For many poker players, winning a single WSOP bracelet or WCOOP title or earning a million dollars playing poker tournaments would be quite a feat. For Shaun Deeb, these kinds of results don’t even necessarily make for a great year, as he is one of the most decorated and well-respected tournament poker players around.
Having started his poker career back in 2006, when he was just 20 years old, Shaun Deeb has been a staple of the poker world for nearly two decades. From battling for the POY title at every major tournament series to getting into beefs and interesting prop bets with his fellow poker players, Shaun Deeb is a character who never fails to make headlines.
While respecting Deeb’s game is nearly universal among poker players and fans, his brash and outspoken nature has made him somewhat of a polarizing figure in the community. If you want to learn more about Shaun Deeb, keep reading and find out how he started with poker and what happened over the years to make him the poker celeb he is today.
Shaun Deeb’s Poker Career Highlights:
- Won more than $7,000,000 in online poker tournaments
- Holds 9 WSOP bracelets
- 2 times WSOP Player of the Year (2018, 2025)
- Holds 13 PokerStars “COOP” titles
- Won more than $18,000,000 in live poker tournaments
- Successful at prop and side betting
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Shaun Deeb’s Early Life and Path to Poker
Born on March 1, 1986, in Troy, New York, Shaun Deeb is one of the most well-known poker players today, and it is a path he chose to pursue in his teen years.
At the age of just 16, when poker was truly booming both in the US and the rest of the world, Deeb started playing the game and would host regular $20 rebuy tournaments for a group of friends back in New York. By the time he was 21, Deeb was ready to graduate to playing poker for much higher stakes, and he was already playing online games under various screen names.
While he briefly attended Bentley University, the allure of the world of poker and gambling was too strong, and he decided to pursue his passion instead. In the early years of his career, Shaun found plenty of success in the online arena, which is why he knew he had what it takes to succeed as a poker player in the long run.
Shaun Deeb in Online Poker
Shaun Deeb is a legend in the online poker world, where he was one of the most successful players before the events of Black Friday.
Playing under the monikers “tedsfishfry” on Full Tilt Poker and “shaundeeb” on PokerStars, Deeb accumulated over $7.2 million in online tournament cashes, adding some more results at sites like UltimateBet and Absolute Poker.
Shaun won the PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard in both 2007 and 2008 and earned plenty of accolades for his tournament success in the online arena. At PokerStars, he’s dominated the major tournament series and won an impressive 13 “COOP” titles in events like WCOOP and SCOOP, as follows:
| Year | Event | Players | Prize |
| 2008 | WCOOP #25 – $320 PLO Rebuy | 748 | $144,113 |
| 2010 | SCOOP #17M – $162 PLO Rebuy | 743 | 62,252 |
| 2010 | WCOOP #28 – $1,050 NLH | 1,433 | $243,610 |
| 2012 | SCOOP #10H – $2,100 Seven Card Stud | 64 | $41,600 |
| 2012 | SCOOP #19H – $2,100 Triple Stud | 68 | $44,200 |
| 2012 | SCOOP #26H – $2,100 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo | 74 | $40,330 |
| 2012 | SCOOP #38H – $2,100 HORSE | 85 | $46,325 |
| 2015 | WCOOP #44 – $215 NLH 4-Max | 1,593 | $68,000 |
| 2016 | WCOOP #12 – $1,050 NL 5 Card Draw | 95 | $22,186 |
| 2018 | WCOOP #22H – $1,050 PLO8 | 192 | $38,089 |
| 2018 | WCOOP #59H – $215 PLO8 | 173 | $69,011 |
| 2019 | WCOOP #9H – $1,050 NL 5 Card Draw PKO | 70 | $25,375 |
| 2019 | WCOOP #37M – $530 PLO | 599 | $52,372 |
Shaun Deeb in Live Tournament Poker
While Deeb’s success in online poker is the stuff of legend, it is his live poker accolades that have made him a prime candidate for the Poker Hall of Fame once he turns 40 years of age.
Shaun’s live tournament career started as early as it could, with his first live cash recorded in 2006 at the East Coast Poker Championship in Verona. The very next year, as he turned 21, Deeb traveled out to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and made four ITM finishes in smaller buy-in NLH events. Over the next few years, Shaun would continue to play some live events and record cashes and even wins in small-field events, but his full breakout had not yet come.
- 2011: The first time Deeb would show up at a WSOP final table in a $2,500 10-Game event, where he came fourth for $67k.
- 2012: He final-tabled the $10k PLO event and amassed quite a few solid scores for a few years, but all without a massive win.
- 2015: It was time for Deeb to shine. He won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10k Pot Limit Hold'em Championship, taking home $318,857 and getting a monkey off his back.
- 2016: His next WSOP bracelet came the very next summer when he took down the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event for $111,101.
