Shaun Deeb Wins 2018 WSOP $25k PLO Eight Max Event

Shaun Deeb has claimed the 2018 WSOP $25k Pot-limit Omaha eight-max title, besting a tough field of 230 players to capture a third career gold bracelet, as well as a huge first-place prize of $1,402,683. The victory also represents the biggest live tournament cash of the New York pro’s twelve year long career, and now brings his live lifetime earnings to $4,565,838.

“No one really ever put me in a bad spot,” commented Deeb. “I was able to control the pot sizes the way I wanted to almost every hand. That really helps, to not get in an inflated pot with a marginal hand. Everyone played their best game, I just ran the best. I think I have a great shot at Player of the Year right now so I think I’m gonna battle, hop in every event I can and just enjoy myself.”

3 Career WSOP Bracelets

Shaun Deeb has been a regular on the tournament scene since 2006, but it wasn’t until 2015 that he recorded his first six figure score after taking down the WSOP $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship event for $318,857. The following year, Deeb won the WSOP $1,500 Seven Card Stud event for $111,101, with this year’s triumph in Las Vegas now making it a hat-trick of gold bracelets.

The 32 year-old pro has also enjoyed a particularly successful online career, and currently has $6,599,434 in winning to his name under the screen name ‘Shaundeeb’, including 4 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles, and 5 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) championships.

$25k Pot-limit Omaha

Event #42: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha featured a $5,462,500 prize pool, and offered 35 money places. Amongst the noticeable pros subsequently seeing a return on their huge investment was Paul Volpe (32nd), Thomas Marchese (29th), Erik Seidel (26th), Mike Leah (25th), and Sam Soverel (24th) who each collected $41,049 for their deep runs. Robert Mizrachi also managed a 15th place finish worth $53,391, followed by Martin Kozlov in 14th ($63,350), and Jason Mercier in 12th ($77,107).

Final Table

The final table of eight was reduced to just six players after Bogdan Capitan and David Benyamine were sent to the rail in 8th and 7th places respectively. An overnight break was then called before the players returned to the action for a fifth and final day of play, with the formidable players still in contention having a total of eight WSOP bracelets between them. Shaun Deeb subsequently took care of Jason Koon (5th), and James Calderaro (4th), while Ben Yu eliminated Ryan Tosoc (6th) and Scotty Nguyen in 3rd to set up the final battle against Deeb for the bracelet.

Shaun Deeb vs Ben Yu

Both Deeb and Benjamin Yu had two bracelets apiece at the start of heads-up play, with the latter having won the 2015 WSOP $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for $291,456, and the $10,000 WSOP Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship for $232,738. Interestingly, Yu defeated Deeb to win his most recent bracelet, and as Deeb quipped before their latest heads-up encounter:

“I said we both missed the $10K 2-7, the event we got heads-up in last year. I go, ‘We might be able to do it again, another game I’m a favorite on you heads-up,’ before adding “Ben’s a great poker player but I have so much experience playing mixed games longer.”

While Yu held a 4-to-3 lead at the start of play, Deeb soon managed to redress the balance and forge ahead to a 3-to-1 advantage by the time the deciding hand arose. Debb (As-Ah-9s-8c) and Yu (Jh-6h-6d-5d) were all-in on a 5h-4c-2h flop, and after a 2c and 8s fell on turn and river, Deeb’s aces and twos were good enough to earn him the title, and the biggest score of his career worth $1,402,683.

The $866,924 Ben Yu collected for his runner-up finish also represents a career high for the Las Vegas based pro, and increases his live earnings to $3,469,364.

Final Table Results

1: Shaun Deeb $1,402,683
2: Ben Yu $866,924
3: Scotty Nguyen $592,875
4: James Calderaro $414,134
5: Jason Koon $295,606
6: Ryan Tosoc $215,718
7: David Benyamine $161,020
8: Bogdan Capitan $123,004