Shaun Deeb played both the WSOP Paradise and the WPT World Championship last year, high-tailing it out of the Bahamas on a flight to max-late-reg in Las Vegas. Was it the lure of the $40 million guarantee on the WPT World Championship that compelled him to play both? What is he going to do this year, with both festivals playing out at the same time again and no guarantee at the WPT? We caught up with Deeb at WSOP Europe, where he’s currently playing the €10,000 Main Event.
The WPT has decided not to put a guarantee on the 2024 World Championship. Do you think that's a mistake?
I think that's kind of silly. I think they could put $10 million on it, or something super small that they're 100% going to get. But you know, after missing the guarantee last year, I'm not surprised that they're not being as aggressive. GGPoker has deep pockets over at Paradise, but a lot of players are going to prefer going to the Wynn. If it wasn't for the bracelets, I think everyone would end up at Wynn, but bracelets still mean a lot to people.
Do you think the lack of guarantee will have a negative impact on the WPT championship field?
Minor. I think most people know the field size is going to be great. The WPT runs a lot of $10Ks with very low guarantees or no guarantees. They still have a great turnout, so I don't think that really is going to affect it. It's really just a marketing ploy. You could put a $10M or $15M guarantee on, but maybe they just didn't want to have that small of a guarantee compared to the Bahamas and they just went no guarantee. So it doesn't look like there's only $20 million in Vegas and $50 million in the Bahamas. Their logic must have been that they didn't want to go higher than 50, and they didn’t want to do a number under 50. And when you look at it like that, it makes sense.
Instead of the guarantee, WPT is running a $5 million free roll capped at 2,000 seats, which they're giving away through promotions on its new sweepstake ClubWPT Gold platform. What do you make of that and the impact that might have on the World Championship field?
Obviously, it's going to be good. 100 satellite qualifiers who went through this sweepstakes poker site is pretty sweet, and it's definitely going to motivate people. However, GG also has a lot of satellite qualifiers as well, not from as low a buy-in but a similar skill level.
GGPoker is running online Day 1 flights that qualify players straight into the money. What do you make of these and will you be trying to qualify that way?
I'm not a fan of them playing online flights to a live tournament that end up in Day 3 in the money. I think Day 2 is very likely to be a very short day in the Bahamas, depending on the structure. But you know, if they want to be aggressive with guarantees, and they want to be safe and make sure they get it, I understand it's a necessary evil. I don't think I'm gonna have time to play any of the online flights. I don't even have my bags with me because Delta sucks, so thank you Delta. I don't even have my iPad to play on, so we'll see.
Is a $50 million guarantee a big pull for you even with online and live flights and re-entries?
2000 people for a $25K will make it the biggest $25K ever. I think PokerStars got 1,100 for one of their PSPCs, and I don't think any other $25K has come close to that, so it's an impressive thing, you know, the biggest quote-unquote high roller field size ever. It's going to be good.
Where are you going and why?
I usually try to do both. I’ve got to make sure that I can do what I did last year. I played Bahamas the whole series, and then I flew out and max-late-regged the last flight of the Wynn. For me, the Bahamas is slightly better because I take the wife and the kids for a week and a few other friends of mine go with their kids. Bahamas is definitely more family-friendly. My wife despises being in Vegas with the kids, so there'd be no shot of that come December.
On a completely different subject, how was your debut as the head of the bachelor party at Dan Weinman’s wedding?
It was fun. There was a golf outing, and I'm not a fan of golf, but I had fun out there. [Josh] Arieh was there, myself, Dan, some of his college buddies and friends. And there was a well-known professional golfer who's good friends with Dan's wife, and he was a lot of fun. Me and him saw a lot of comparisons of hard work in our own professions and being specialists, and he was just a great guy. We had a nice dinner, got drunk, and told some crazy stories. It worked out great.
Good luck in the rest of the WSOPE Shaun!
