Shaun Deeb is down in Mexico, in the hospital, battling COVID-19. But despite his condition, the doctors and nurses have been unable to keep him away from playing online poker.
Deeb caught the virus while on his trip to Mexico to compete in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) series. He's crushed the series for years, and won't let a pesky virus deter him from playing cards, even though the virus has him hospitalized.
The live and online poker crusher shared with the Twitter world minor details about his condition. On Sunday, he revealed that he's been sick with the coronavirus for the past week and a half. He initially hoped his condition wouldn't force him to end up in the hospital.
"So I’ve been keeping this quiet last week and a half but I have COVID now and I think I’m going to need your guys help making a tweet or two go viral so I don’t have to get hospitalized in Mexico," Deeb wrote in his typical punctuation-free form.
He then admitted the WCOOP grind has been difficult given his current health status. The four-time WSOP bracelet winner said he's been using his five-minute WCOOP breaks to rest. Later in the day he told his followers that he ended up having to go to the hospital and was admitted.
No days off
Having an IV stuck in his arm and doctors and nurses giving him regular attention couldn't deter him from playing poker. Deeb loves to gamble and the WCOOP series is, clearly, extremely important to him. But things got a bit worse for the poker pro. While in the hospital, he ran into some technical difficulties with the PokerStars app while getting ready to play. It appears it's just not his week.
Deeb later joked that you can't be a true WCOOP grinder unless you're playing 10-handed while in the hospital with Covid. He might be right.
Deeb was the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year and nearly won it again in 2019. The four-time bracelet winner has recently sparred on Twitter with Justin Kuraitis, the Stones Gambling Hall tournament director who was accused of co-conspiring with Mike Postle to cheat the live-streamed games he oversaw. He's made it clear publicly that he believes Postle is guilty and that Kuraitis was either clueless about what was going on or was in on the alleged scam.
Deeb also took a shot at the plaintiff's attorney, Mac VerStandig, who released a public statement exonerating Kuraitis. He wrote on Twitter that he hopes poker players never use VerStandig's law firm again. After taking some heat for his harsh criticism towards the lawyer who specializes in poker and gambling related cases, Deeb refused to backtrack and said he had "multiple actual lawyers" privately tell him he was right.
Featured image source: Flickr
