Shaun Deeb’s Life: Net Worth, Biggest Profits, Losses and Private Life

– General Introduction –

Shaun Deeb is an American professional poker player. He was born on March 1st, 1986 and grew up in Schenectady, New York.

He is a very successful live tournament player, with over 150 individual cashes, over $9 million in live tournament earnings, and 5 WSOP gold bracelets. His success isn’t limited to Texas Hold’em, he’s won serious money playing many less common types of poker. He’s a big proponent of mixed games. He is regularly featured on Poker Night in America, a popular poker show airing on CBS Sports in the US. Deeb is perhaps best known for his habit of “slowrolling” his opponents at showdown.

– Key Career Dates –

• 2004: He starts playing online as soon as he reaches the legal age, 18.
• 2008: He wins his first WCOOP event for $144,113.
• 2009: He announces his retirement from online poker.
• 2010: He returns to online poker within less than a year. However, he no longer focuses on No-Limit Hold’em alone, he begins to play mixed games frequently.
• 2015: He wins his first WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event for $318,857.
• 2021: He wins his 5th WSOP gold bracelet in the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller event for $1.252 million.

– Shaun Deeb’s Career –

→ Beginnings ←

When he was growing up in upstate New York, Deeb used to host $20 private tournaments at his family home while ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP was playing on the TV. He was attracted to cards and gambling from a very young age. As soon as he reached the legal gambling age in the US, 18, he opened up an account on PokerStars and started grinding tournaments. He was profitable from the get-go so he was able to drop out of college to pursue poker as a career.

→ Live Tournaments ←

Shaun Deeb, just like many other online pros, started to put more time and effort into live poker after Black Friday. In 2011, the Department of Justice shut down all the major poker sites in the US – this is what’s commonly referred to as “Black Friday” in the online poker community.

Deeb has over $9.030 million in live tournament earnings, according to his Hendon page. They come from 154 different ITM finishes over the course of 15 years. Despite that, Deeb does not consider himself a very successful live tournament player. This is what he told Doug Polk in an interview on Polk’s YouTube channel:

“I still think I’m down lifetime in live tournaments which is one of the bigger shocks for people who know me. With my success online, with my success in live cash games, you would think at this point I would have gotten there. I mean, I’ve had plenty of wins, but I still haven’t offset all the millions I’ve lost early on in my career.”

These words were spoken on September 30th, 2017 by Deeb. It is unclear whether or not he managed to turn his ROI around in terms of live tourneys.

His first live tournament cash is for a mere $1,791 after coming in 7th in a $500 tournament back in 2006. His first 6-figure cash is from 7 years later, 2013. He got 5th place in the $25K PokerStars Caribbean Adventure high roller and won $289,880.

His biggest accomplishment on the live tournament scene outside the WSOP is a victory in the $25,500 NLHE High Roller for $778,300 at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida. Also, he made a runner-up finish in the same event for $534,989 a year before, in August 2018.

→ World Series of Poker ←

Deeb has been extremely prosperous at WSOP’s. He has won no less than 5 golden bracelets. In total, he has 106 cashes for $6.285 million in World Series events.

He claimed his first bracelet in 2015 for winning the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event for $318,857. He triumphed in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud tournament the next year.

His biggest single live cash to date is also a WSOP victory. In 2018, he got $1,402,683 for winning the $10K PLO event. The same year, he took home another bracelet from Vegas, this time for winning the $10,000 Big Blind Ante NLHE 6-handed championship. He was crowned the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year champion.

In October 2021, he brought home his 5th bracelet. He finished first in the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller 8-Handed event for $1.252 million. He beat Ka Kwan Lau from Hong Kong heads-up for his latest title.

Read More : Shaun Deeb Player of the Year Interview by Somuchpoker

→ Live Cash Games ←

We know from interviews that Deeb regularly plays high stakes mixed cash games in land casinos and he claims to be profitable in those games. However, those results are not tracked so it’s hard to provide any additional information or verify his claims. He’s undoubtedly successful when it comes to live mixed game tournaments, so it’s likely he can beat cash games as well.

He is a regular feature on Poker Night in America. He’s appeared on 67 episodes of CBS Sports’ poker show. On the program, he usually plays $25/$50 live No Limit Hold’em cash games and he usually ends his sessions in profit.

→ Online Poker ←

Shaun Deeb started his poker career as an online MTT player. He played under the screen name “shaundeeb” on PokerStars where he saw most of his success. He won a whopping 5 WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) tournaments over the course of his career. His first trophy is from 2008, winning the $320 Pot Limit Omaha event for $144,113. His biggest WCOOP score is $243,610, that is for beating a 1,433-player field in the $1,050 NLHE tournament back in 2010. Thanks to all of his accolades in the biggest online tournament series, PokerStars picked him to be featured in their article about the greatest WCOOP players of all time.

He also played on the late poker site Full Tilt. There, he used the moniker “tedsfishfry” after his family’s sea food business in his hometown, Schenectady, NY. He scored his biggest online cash on that account, $312,610. He earned that sum by winning a $1K Monday tourney in January 2011.

Despite all his success in the online poker scene, Deeb started to feel very burnt out about poker early on in his career. So much so that in 2009, he announced that he’s quitting the game altogether. His “retirement”, however, didn’t even last a whole year. By September 2010, he was back grinding on the virtual felt. He did make a significant change though – he decided he no longer would play No Limit Hold’em exclusively. He started to put time into mixed games, both cash games and tournaments. His favorite poker types include the 8-game, Pot Limit Omaha and lowball draw games.

He has now over $7.2 million in lifetime online MTT cashes to his name.

→ Scandals ←

His feud with Will Kassouf about his wife

In July 2018, Deeb called out fellow poker pro Will Kassouf on Twitter for allegedly making a move on his wife, Ashley Deeb. According to him, the British card player asked the woman if Shaun Deeb was his brother. Deeb took it as an advance on her, while Kassouf later denied that that was his intention.

Somehow I made it 5 years with this lady as my wife I don’t think anyone who knows me would have thought I’d make it this far she’s the best sister i could ask for pic.twitter.com/jTSmnDfdor

— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) August 2, 2018

The slowrolling

This may be the thing Shaun Deeb is best known for. Slowrolling is when a player who gets to show last at showdown pretends they’ve lost for a while before turning over the winning cards. Or, it can mean when a player pretends to ponder a fold with the obvious best hand after an all-in bet. It is considered disrespectful in the poker community, however, Deeb finds it’s “just fun” and often engages in this type of antics.

He’s even done it to Mike “the Mouth” Matusow who, of course, didn’t take it kindly.

– Shaun Deeb on Social Media –

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaundeeb/ 40,000 followers