the busy poker room surrounding the eight remaining players, things kicked off at 1 p.m. local time. David Olshan doubled up immediately through Jeff Esterling who was first to leave the final table when he ran his ace-ten into the ace-seven of Glenn Chernigoff. A seven on the flop gave the latter the upper hand and even though Esterling picked up a gutshot to a straight on the turn. It didn’t come on the river for Esterling to bust.

Olshan was next to go a few minutes later when he got his chips in with queen-jack and was called by Ulises Roman who held five-trey. The five on the flop and the trey on the turn sealed the deal. Jeromy Bittan lost a big chunk of his stack to Chernigoff in two hands and ended up calling for his last 15 big blinds with ace-king after Sesso had shoved with jack-nine. A jack on the flop sent Bittan home in sixth place while Sesso propelled into the chip lead.

Sesso vs. McKeehen

After the first break, McKeehen doubled through Chernigoff with ace-king and flopped two pair against the tens of the latter to take the chip lead. Alison Leslie Lewis finished in fifth place when Chernigoff rivered a pair against her ace-jack but he then busted in fourth when his king-ten couldn’t beat McKeehen’s higher flush than on the board.

The chips then went back and forth for a while but in the end, it was Roman who was to get eliminated in third place when he flopped a pair of eights and check-shoved into Sesso’s pocket tens. Roman failed to catch up to leave the field with two.

When heads-up play started, there wasn’t much difference between the two, but Sesso increased the chip lead when he caught McKeehen twice with the better hand.

“I normally play cash but I got the bug now"

McKeehen got down to 22 big blinds and then doubled up with king-deuce against Sesso’s ace-ten by rivering the full house. He then doubled again to get back to even when he flopped two pair and held against Sesso’s flush draw.

But 15 minutes later, it was all over. McKeehen four-bet shoved with pocket treys and was called by Sesso who had him covered by a mere 65,000 in chips while holding pocket eights. The snowmen held throughout the board for Sesso to become the champion with a hand fitting to the winter theme.

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