Shaun Deeb beat Isaac Haxton on Thursday heads-up to win his seventh World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. He moved into first place in the Player of the Year standings with the victory.
Haxton started the day in the driver's seat and the first two hours brought various chip changes as the top spot changed multiple times. Sean Rafael started with the shortest stack and never got much running before he ended up second-best to the turned wheel of Haxton.
Likewise, Phil Ivey tumbled towards the bottom of the leaderboard and got two flop jams through to preserve his precarious stack size. However, he was not the next to bow out as that unfortunate fate was reserved for Alex Foxen. On an ace-high board, he called it off on the river when Haxton made aces and nines to quickly exit the live-stream table in the Horseshoe Event Center.
Haxton then made it three knockouts in a row when his aces held against a short-stacked Ivey and he would pull into a commanding lead in four-handed play thereafter. Deeb came back from a very short stack to stay in contention and had to do so again when Morris flopped top set.
Isaac Haxton
Spanish four-card specialist Lautaro Guerra was very active throughout the final day and at times threatened the lead of Haxton but once he dropped down in the pecking order, his pocket and back door flush draw were cracked when the ace on the river gave Haxton broadway.
During three-handed play, the surge of Deeb came at the expense of Morris who was left on fumes after getting it in with the slightly worse ace and he was eliminated soon after. During the 2023 WSOP, Morris finished as the runner-up in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship for $809,167 and surpassed that figure with a first seven-figure score.
Once the action in heads-up resumed after the dinner break, Deeb quickly turned a minor chip disadvantage into a commanding lead and one double for Haxton was only a short-lived setback. They got the chips in soon after on a jack-high board with both holding over pairs. Deeb had the spade to go with it and rivered the winning flush for his rail to explode in celebration.
Deeb's Player of the Year Chances
Shaun Deeb
Deeb, when the WSOP website updates its POY leaderboard, will move into the top spot ahead of Benny Glaser, Martin Kabrhel, and Scott Bohlman. The 2018 winner is committed to winning his second Player of the Year award, so much so that he might skip the Main Event.
"The Main Event is the worst tournament for Player of the Year," Deeb told PokerNews.
Kabrhel overtook first place in the POY race on Wednesday when he took down the Mini Main Event. Glaser, who has won three bracelets this summer, still has a seventh-place WSOP Online finish to be added to his point total. That will bring him into second place. Deeb also has an online final table appearance — second place — to be added.
Deeb doesn't consider the POY race his to lose, and he acknowledges that Glaser, who only has six cashes, will have an easier time increasing his point total. That is due to the current scoring system that only counts a player's top 10 scores, and only one online cash can be included. Deeb has more than 10 cashes, and many of his scores were small.
He can only add to his total if he earns enough points to wipe out one of his other cashes. Glaser, on the other hand, will increase his score with any additional cash. The official tally hasn't yet been updated by the WSOP, so it's unclear exactly where both players stand. Unofficial scoring has Deeb at 3,461.98 points, not including his online cash. Glaser has 3,310.48, also awaiting an online final table to be included.
