Kassem 'Freddy' Deeb: A Huge Personality

As we're leaving the north valet entrance of Bellagio very, very late one night, my wife stops me in my tracks as soon as the automatic door opens the July-oven evening into our faces. "Look, it's Danny DeVito," she gushes. She's excited because, growing up, she had a Throw Mama From the Train poster in her bedroom for eight years. As he's handing over the keys to his Mercedes S600 to the valet, I immediately see the guy she's getting giddy over. It isn't Danny, but if you didn't know poker, you wouldn't know any better. Kassem "Freddy" Deeb is in the house. He is all smiles and his infectious personality is in full force as he backslaps five people on his way into the casino. He has a large cup of coffee in his hand. It's time to go invest – in the biggest poker game in town, which is still running at 4 a.m. with more money spread on the felt per hand than an average hoity-toity white-collar guy makes in a year.



For nearly 30 years, Deeb has successfully played his way into the upper echelon of poker's high rollers, picking up enough loot along the way to live the good life while supporting his entire extended family. His fascinating journey has played out against random backdrops, including Lebanon and Utah, and along the way he has become one of the game's most successful high-stakes cash-game players, and an increasingly dominant no-limit hold'em tournament specialist. However, more than any single success, Freddy has etched his own brand of immortality into the poker pantheon as one of the game's most forceful and colorful personalities.



Mediterranean to Mormon Country to Sin City

Freddy was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, and in 1975, at the age of 20, he moved to the United States to attend college. High-energy Freddy didn't settle in Los Angeles or New York. Rather, he moved to Logan, Utah, where he studied mechanical engineering at Utah State University.



After entering the United States, things descended into anarchy in his native Lebanon. The Lebanese Civil War broke out. Beirut, the city once lauded as the "Paris of the Middle East," became a war zone. Deeb lost touch with his parents and his family. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.



Freddy soon found himself in an impossible situation. Since he could not reach his family, his economic lifeline was cut off. He no longer could pay for school, since his student visa didn't allow him to work. However, he tried to make it work. He took a job, under the table, at a Del Monte corn-canning plant, working the night shift and making 90 cents an hour. "I couldn't take it anymore," he said. "It wasn't doing me any good." While in his senior year at Utah State, he had to drop out. There was still no communication with his family. Not knowing what to do next, he did what any hard-living broke guy, stuck living in Utah, would do: go to Las Vegas and gamble.



Deeb knew a bit about poker. He played while in school with friends, and on the holidays. But it wasn't until he sat down in the $20 buy-in $1-$4 stud game at Caesars Palace that he would get competitive gambling in his blood and acquire a taste for living the fast life. "Somehow, I began making good money right away," he recalled. "Now, after all these years, I am still gambling and making a good living."



The Big Rush: Take 1

Deeb prides himself on being a player who takes chances. "That is how I approach poker," he stated. "If I have $50,000 in my pocket, I'll jump in a game and put it all on the line. If they break me in two pieces, they break me, but if I get lucky, I win $300,000 or $400,000. I take those chances a lot."



If he didn't take chances, Freddy never would have got rolling in poker. Flashback, to 1987: Freddy gets into a big argument with his ex-wife. Now, he has a suitcase packed and a hotel booked for a week. A bit on tilt, he heads to a casino after winning $8,000 in a no-limit hold'em game. That was big money in 1987. "I went crazy and blew it all," he said. Now, in an ultimate state of limbo, he's at the bar having a beer. A friend asks him if he knows that seven-card stud and hold'em has just been legalized in Los Angeles, and the games are full of fish. "He told me I should go to L.A. with him," Deeb said, "and I told him I couldn't, because I was broke." His friend told him not to worry about the money, and since Freddy was already packed and had nothing better to do, he got his suitcase and checked out of his hotel, and within minutes they were on their way to the City of Angels.



To this day, the California poker action that Deeb waltzed into during the late 1980s remains unprecedented. "I'm telling you, that boom was the biggest boom poker has ever seen," he exclaimed. "It made today's boom look like nothing." When Freddy and friend walked into The Bicycle Club (now The Bicycle Casino), the action was frantic, with nearly a hundred games going, everything from $10-$20 hold'em to stratospheric $200-$400 mixed games. "There were about 25 people on each list," he said. "That is how crazy it was, and nobody knew what the hell hold'em was. They couldn't even spell it."

Freddy Deeb in the midst of tournament action, and with World Poker Tour host Courtney Friel

With a little loan from his buddy, Freddy had 60 bucks, not a dime more. It was 1 p.m. He sat down in a $3-$6 game and won $400 in an hour and a half. He quit, hoping to perhaps play $10-$20 or $15-$30. As he listed himself for these games, a threehanded $20-$40 game opened up right next to the board. He watched the game for a while. "They were playing so bad, I had to take a shot," he declared. "The minimum buy-in was $200. I played for about two hours and won about $4,400." His $60 was now up to about $5,000. He cashed out and then saw a $100-$200 hold'em game. "They were playing horribly," he said. "The buy-in was $2,000. I didn't even play for an hour and I was up $24,000. That was big money, money that I never had before."



He cashed out again and then found himself surveying the big games. "That is my style," he stated. "When I am winning, I don't give up." He found a $200-$400 mixed game, in which they were spreading stud, lowball and hold'em, and he took a seat. "I had never played lowball before in my life," he laughed. "The buy-in was $5,000. I played for six hours and eventually they kicked it up to $300-$600. By 5 o'clock in the morning, my bankroll was up to $96,000. I ran $60 up to almost $100,000, and since then, I have never looked back."



