Shaun Deeb Hailed as WSOP Player of the Decade

Dan Zack may have won the WSOP Player of the Year title for 2022, but it’s Shaun Deeb who has emerged a clear winner in the prestigious points race over the past decade, miles clear of runner-up Daniel Negreanu and third-placed Zack...

Ryan O’Leary’s totting up the annual leaderboard race points throws up some interesting results, although he admits it is, “Certainly an imperfect system, given the WSOP did not use the same points system each year.”

Zack took this year’s Player of the Year title in emphatic fashion, bagging a total of two gold bracelets, four final tables, and 16 cashes worth almost $1.5million.

Deeb, a perennial contender for the crown, is sitting in 4th spot in the 2022 list as the annual Vegas festival draws to a close, behind runner-up Daniel Weinman and 3rd-placed Koray Aldemir.

However, taking into consideration all his play over the past decade, Deeb emerges streets ahead of his closest rival Daniel Negreanu, who had a horror summer this year with more than $1million in losses.

Negreanu is so far the only player to have won the Player of the Year title twice, the inaugural 2004 trophy and the 2013 competition, which is where O’Leary’s numbers game starts.

O’Leary adds another qualifier to his results, stating:

“I could only find data for the top 100 finishers for 2015-2019 and 2021-2022 and the top 10 for 2013-2014. So this is missing some data. For example, if a player finished 101st in a given year, his/her points for that year won't be included in this calculation.”

That shouldn’t make any real difference to the overall results, although there are some very surprising placings among the top 20.

Daniel Zack in 3rd spot has only really been playing the WSOP seriously for the second half of the decade to date, so could easily go on to overtake the two legends of the game currently ahead of him.

Phil Hellmuth’s 7th place overall also came in for some comment...

...although the reply, “Imagine the tantrums”, was rapidly gaining likes!

Super high roller crusher, Michael Addamo, was singled out for attention in 19th spot:

“Addamo on that list is amazing, considering his likely total events played in that 10 year period, is less than the amount most of those top guys play in a single year.”

Last year’s WSOP Main Event champion, Koray Aldemir, in 16th place, also had his fans:

“The most impressive name on this list has got to be Aldemir, right?” tweeted Cade Cottrell. He added: “Considering most probably wouldn't have listed him as a top 50 player just 12 months ago. Since then, not only did he have a huge 2021 WSOP, but then backed it up big time, including high roller events this year.”

One of the most-talked-about Player of the Year races in recent years was 2017, when Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, having returned from self-imposed exile the previous year, took the title.

O’Leary tweeted: “According to the POY data I’m looking at, Ferguson finished 11th in 2016, 1st in 2017, 14th in 2018, and 8th in 2019,” although mixed game rec Ryan Davis was far more impressed by Deeb.

Meanwhile, Phil Hellmuth appears to be the only player who consistently appears in the WSOP all-time stats...