- 2018: Deeb recorded a double win at the WSOP. He won the $25k Pot Limit Omaha High Roller for $1.4 million, followed by a 1st place finish in the $10k 6-Max BB Ante event for another $814k. He comfortably secured his first WSOP POY title uncontested.
- 2021 & 2023: Added his 5th and 6th bracelets, securing the $25k PLO High Roller for $1.25 million, and later the $1,500 8-Game Mix for nearly $200k.
- 2025: A historic year for Deeb. He captured his second WSOP Player of the Year title after securing two massive bracelets: his 7th in the $100,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller for a staggering $2,957,229, and his 8th at WSOP Europe in the €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em GGMillion€.
- 2026: Continued his dominance by winning his 9th bracelet in the $1,500 8-Game Mixed event. More impressively, he achieved his deepest run ever in the WSOP Main Event, finishing 15th for a massive $410,475 payday.
World Series of Poker Bracelets
In between these victories, Deeb has posted countless results at other tournament series and won all sorts of accolades, amassing over $18 million in live tournament cashes alone. Shaun has been very vocal about his desire to win more WSOP bracelets and POY titles than contenders like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, expressing his belief that he can achieve these feats given that he is far younger than them.
| Year | Event | Prize |
| 2015 | $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em | $318,857 |
| 2016 | $1,500 Seven Card Stud | $111,101 |
| 2018 | $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller | $1,402,683 |
| 2018 | $10,000 No-limit Hold'em Six Handed Championship | $814,179 |
| 2021 | $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller – 8 Handed | $1,251,860 |
| 2023 | $1,500 Eight-Game Mix – 6 Handed | $198,854 |
| 2025 | $100,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller | $2,957,229 |
| 2025E | €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em GGMillion€ | €329,000 |
| 2026 | $1,500 8-Game Mixed | $181,625 |
Shaun Deeb at the Center of Controversy
For just about his entire poker career, Shaun Deeb has always been somewhat of a poker “bad boy” who would often get into all sorts of trouble.
A big part of it early on had to do with his tendency to “slow roll” other players, deliberately not showing the best hand immediately and allowing his opponents to think they had won for a brief moment. Because slow rolling is technically within the rules of the game, Shaun never got into official trouble over it. However, he did get into plenty of drama over social media throughout the years.
- 2019: Deeb got into a personal war of words with Daniel Negreanu, where he even suggested he would bet him on whose marriage would last longer after DNegs had just gotten married.
- 2019: He got into it with another poker legend, Bryn Kenney, accusing him of potentially freerolling a massive event where Kenney ended up winning $20 million, claiming he potentially wouldn't have been able to pay back his buy-in had he lost.
- 2021: A prop bet between Deeb and poker player Tony Miles (who was a participant on American Ninja Warrior) went sour, with the terms of the bet being heavily contested.
In between all this, Deeb has often acted as the “markup police” on social platforms, calling out any players selling their tournament action at a markup he believes to be unreasonable. Thanks to all these instances, he is considered by the poker world to be one of the most polarizing characters in the community. Yet, the one thing everyone can agree on is that Shaun Deeb is an amazing player who deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame as soon as he qualifies.
Shaun Deeb Wins a Monster Weight Loss Bet
It is no secret that Shaun Deeb has spent a big chunk of his professional life being overweight, a matter he often mentioned as one of the biggest limiting factors in his poker success, as he used to believe he might not live to see 50.
Today, things are quite different, and that’s in big part thanks to poker player and hedge fund manager Bill Perkins, who offered Deeb an extraordinary bet in 2023. Seeing Deeb’s poor health, Perkins decided to give him a challenge. A bet was made according to which Shaun needed to bring his body fat index (BMI) from 40.2% to 17% within a year. The prize was a cool $1 million.
Always one to take a good challenge head-on, Shaun started working out with a dedicated team. With their help and the support of his wife, he got very close to the finish line by February 2024. It was at that point, with Deeb 84 lbs lighter and sitting at 23.9% body fat, that the two made a deal, and Perkins bought out of the bet for $800,000.
A much leaner Deeb stated he would still pursue the 17% goal for his own sake and the sake of his children, even after winning the $800k. This stands as one of the most inspirational poker stories of the past couple of years; while we may not all have a million-dollar prize to drive us, getting healthy and in shape should be a reward in itself.
Shaun Deeb’s Net Worth
The one question fans always have about their favorite poker players has to do with their net worth, and the answers are often elusive.
When it comes to Shaun Deeb’s net worth, one thing is clear: he is a guy who likes to make money and find shrewd ways to make it grow. For that reason, Deeb’s approximately $25 million in combined live and online tournament cashes is probably just a portion of what he has earned through other means (although this number does not account for total buy-ins spent).
It is very possible that Shaun has profited over $10 million from tournaments alone in this period, while also winning just as much playing cash games and making smart investments and prop bets on the side. If we had to make a guess, we could confidently put Shaun Deeb’s net worth well into the $10,000,000 – $15,000,000+ range, with a strong trajectory going upward.
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