Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best professional poker players without a World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet, Shaun Deeb shrugged that monkey off his back this weekend by winning the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em Championship event in Las Vegas.
The 29-year-old professional player bested a star-studded entry field of 127 other players to claim his first WSOP gold winner’s bracelet and the main prize of $318,857 after beating his friend and fellow professional Paul Volpe in a tough heads up.
The final table in this event was talent laden, with three WSOP bracelet holders among the finalists – WSOP main event champ Greg Merson, Sam Stein and Volpe. Also taking their seats were respected players like Jason Les, Dario Sammartino, Ismael Bojang and Jason Koon.
Three-handed competitive action between Jason Les, Paul Volpe and Deeb went on for some time before Les fell on $142,747 at third and Deeb went on to demonstrate virtuoso poker skills in dispatching Volpe, who was caught out in a major bluff that sent him to the exit and the runner up prize of $197,048.
Deeb acknowledged that the final table he had just vanquished was one of the toughest in his long career, which has seen him cash 23 times in WSOP events.
Other final table pay days looked like this:
Sam Stein $105,364
Greg Merson $79,182
Dario Sammartino $60,546
Kristijonas Andrulis $47,081
Ismael Bojang $37,227
Jason Koon $29,911.