Deeb Impact
Kassam "Freddie" Deeb's poker career didn't come quickly, and it certainly didn't come easily. Rather than taking up the game as a hobby or to satisfy some outlandish quest for notoriety. Deeb's reasons were much more mundane. He did it to survive.
A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Deeb left his ancestral home and headed for the United States in 1975 in search of the all-too-elusive American dream. A dream that, in his case, involved a mechanical engineering degree. He never had a chance to finish.
"I didn't have enough money to finish school," says Deeb. "I tried to get a job, but couldn't. I couldn't make any money. So I started playing, started making money, and never went back to school.
Now a husband and proud father of four, Deeb looks back some 20 years to his first real break, a fateful bit of fortune in Reno inspired by a fight with his ex-wife. "I was in Reno living with my ex-wife at the time, and we were not getting along good," he says. "So a friend said 'Let's go to California.'"
Having recently lost nearly $15,000 playing blackjack, Deeb's remaining $200 didn't offer much of a stake. Undaunted, Deed went for broke and, after spending the lion's share of his remaining bankroll on food and a room, he hit the tables with a tiny arsenal of $60.
"I sat in a small $3/$6 limit game with the $60, and I won, like, $500. Then I was going to play $10/$20, but the list was crazy. Everyone wanted to play hold'em, and nobody had an idea what they were doing. So I went to put my name on the list for $10/$20 but the list was, like, a mile long. But a seat was open in a $20/$40 game, so I said 'What's the buy in?' The guy says $200, so I bought in for $300."
It wasn't long before Deeb had managed to turn that $500 into a hefty bankroll. "It didn't take me but one and a half hours to win almost $5,000 in that game. Then I walked around, and they were playing a $100/$200 game with three players, and they were so bad. So I sat in the game for a couple of hours, winning $23,000. I was broke, and all of a sudden I have $30,000," Deeb remembers. "I wasn't tired yet and they were playing $200/$400 stud, hold'em, and lowball. By the morning, I had almost $96,000."
From that amazing night's work, Deeb's career as a successful professional poker player was effectively born. Since then, he has aggressively taken on the poker world one player, one table, and one tournament at a time. He's claimed over a million dollars in prize money, made numerous high-profile final tables, and won major events. Of his stellar success, Deeb can only remark humbly, "Well, I've always been a cash game player. But I do well in tournaments when I play."