Shaun Deeb Wins Ninth WSOP Bracelet to Top Player of the Year Leaderboard

Coming from behind at a top table, Shaun Deeb conquered his ninth career WSOP event, winning a bracelet that puts him on a par with the Grand Old Man of Poker, the late Johnny Moss, as well as present greats Benny Glaser and Michael Mizrachi. Crushing the competition in the $1,500 8-Game Mix, Deeb collected $181,625 with his latest piece of gold jewellery.

Deeb Survives Early Drama on Final Day

No massive chip lead? No momentum coming into the six-handed final table? No problem. Shaun Deeb still destroyed the competition in Event #74 of the 2026 World Series of Poker, the $1,500 buy-in 8-Game Mix event. With three runner-up results in WSOP events in 2026 before the tournament, Deeb finally broke his duck for the year and captured his ninth bracelet in the process.

Winning this same tournament in 2023, Shaun Deeb came into the final six of the tournament featuring 766 total entries with a mountain to climb. A prize pool of $1,016,865 made a top prize of $181,625 an extremely good return on the $1,500 entry fee, and Deeb was very short stacked, with nine players left. Down to just 300,000 chips, he battled back by winning with ace-deuce against ace-six to stun Michael Koenig.

The same two players clashed again soon after, as Koenig patted in 2-7 Triple Draw and saw Deeb draw to a miracle wheel straight to bounce off the canvas again and double himself back into contention.

“That 2-7 hand is going to haunt me for a while.” Koenig said as he slid out in ninth. The hand may have proven a death notice for Koenig in tournament terms, but Deeb’s double propelled him up the leaderboard. With seven left, Deeb was sat in third place, only behind Fu Wong and Dean Joe.

Blaz Blown Away

With six left, Patrick Mahoney was unable to cling on to his chips. Losing to Shaun Deeb’s jacks and fours, Mahoney tossed away his last drawn card in frustration as he went to claim $28,420 in sixth place. From that moment, there was an air of inevitability about Deeb’s eventual victory. With his chip stack nine-handed, he should have been out already. Instead, he was the player with all the momentum.

Japan have had some incredible success this World Series and that continued in this event, with Itsuko Yoroi finishing in fifth place for $39,570. She was forced in from the big blind for her last chips but doubled up. In the next hand, she was all-in for 40,000 chips against Shaun Deeb and once again the eventual champion turned executioner. With Yoroi standing pat on nine-seven, Deeb drew to one with an eight-seven in his hand. The four he turned over didn’t match anything in his hand and he took out Yoroi as he started to take control of the final table in the tournament.

Four players were left when Deeb helped reduce the field further. Taking Slovenian Blaz Zerjav down to just 250,000 chips, Deeb then got involved in a three-way pot with the at-risk Slovenian and Dean Joe, who won the hand to knock out Zerjav for $56,230 in fourth place.

Number Nine is Just Fine

Fu Wong had contributed a huge amount to the final table but he left in third place for $81,530. All-in in No Limit Hold’em holding king-eight, he was dominated by Dean joe’s ace-eight and lost out when a queen-high board helped neither man but kept Joe’s ace-high kicker in play.

Heads-up, Joe had 12.5 million chips to Deeb’s 6.5 million. A series of small pots levelled up the scores, however, and in Limit Hold’em, the champion elect took the lead for the first time in the final duel. On a board of K-T-6-2-7 with three diamonds, Deeb’s bet with jack-four of diamonds was called by Joe and the initial heads-up lead had been reversed in Deeb favor.

If Deeb thought that might be it, he was sorely mistaken. Both men took the lead and lost it all over again on multiple occasions as a dynamic yet draining duel challenged them both. Joe flopped a pair of tens in PLO and moved all-in for 3.5m total when the short stack and Deeb called with pocket kings in his hand. A jack on the turn and a deuce on the river ended it and Deeb stood up, saying just two words.

“I win.”

The Champion Speaks

“I show up every day, play every event, and play every buy-in.”

While Dean Joe won $120,570 as runner-up, Deeb claimed the $181,625 top prize, and won his ninth WSOP bracelet in the process.

“I just made the nuts in a bunch of hands,” Deeb told Natalie Bode (below) after the event. “I called a huge check-raise in PLO with a straight draw and a flush draw, and I made both. And then I had a few other hands where I just had it. When you make the best hand on the river heads-up, you’re gonna usually win the tournament.”

Winning the event for a second time, Deeb said that he loved the format of the tournament. “It’s just a good mix for me,” he said. “It’s a low buy-in, so a lot of people aren’t as comfortable in all the eight games, and when I get some chips, I can be deadly. I got some chips and kept winning pots.”

Now top of the leaderboard for WSOP Player of the Year, Deeb – already a two-time winner will hope to become the first player to win it three times.

“It’s always my goal. I always want to go back-to-back. A week ago, or two weeks ago, three weeks, you know, I really didn’t think I had a shot, but it’s probably the closest Player of the Year race that there ever has been. It’s the same every day. Win or lose, I show up here, and I play everything.”

Now a nine-time WSOP bracelet winner, he remains eight behind the record-holder and personal nemesis in the format, Phil Hellmuth. Deeb is determined to overtake The Poker Brat during his poker career.

“I’m going to pass Phil,” he declared. “I’ve been saying that for years. I could have been a lot closer. I could have been a lot further ahead of some other guys with nine or eight or seven, but, you know, I show up every day, play every event, play every buy-in, and sometimes you win.”

Winning is a habit that Shaun Deeb doesn’t look like shaking anytime soon.