The World Series of Poker $25,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller event over the weekend attracted a field of 230 and generated a prize pool worth $5,462,500, enabling 35 entrants to cash.
Claiming the lion’s share of the prize pool at $1,402,683, Las Vegas poker pro Shaun Deeb (32) achieved the biggest single reward in his career (which includes a million dollar One Drop victory) along with a third WSOP winner’s bracelet. It was his 54th WSOP cash.
The heads up stage of the competition presented an interesting reversal of a similar event last year, when Deeb was beaten by fellow poker pro and double bracelet holder Ben Yu (32) in the $10,000 buy-in Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship competition; this time the outcome went Deeb’s way.
The duo started heads up following the departure of former WSOP main event champion Scotty Nguyen at third for $592,875, with Yu holding and extending the lead in the early stages to create a 2 to 1 chip advantage.
Deeb then won several key pots that gave him fight-back momentum and enabled him to take the lead and extend it to cover three-quarters of the chips in play.
Yu was unable to recover and close the deficit, and had to be content with the runner-up prize of $866,924.
Final table cashes included:
4th: James Calderaro, $414,134
5th: Jason Koon, $295,606
6th: Ryan Tosoc, $215,718
7th: David Benyamine, $161,020
8th: Bogdan Capitan, $123,004