The final six players from a 230-entry field (181 unique entries + 49 re-entries) in the 2018 World Series of PokerEvent #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller returned to the ESPN main stage on Saturday to play down to a winner.
The final table included heavyweights like defending champ James Calderaro, Poker Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen and the red-hot Jason Koon. However, none of those players made it to the final two. Instead, it was a rematch of the 2017 WSOP Event #34: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship, which is when Ben Yu beat Shaun Deeb heads-up to win his second bracelet.
Deeb: "Everyone played their best game, I just ran the best.”
The duo collided once again, each looking to join the ranks of Sammy Farha, David “Chip” Reese and David Sklansky as three-time bracelet winners. The fourth edition of the tournament, which for the first time allowed for a single re-entry, ended with Deeb getting his revenge.
“I made a joke to him at the unofficial final table,” Deeb revealed. “I said we both missed the $10K 2-7, the event we got heads-up in last year. I go, ‘We might be able to do it again, another game I’m a favorite on you heads-up.’ Ben’s a great poker player but I have so much experience playing mixed games longer.”
The $1,402,683 blew away Deeb’s previous best cash (not counting the $1 million he won in a One Drop satellite) of $318,857 for winning the 2015 WSOP Event #15: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship. His other bracelet came at the 2016 WSOP when he took down Event #49: $1,500 Seven Card Stud for $111,101.
“I had a great start to the day, got the chip lead,” Deeb said after the win. “No one really ever put me in a bad spot. I was able to control the pot sizes the way I wanted to almost every hand. That really helps, to not get in an inflated pot with a marginal hand. Everyone played their best game, I just ran the best.”
He added: “I think I have a great shot at Player of the Year right now so I think I’m gonna battle, hop in every event I can and just enjoy myself.”
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (in USD)
1
Shaun Deeb
United States
$1,402,683
2
Ben Yu
United States
$866,924
3
Scotty Nguyen
United States
$592,875
4
James Calderaro
United States
$414,134
5
Jason Koon
United States
$295,606
6
Ryan Tosoc
United States
$215,718
7
David Benyamine
France
$161,020
8
Bogdan Capitan
Romania
$123,004
It took just four hands for the first player to fall. It happened when the short-stacked Ryan Tosoc raised pot preflop and just called Yu’s three-bet to 900K. Tosoc then jammed his last 325,000 after flopping middle pair with a flush draw and Yu looked him up with top pair of aces. Neither the turn nor river helped Tosoc and he hit the rail in sixth place for $215,718.
On Hand #31 of the final table, Deeb raised and then called a three-bet from Koon. The latter shoved the nine-high flop with queens and Deeb snap-called him with top two pair nines and sevens. Koon picked up a straight draw on the turn but failed to get there on the river. Koon took home $295,606 for his fifth-place finish.
Calderaro was looking to go back-to-back in arguably one of the toughest tournaments of the year, but his quest came up three spots shy thanks to a nasty river card. It happened when both he and Deeb got it in with top two on the flop. The odds favored a chop, but running cards wound up giving Deeb a backdoor six-high straight to win the pot. Calderaro’s $414,134 for finishing fourth brought his two-year total up to $1,703,208 in prize money.
Ben Yu vs. Shaun Deeb heads-up
Three-handed play lasted for a while before Yu double through Nguyen, which left the Poker Hall of Famer short. The 1998 WSOP Main Event champ soon got it in with two kings and a ten-nine and was up against Yu’s queens with an ace-three. An ace hit the flop and Nguyen was eliminated in third place for $592,875, the fourth-largest score of his illustrious career.
Yu and Deeb both held the chip lead during the short heads-up match. Before long, Deeb got his opponent on the ropes before delivering the final blow. It happened on a five-four-deuce two-heart flop when Yu called all in holding a jack-six-six-five with two hearts against Deeb, who held aces with a gutshot to a seven. The black deuce and eight on the turn and river respectively sent Yu to the rail as runner-up for a career-high $866,924.
History of the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller
