Shaun Deeb, born March 1, 1986 in Troy, New York, was introduced to card games early in life. At age 16, he began hosting low buy-in tournaments for friends and guests – winning more than his fair share of the events. Only a couple years later, he discovered the online poker arena and experienced similar success.
While attending Bentley University in Massachusetts, Deeb was drawn further into the poker world – and, like many poker players who walked the same path, his studies took a backseat to the game. As his bankroll swelled from a consistent stream of tournament results, his interest in a traditional career path waned. After just one year of college, Deeb dropped out to pursue poker on a full-time basis. It was a serious gamble – but one that paid off in a major way. On Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, Deeb played under the screen names 'tedsfishfry' and 'shaundeeb' and quickly became one of the most feared and respected online tournament grinders.
In 2007 and 2008, he won the PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard, becoming the first player to do so in consecutive years. With thirteen titles across the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), Deeb has cemented his legacy as one of the most successful online players of all time.
In the wake of Black Friday, Deeb transitioned to live poker – focusing specifically on events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, but making time for festivals . Over the course of the next decade and a half, he went on to rack up nearly $20M in live tournament earnings and multiple WSOP bracelets across a wide range of poker variants. In 2018, Deeb's two bracelets and 16 cashes saw him earn the Player of the Year title. Only a few years later, in 2025, Deeb repeated the achievement with a summer's haul that included two more bracelets and multiple cashes.
Away from the felt, Deeb has made a name for himself in the prop-betting world. In 2023, he and billionaire businessman Bill Perkins settled on a weight loss wager with $1M on the line. Perkins laid a tantalizing price – 10-to-1 odds, his $1M to Deeb's $100K – betting that Deeb couldn't lower his body fat percentage to 17% by the start of the 2024 WSOP. When the wager began, Deeb weighed in at 306 pounds with a greater than 40% body fat percentage. Many in the community gave Deeb a very little chance of winning. Fueled by the public doubt and his own internal motivations, Deeb committed himself fully to the cause. By January of 2024, Deeb clocked in at a 22% body fat percentage and Perkins realized he wasn't going to slow down. The two agreed to a buyout of $800,000 – a massive win for Deeb on more than one account.
Currently, Deeb is one of the most well-respected poker players in the world and regularly competes in a full schedule of events at WSOP festivals in Las Vegas, Europe, and The Bahamas.
