James Michael Meehan (March 19, 1952 – December 6, 2018), sometimes known as Minneapolis Jim Meehan, was an American professional poker player from

Burnsville, Minnesota Burnsville ( ) is a city south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city is situated on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nea ...

. Prior to his poker career, Meehan worked as a lawyer for many years. Meehan began playing poker in the 1960s, and began playing

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tabl ...

s regularly in 1997, when he had a second-place finish in the $3,000 limit

hold'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, community cards ...

event at the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

(WSOP). He finished third in the $2,500 limit

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

event at the 1999 WSOP. He eventually won a WSOP bracelet in 2003 in the $2,000

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hold'em event, defeating a final table that included

Juha Helppi } Juha Helppi (born 4 March 1977) is a Finnish professional poker player from Helsinki. Career Juha was originally a croupier. He worked as a dealer for RAY in Finland but never dealt poker. He made a name for himself in the first World Poker ...

Antonio Esfandiari Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (; born December 8, 1978, as Amir Esfandiary), is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. Esfandiari was the face of the now-defunct poker site, Ultim ...

Mike Sexton Michael Richard Sexton (September 22, 1947September 6, 2020) was an American professional poker player and commentator. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009. Early years Sexton was a gymnast and attended Ohio State University, wh ...

and

Kathy Liebert Kathleen H. Liebert (born October 1, 1967, in Tennessee) is an American professional poker player. Poker Liebert started her professional poker career as a prop player in Colorado. She would later go on to enter tournaments and she won the f ...

. He won a

World Championship of Online Poker The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars website in September. Established in 2002, WCOOP is PokerStars' attempt to establish the online equivalent ...

bracelet that same year in the $500 Buy In Limit Holdem event, besting a field of almost 700. Meehan made one

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the ...

(WPT) final table, during the third season. He finished in sixth place at a final table including

Eli Elezra Eliahu Ilan Elezra (; born 24 November 1960, in Jerusalem) is an Israeli professional poker player and businessman, now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. With five WSOP bracelets and a WPT win in the post Moneymaker era, he is one of the most succes ...

, Lee Watkinson,

Gabe Kaplan Gabriel Weston Kaplan (born March 31, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, and professional poker player. He played the title character in the 1970s sitcom '' Welcome Back, Kotter''. He later became a professional poker player and a commentat ...

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and

Scotty Nguyen Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event an ...

. He also made the final table of the

Ultimate Poker Challenge The Ultimate Poker Challenge (UPC) was a series of weekly poker tournaments acting as super-satellites into the series semi-finals. The first and second seasons are available on NTSC DVD. In the United States, it was a syndicated program. Forma ...

first season championship. Meehan entered the seven-handed TV table as the short stack but finished in third place despite being given a time penalty for foul language. He was eliminated by the eventual winner, James Van Alstyne. Meehan often drank alcohol at the poker table, particularly

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

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whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...

, and kept an unlit cigarette on his lips. He also made a habit of engaging his opponents in banter between and during hands. He played online at

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Androi ...

as ''Actiondonkey'' and at ParadisePoker as ''Actionmonkey''. His total live tournament winnings exceed $1,400,000. His 19 cashes as the WSOP account for $648,224 of those winnings. He had three children. Meehan died on December 6, 2018, at the age of 66.

References

External links

Card Player profile

Hendon Mob profile

WPT profile

WSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, Jim 1952 births 2018 deaths American poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners People from Burnsville, Minnesota Sportspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota