Should Shaun Deeb finish in ninth place, which pays $40,000 in the $3,300 buy-in Texas Poker Open Main Event, the East Coast poker pro would actually lose money.
The tournament at Champions Club, one of the top Texas poker rooms and is co-owned by Phil Hellmuth, attracted 735 entries, most of which were Deeb (partially joking).
Can Poker Star Finish in 8th Place?
Heading into Sunday’s Day 2 session in Houston, 86 players returned from the eight Day 1 starting flights. Many big name pros bagged chips, including Andrew Lichtenberger (185,000), Ryan Riess (242,000), Dan Sepiol (250,000), Josh Arieh (581,000), and numerous others.
On Day 1f, Deeb found a bag on his 13th bullet, finishing the session with 907,000 chips, making him among the big stacks. Daniel Holmes finished that day with the chip lead at 1,365,000.
Deeb is in for $42,900, which means he’ll need a final table appearance just to get his money back. Ninth place pays $40,000, slightly below his tournament investment. But an eighth place finish would do the trick as it pays $52,000. Somewhere, Norman Chad is busy writing up an anti-unlimited rebuy tweet.
The winner is set to collect $400,000 in the PokerGO Tour event. Day 2 is currently underway and available on the PokerGO YouTube channel. Erik Seidel and Michael Wang were among those seated at the televised feature table at the time of publishing.
When this article went to publish, 58 players remained — $7,500 guaranteed minimum payout. Sepiol, Jeff Platt, and Aashir Aggarwal were among those who have been felted on Day 2.
Deeb continues to make headlines in 2024 ahead of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). He’s leaner and in shape now following a $1 million body fat loss prop bet win against Bill Perkins, which he wrapped up in February via a buyout. And now his pockets are going to be a bit thinner if he doesn’t finish in eighth place at Champions Club.
The six-time bracelet winner will once again be among the favorites to win the WSOP Player of the Year award this summer, and of course the likely highest bid in the $25k WSOP Fantasy Draft, which takes place May 27 in Las Vegas.
