WSOP Updates - Freddy Deeb Takes Control
Freddy Deeb has an impressive track record as a professional poker player. A WPT Champion, owner of a World Series Bracelet, and with over $3 million in tournament poker winnings, he is considered a fearsome player on the felt. What Deeb is known for most, though, is his friendly demeanor around the felt and his completely unpredictable play.
It is midway through day 2A, and Deeb has just been moved to a new table with 400/800 blinds. Before he has event finished unracking his first stack of his chips, he open-raises to 1800 in the cutoff. He bets another 8000 on the turn and 15,000 on the river. Raking in a huge pot after showing 4c-6d, Deeb's chips still sit in his rack, and his opponents know they are in for a long day.
Deeb proceeds to open-raise over half of the next pots, looking disinterested as he rakes in pot after pot uncontested and builds his stack to over 60,000 chips. His opponents appear infuriated at his play, yet they can do nothing to stop him. "He's a machine," one player notes. In the rare instances where his opponents do win a pot against him, they almost always expose their cards, as if pleading with Deeb to at least give them the pots without a struggle when they have monster hands. Deeb simply nods his head in approval after folding and listens patiently to their explanation of how they played their hands.
"I didn't want you to see the next card and try to bluff me out of the pot," one man explains after he makes a pot-sized bet on the flop with top pair. Giving Deeb free information by exposing your cards is a dangerous idea – giving him a glimpse into the way you think is suicide. However, the table is given saving grace when Deeb hits a road-bump in his play.
After calling a raise of 2200 preflop, his opponent bets 6000 on the flop and Deeb lifts his cards up as if to muck. Pausing for a few seconds, he instead decides to check-raise all-in for 40,000 more. His opponent ponders the call for a while before making the call, showing top pair and a flush draw. Deeb has bottom two pair and is ahead. The flush comes on the turn, though, and Deeb loses 2/3 of his chips. "Nice hand," he mutters to his opponent, and the table breathes a collective sigh of relief.
Deeb's dwindling chip-stack doesn't affect his reputation, though. Even as the short-stack at his table, he continues to raise pots and builds his stack up another 10,000 within the next half-hour. His attitude remains happy-go-lucky as well. Towards the end of the level, the green 25 chips are scheduled to be colored off and Deeb begins to buy them from the table to make the exchange easier. He looks at me and tells me, "I lost an 80,000 pot, but I'm lucky to be here to still be able to buy these green chips. I mean, it's a lot of fun," he says, laughing. His table laughs along with him, and it's easy to see why people love "Fast" Freddy Deeb.
