After two days of play in the €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event, Shaun Deeb is the only Player of the Year contender still standing. He’s sitting on less than 20 big blinds after a rough finish to his Day 2 session Sunday.
Robert Campbell, Phillip Hui and Daniel Negreanu were all unable to advance past Day 1 in the Main Event. Negreanu currently leads the POY race by a slim margin over Campbell and Deeb. Hui would have needed to win the event to win POY.
Chris Ferguson, the 2017 winner, was also in contention, but busted on the final hand of Day 2 when Julien Martini rivered a flush to crack his pair of aces.
Deeb Chases Back-to-Back Player of the Year Titles
Shaun Deeb cruised to a WSOP Player of the Year title in 2018. This year has been a bit different, as the competition for the prestigious award has been stiffer. With just one additional event – the €550 Colossus – remaining on the WSOP Europe schedule, he needs to spin it up in the Main Event. The low buy-in series finale event kicks off on Monday with the first of nine, Day 1 starting flights.
Deeb, however, is the only Player of the Year contender still focused on the Main Event, and he just might squeak out back-to-back titles if he can run deep. He’ll need some run good the next couple of days, or he’ll have to rely on a deep run in the Colossus.
Updated 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Standings
- Daniel Negreanu 3,971.54
- Robert Campbell 3,857.97
- Shaun Deeb 3,710.64
- Phillip Hui 3,186.17
A minimum cash in the Main Event would give Deeb 61.35 points. That isn’t enough to move him into the lead without a Colossus cash. He’ll need to make the final table – worth at least 306.76 points – to overtake Negreanu. Winning the Main Event is worth 1,227.06 points.
Deeb piled up a big stack on early on Day 2, peaking at around 400,000 chips. He struggled the rest of the session, however, and left with 118,000, which puts him in 120th out of 129 remaining players. The blinds will start at 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante when play resumes at noon local time in Rozvadov, Czech Republic on Monday.
Deeb still needs 46 players to bust before the bubble bursts. So, he’ll need an early double-up to feel good about his chances to cash and pick up much-needed Player of the Year points.
Kahle Burns Finally Cools Off
Kahle Burns won his first two WSOP bracelets last week in the €2,500 Short Deck and €25,500 Platinum High Roller events. He then entered the Main Event on Saturday, and bagged the biggest stack on Day 1B.
His run good finally came to an end on Sunday. The Australian high roller went from 497,700 chips when the session began to zero before it ended.
Alex Foxen, the 2018 GPI Player of the Year, finished Day 1A with the chip lead. He went from 537,200 at the start of Day 2 to around 200,000 before running it up again to an 813,000-chip ending stack, putting him in 13th place.
Paulius Vaitiekunas bagged the chip lead with 1,221,000. Dario Sammartino, the Main Event runner-up this summer, also bagged chips on Day 2. He’ll enter Day 3 with a healthy stack of 687,000, good for 114 big blinds.
Notable Main Event Chip Stacks
- Alex Foxen 813,000
- David “ODB” Baker 720,000
- Dario Sammartino 687,000
- Anthony Zinno 430,000
- Jeff Madsen 404,000
- Benjamin Pollak 350,000
- Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier 323,000
- Shaun Deeb 118,000
