The 24-year-old poker pro put on a big-stack clinic in the late stages of Day 7 to dominate his table and roll into the chip lead in November with 63,100,000.
Second in chips is Israeli Zvi Stern with 29,800,000.
One of the casualties of McKeehen's late-stage aggression? Daniel Negreanu, who fell in 11th after his stack was whittled down and his top pair couldn't fade McKeehen's rivered straight.
Germany's Alex Turyansky was the unfortunate bubble boy, out in 10th.
Turyansky survived a dangerous all-in just an orbit before, all-in with A-J against McKeehen's A-K. The German managed to chop that pot but in the end it was only a stay of execution.
His consolation prize? $756,897.
Neuville, Steinberg Marquee Names
With Negreanu's devastating near-miss the big-name banner likely falls to McKeehen, Belgium's Pierre Neuville and Oakland's Max Steinberg.
Neuville, the 72-year-old friend of PokerStars, has two runner-up finishes on the EPT and over $2m in career earnings to fortify his claim. He's also the first-ever winner of the This is 50 Spirit of Poker award.
McKeehen has two WSOP Circuit rings to his credit along with a runner-up finish in last year's WSOP Monster Stack while fellow pro Steinberg has a WSOP bracelet from 2012.
Here's how they'll line up when they return in November for the run to $7.6m:
Seat 1: Zvi Stern - 29,800,000 (74 bb)
Seat 2: Pierre Neuville - 21,075,000 (52 bb)
Seat 3: Joshua Beckley - 11,800,000 (27 bb)
Seat 4: Max Steinberg - 20,200,000 (50 bb)
Seat 5: Thomas Cannuli - 12,250,000 (30 bb)
Seat 6: Joe McKeehen - 63,100,000 (160 bb)
Seat 7: Patrick Chan - 6,225,000 (15 bb)
Seat 8: Federico Butteroni - 6,200,000 (15 bb)
Seat 9: Neil Blumenfield - 22,000,000 (55 bb)
All of the nine finalists are now guaranteed $1m. Check our live updates for a complete rundown of all the action and take a look at some pictures from the final moments below.
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