Freddy Deeb

Freddy Deeb was born in Beirut, Lebanon on November 27, 1955. After spending his childhood in Lebanon, he moved to the United States at the age of 19. Freddy, whose real name is Kassem, picked up his nickname because people had trouble spelling his first name so a friend said that Deeb’s name was Freddy and he has been known as such ever since. While the vast majority of poker pros had a career before becoming a professional poker player, Deeb is proud to say that he has never had a regular job in his entire life.

At 19, Freddy was sent to the United States to study mechanical engineering in Los Angeles. After spending some time in Los Angeles, Freddy decided that the city was too large for his tastes and decided to transfer to Utah State University instead.  During his years in college, the war in Lebanon broke out which completely cut Freddy off from the rest of his family for two years. Because he was separated from his family, he had no way to get money to pay for school and because he was on a student visa, he was not allowed to work in the U.S. With no other option for money, Freddy would travel to Las Vegas to make his money playing poker.

After a while, Freddy started to make decent amount of money playing poker. For a while, he was playing cash games almost exclusively but as tournament poker became more popular, he started to play tournament poker as well. Freddy’s first money finish, according to gaming records, was in 1986 and Deeb has been well known on the tournament poker scene ever since. Freddy is known for being extremely adept at almost every form of poker.

Freddy won his very first World Series of Poker bracelet in 1996 by beating an extremely talented final table that included the likes of Doyle Brunson and Gabe Kaplan in the $5000 Deuce to Seven Lowball event. Despite the fact that Deeb has never won the WSOP Main event, he has come close twice finishing 13^th in 2003 and 17^th in 1995, he has won the most difficult World Series of Poker bracelet. In 2007, Freddy outlasted the likes of Barry Greenstein and Thor Hansen to take home the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E WSOP bracelet.  Along with his two bracelets, he has 28 money finishes at the WSOP.

In addition to his success at the WSOP, Deeb has also been immensely successful on the World Poker Tour. He has five final tables under his belt, three wins, and twelve money finishes. In total, Deeb has taken home more than $7.2 million in live winnings and is one of the most successful players on the World Poker Tour. As a player, Deeb is a rather conservative player and he is always looking for the best opportunity to “invest” his chips that will result in the best return. Freddy Deeb currently lives in Las Vegas with his wife and four children.

Posted by Joel on Feb 12 2011. Filed under Player Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry