Verona, New York (March 27, 2023) - You could sense the rest of the table knew they were in trouble when in the first level of play, Shaun Deeb called out a player’s exact hand.
“Show the ace-jack offsuit,” said Deeb to the man who would eventually be his heads-up opponent, Giyeon Han, who had just won a pot from eventual fifth-place finisher Paul Ross. And sure enough, Han turned over ace-jack offsuit as he dragged his chips.
“How does Shaun always know” commented one of the players.
It might as well have been over right then and there.
Deeb proceeded to steamroll the final table en route to his first-ever WSOP Circuit ring, to go along with his five WSOP gold bracelets. Along with the ring, Deeb takes home $275,916 and a seat in the WSOP Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas this summer.
Just another day at the office for one of the best and most confident players in the world.
“I would hope I was the best player in the field. My ego says I’m the best, but it was actually tougher competition than I was expecting deep. People put me in some tough spots, I was three-betting a ton at this final table, way more than I thought I should have, but I think some of them caged me a little bit.”
Deeb came into the final table second in chips behind eventual fourth-place finisher Kyle Grupp, but after taking the chip lead himself in the first couple of levels, the champion was able to leverage his stack with consistent aggression against his tightly-bunched opponents to continually extend his lead.
The only player to put significant bumps in Deeb’s road to victory was third-place finisher Cindy Spier, who managed to double up twice through Deeb, before he eventually won their most important clash to set up heads-up play versus Han.
Having grown up in New York state, winning the event in the casino where he honed his game and won his first-ever tournament, Deeb said that this title was extra special.
“Being my original first casino, Turning Stone… I just love the nostalgia. Going to play cash, some of the same staff are here from when I was coming here 20 years ago with my Gram, they were always great to my family… I had a lot of fun and I love playing with these people.”
With the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas just around the corner, Deeb was asked whether the win over a field of 1,070 players gives him any momentum heading into the summer.
“I think I have as much momentum and as much image as possible. I’ve definitely been on my game, my reads have been really good, and thankfully I win the all-ins that matter.”
He certainly did that, and a better champion couldn’t have been asked for to cap an incredible series highlighted by this Main Event which had a massive prize pool of $1,621,050. It’s the latest tremendous number in the series that shows just how much of a premier event the World Series of Poker Circuit is here at New York’s premier poker venue, Turning Stone Resort Casino.
This concludes WSOP.com’s coverage of the WSOP Circuit Main Event here in Verona, New York. Stay tuned for coverage from the next Circuit event at the Grand Victoria Casino in Chicago, Illinois from April 4th to 16th.
Complete final table results available here.