Shaun Deeb Fired Up for POY & Fires Back at Critics | PokerNews Podcast #953

Shaun Deeb losing his ninth bracelet opportunity to quads — twice — while fired up for a POY run is tournament poker's mental gauntlet on full display. Deeb's sustained POY contention across multiple years demonstrates what the grind requires: filing enormous buy-in volume across every viable event, managing sustained variance, and maintaining competitive intensity regardless of results. At that volume level, rakeback programs become a meaningful line item in the economics. PokerStars Select/Select+ and GGPoker's Ocean Rewards both count WSOP buy-ins toward loyalty tiers, returning 15-60% and 24-80% respectively for high-volume players. The difference between rakeback programs at this volume level is thousands of dollars annually — see the full breakdown in our best rakeback deals guide.