With the 50th World Series of Poker right around the corner, one of the most enjoyable ways to enjoy the action is to keep an eye on the prop bets players have booked against each other. One man who has a lot to gain or lose on the side of the 2019 WSOP is Kane Kalas.
Shaun Deeb is a professional poker player from Troy, NY who is one of the most accomplished players both online and live. Over the past few years, Deeb has collected 10 online poker championships, 5 World Series of Poker bracelets, and has 1 EPT final table.
A Bet With Deeb
Kalas, a former online crusher turned live tournament player, has invested in a big way by wagering 5% of his and Joe McKeehen’s action (2.5% each) against Shaun Deeb’s belief in 5% of Phil Hellmuth’s action in the WSOP Main Event. Kalas is confident he’ll be booking a win against Deeb come mid-July.
“I’m pretty happy about it.”
Deeb talked about it a bit with Joey Ingram in the video '(SHOTS FIRED) Shaun Deeb Adresses Negreanu Feud, Markup Comments & Upcoming 2019 WSOP Preparation' (time stamps here)
View Shaun Deeb’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. Shaun has 3 jobs listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Shaun’s connections and jobs at similar companies.
Shaun Deeb protesting. Deeb knowing about this law managed to make it all the way to the tables and even played a few hands dressed in full drag. It was until the first break that Deeb realized that he might have gone too far and was offending some people by being in drag. With this not his intention he immediately changed into his normal attire.
A Bet With Brunson
“After that bet when we were talking about it on stream, Doyle [Brunson] spoke up and said that he also liked Hellmuth’s chances, so Doyle and I made a separate bet.”
This one is slightly more complicated. If Hellmuth finishes in the top 1% of the Main Event field, Kalas will have to pay ‘Texas Dolly’ $50,000. In return, Kalas gets to pick ten players, each of whom is worth $5,000 to him from Brunson’s pocket if they finish in the top 1% of the field.
'Hellmuth’s obviously had tremendous success at the World Series, but he misses most of Day 1'
“McKeehen is on that list and I threw in myself, too. I feel good about both bets. Hellmuth’s obviously had tremendous success at the World Series, but he misses most of Day 1, where there’s a decent amount of value because he often likes to register near the end of the Day.”
While Kalas admits that Hellmuth has “a huge edge” against amateurs, he believes those will have been thinned out by the solid professionals who fill the leaderboard later in the tournament.
“I think you’ll see Hellmuth’s edge go down compared to a Joe McKeehan for example, or some of the people on my list, Jake Schindler or Justin Bonomo, for example.”
Vegas experts nfl picks. Kalas’ research led him to some interesting statistics as he dug deeper into players cash-to-participation ratios. Bonomo made the cut for Kalas’ ten picks, but not because of his WSOP Main Event record.
“I didn’t think [Bonomo’s] early Main Event results were indicative of how he’d perform this year. He’s spent a lot of time in the last couple of years specifically on live tournaments.”
The full list features some fantasy draft dream team members such as Alex Foxen and Paul Volpe. The poker Twittersphere has already been lit up by the imagination of the prop bet alone.
Interesting bet vs @TexDolly 2019 @WSOP #MainEvent
— Kane Kalas (@KaneKalas)
Kane Kalas' picks in his bet against Doyle Brunson:
Jake Schindler
Joe McKeehen
Justin Bonomo
Alex Foxen
Kane Kalas
Paul Volpe
Ivan Luca
Brian Yoon
Adrián Mateos
David Peters
“Brian Yoon has just done fantastically in this tournament, He’s four for seven in cashing the Main and he’s gone deep a couple of times. Between regging late and Hellmuth missing a couple of hands after dinner breaks, in the top 100, he’s going to have to battle against some other great players and I’m fairly confident.”
Some great players didn’t make it onto his list, which Kalas admits was hard. He wanted Timothy Adams and Christoph Vogelsang, but they fell victim to Kalas only being able to choose ten of the best.
'It’s on my bucket list to win a bracelet, but I’m young and I’m confident it’ll happen in due time.'
Kalas' Expectations
For Kalas himself, he’s hoping to turn years of online profit into live tournament glory, just like Bonomo. Just don’t expect to see him in many six-max events come the summer.
“Now that I play mix[ed games], there are so many events to choose from. While I prefer six-max and think I’m better at it, those fields are quite a bit tougher. For whatever reason, it seems every professional seems to love it and wants to play.”
While the money is always more important to him - he concedes that he’d take a seat in a juicy PLO game ahead of any smaller bracelet events if he had to make the choice - he does want to grab his first WSOP bracelet.
“Obviously, the tournament I want to win most is the Main Event. It’s on my bucket list to win a bracelet, but I’m young and I’m confident it’ll happen in due time. Having a trophy case that’s full isn’t important to me, but I’d be pretty disappointed if, whenever I walk away from the game, I don’t have one in my back pocket.”
Article continues under the promo
Singing While You're Winning
If he is to win a bracelet, Kalas would like the WSOP bracelet ceremonies to return. Obviously, that would mean he’s won a bracelet, for a start, but he could even sing the national anthem if required - he’s done so in very celebrated circumstances.
Great Opening Day, Go Phils! https://t.co/jotCrGswt4
— Kane Kalas (@KaneKalas)
“My father [Harry Kalas] was a huge Phillies fan, and he broadcasted with them for 36 seasons. After my father’s passing, the Philly fans got together and raised funds to put up a statue at Citizens Bank Park in his honor.”
Every year for the past four years on opening day for the Phillies, the Major League Baseball club have asked Kane Kalas to sing the national anthem in the shadow of his father’s statue. While Harry never got to see his son become such a successful poker player, he did get to see him win as a professional in his early years in the game.
Kalas’ father broadcast for the Phillies for many dry seasons, but his career culminated in the Phillies winning the 2008 World Series, a huge moment that came just a year before his passing.
'There was not a happier person in the world whenever the Phillies won. But I’ve had $100,000 losing sessions where I’ve been less upset than my father if another team come from five runs behind to beat the Phillies.'
“It was just so special. There was not a happier person in the world whenever the Phillies won. But I’ve had $100,000 losing sessions where I’ve been less upset than my father if another team come from five runs behind to beat the Phillies.”
Shaun Deeb Net Worth
“My fondest memory in life is the first time I sang the national anthem at a Phillies game and my dad was so nervous, and him hugging me afterwards and telling me how proud was of me, they shoot up to him in the booth and you can just see tears I his eyes.”
Kalas believes that the World Series of Poker should bring back the bracelet ceremonies of a few years ago.
“I think they did away with it because the bracelet ceremonies took too long and delayed play. If they bring it back, who knows, maybe I’ll hear the anthem, or even sing it!”
For now, Kalas is concentrating on the first part of that fantasy - winning a WSOP bracelet. He’ll be busy with his World Series of Poker prop bets against Shaun Deeb and Doyle Brunson and hoping to close out a World Series that he and his family will never forget.
Tags
Shaun DeebKane KalasDoyle BrunsonWSOPWorld Series of PokerPhil Hellmuth
Related Tournaments
World Series of Poker
Related Players
Phil HellmuthDoyle BrunsonShaun DeebKane Kalas
Four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and former WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb has admitted to his Twitter audience that he has contracted the COVID-19 virus. While playing the 2020 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) from Mexico, Deeb contracted the virus and was so severely affected that he had to be hospitalized.
A Decent Outlook During a Trying Time
Deeb mentioned to his Twitter followers last week that he had contracted the virus. “I’ve been keeping this quiet the last week and a half, but I have COVID now,” he wrote on Twitter. He stated that he had been playing in many of the WCOOP events, even having to nap during the five-minute tournament breaks each hour in the events he was playing. It also was bad enough that he eventually went to a hospital and was admitted to get control of the virus.
On his Twitter account, Deeb was incredibly open about some of the things that went through his mind while he was being treated. “I will have to say (the) scariest thing was debating with my wife making a video to my kids…in case I got intubated (a breathing tube inserted down the throat to the lungs) and whether to tell them I was sick or not,” Deeb wrote on his Twitter account. While he doesn’t go into any further detail on this situation, he did note some of the other physical effects of having the virus.
“One terrible thing about COVID is how hard your body is at retaining water,” Deeb observed, indicating that he was highly dehydrated. “The changing of tastebuds…I’m glad my kids didn’t experience watching me not being able to eat pizza or tortilla chips…I will never give a person shit for complaining about pain…I had no idea your own body could do that much to itself so quickly…it was/is crippling at times,” he concluded.
Released Thursday, Looking to Return
Deeb was released Thursday and apparently is staying in Mexico as there are some questions as to his return to the U. S.:
The COVID-19 pandemic, named after the corona virus discovered in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 (hence COVID-19), has been running rampant around the world. In rapid fashion, the virus migrated from China to Europe and eventually made its way to the U. S. The U. S., through its own mismanagement of the virus, has been heavily affected by the virus, beyond the point that any other country on the globe has been affected.
More than 32 million people have been affected worldwide by the virus, with just under a million of those cases resulting in death. The story in the U. S. has been even worse; with only 330 million of the world’s seven billion people, more than seven million people have contracted the virus (accounting for almost a quarter of the cases in the world) and have seen over 204,000 deaths (once again, almost a quarter of the world’s deaths). Yet despite these bleak numbers, many in the U. S. do not take the virus seriously.
Shaun Deeb Instagram
Travel, especially between countries, is one of the worst things that people can do because they expose themselves to the virus in transit. It was what kept many U. S. players out of the recent 2020 online WSOP – many countries would not allow U. S. residents to travel because of the pitiful way that the COVID-19 virus was handled. But many, like Deeb, found their way out of the country to Mexico, which had few restrictions on U. S. citizens traveling to the country.
Freddy Deeb Son
Deeb is currently waiting in Mexico for clearance from government officials to return to the U. S. He is also concerned about exposing his wife and children to the virus, so it could be some time before Deeb is able to return to U. S. soil.