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 lies on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby subu ...

. 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 ta ...

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

limit Limit or Limits may refer to: Arts and media * ''Limit'' (manga), a manga by Keiko Suenobu * ''Limit'' (film), a South Korean film * Limit (music), a way to characterize harmony * "Limit" (song), a 2016 single by Luna Sea * "Limits", a 2019 ...

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

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 Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

(WSOP). He finished third in the $2,500 limit Omaha event at the 1999 WSOP. He eventually won a WSOP bracelet in 2003 in the $2,000

no limit No Limit may refer to: Music Record labels *No Limit Records, a record label founded by Master P * No Limit Forever Records, a record label founded by Romeo Miller, son of Master P Albums * ''No Limit'' (Art Pepper album), 1977 * ''No Limit'' ...

hold'em event, defeating a final table that included

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Antonio Esfandiari Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari ( fa, امیر اسفندیاری; 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 ...

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, w ...

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 ...

. He also 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 equivalen ...

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 f ...

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

Eli Elezra Eliahu Ilan Elezra ( he, אלי אלעזרא; born November 24, 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 ...

Lee Watkinson Lee Watkinson (born October 18, 1966) is an American professional poker player, originally from Longbranch, Washington. At the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Watkinson finished 2nd in the $5,000 pot limit Omaha event. He also finished in t ...

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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 and ...

. 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. Form ...

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 James Gibson Van Alstyne (born 1966 in Columbus, Georgia) is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Van Alstyne grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and he graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School. After high scho ...

. Meehan often drank alcohol at the poker table, particularly

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, 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 that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the l ...

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

World Poker Tour profile

Hendon Mob tournament results
{{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