Cashing in on the Tournament Circuit

There are many similar anecdotes like this from Deeb's life. Predominately a huge cash-game player, there is no need for him to rely on the tournament circuit to pay his bills. "I am not a tournament player," he said. "I don't wait to win a tournament to make my living."



But that doesn't mean he doesn't play in poker's biggest tournaments. Freddy won his way to the final table of the World Poker Tour's first televised event, Bellagio's 2002 Five-Diamond World Poker Classic. Over his career, he has cashed in 35 major tournaments, with more than half of those (17) taking place in the past two years. In 2005, Deeb made a strong showing at the World Series of Poker, cashing in four tournaments and making two final tables, finishing sixth in the $1,000 no-limit hold'em event ($117,500) and fifth in the $2,000 pot-limit hold'em event ($59,615). All told, he has made eight World Series final tables and has one bracelet, from the 1996 $5,000 deuce-to-seven draw event ($146,250).



I spoke with Freddy after the second day of play at the fourth-annual UltimateBet.com Poker Classic. He was relaxed and enjoying a cool drink by the aquamarine water. He had an above-average chip stack, and said he felt like he was playing his A-game. But, again, Freddy made it very clear that tournament poker isn't his favorite way to spend time on the felt. "While tournaments are filled with lots of dead money and can be a good return on your investment, there is lots of luck involved," he said. "One bad beat and you are out." This got me thinking that Freddy would rather be playing in a crazy cash game against machismo tourists from Curacao or Columbia than sitting in the Radisson Hotel's overly air-conditioned basement having CardPlayer.com staff members harassing him for his latest chip count.



He admitted that this year he has adjusted his attitude about playing in tournaments. "In the old days, I didn't pay much attention," he said. "I was just in a hurry to lose my chips because I would see a good side game where I knew I could win $40,000 or $50,000 instead of sitting in a tournament for two days and maybe get unlucky and walk away with nothing. But now, I play to win. I never played to win before. I never focused and put my energy into it. If I keep playing the way I have been playing, I will be able to take down a big million dollar tournament."



And indeed he did. Two days after we spoke, Freddy captured his first WPT victory and his first $1 million tournament payday. He applied nonstop pressure with his aggressive play for the entire tournament, and eventually outlasted 647 players in a tropical paradise.

UltimateBet.com Poker Classic Champion Freddy Deeb and runner-up Josh Schlein

Do the Right Thing

Whether it's a high-stakes cash game, a $40 buy-in tournament, or a $5 online sit and go, Freddy says doing the right thing is the most important skill required in becoming a winning player. "It doesn't matter how good players are. Eventually, they will fall and make a mistake," he commented. "Your goal is to outplay them by making fewer mistakes. You wait for them to slip. In no-limit, all it takes is one mistake and a player is finished. If you can minimize your mistakes, you have a leg up on anyone you play."



Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Deeb says doing the right thing merges a vast array of internal and external stimuli in addition to a heap of strategy and behavior. "You don't have to be a great player to make money," he stated. "You can be an OK player, do the right thing, and make a great living. You can be the greatest poker player on earth, but if you don't do the right thing, you will go broke over and over and over again."



To him, doing the right thing involves a number of things: not drinking while he plays, not playing when he's tired, not playing when he's mad, picking the right game, accepting when to take a loss and quit a game, accepting that sometimes you can play good cards and not win, and, perhaps most importantly, "playing better when losing rather than playing worse." He said that for many players, it is the other way around. "Many players, because they are losing, begin chasing or playing bad hands. If you play like this, you'll end up losing more money."



Deeb singles out "having a good hand" as the most important fundamental to grasp when playing no-limit hold'em. "Lots of players think no-limit is a bluffing game, but you have to have a hand," he said. "Maybe you have a big draw and miss, and you bet. Now, if you have to bluff, you bluff. But you don't come into the pot with the intention of bluffing. That is the wrong approach."



Got Gamble?

If Freddy Deeb were a stock, he would be rated as a high-risk, high-return investment. He lives for the big-stakes action. He has played all of the most notable names in poker – the likes of Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Bobby Baldwin, and Howard Lederer – for high stakes. "You name a big player and I've played him for big money," he said. "I played lots of shorthanded poker with Doyle, Chip, and Bobby Baldwin before lots of the big players came around. We used to play $20,000 and $50,000 buy-in games, no-limit deuce-to-seven. They are all great players, and I would watch them a lot and learn from them. When you play with the best, you play like the best. When you play with an idiot, sometimes you tend to play like an idiot." These experiences, along with 30 years of bankroll-on-the-line aggressive poker, have made Deeb a consistent winner. "Everything I learned, I learned on my own," he said. "I never read any books or received lessons from anyone."



Playing in the biggest games around certainly comes with inherent risks. The tables turn sometimes. Deeb said that of all the high-limit players, 90 percent have bottomed out during their careers. "There is no shame in going broke," he stated. "Banks go broke, governments go broke, and countries go broke. We are nothing but gamblers so what is the big deal about going broke."



Freddy has a penchant for making tremendous sums of money at the poker table. In his past, however, there were times when his winnings were lost in the casino pit. "I screwed up about five or six years ago and lost lots of money in the casinos," he lamented. "But I had a great time doing it. It didn't affect my life and I have never had any problems paying my bills and taking care of my extended family and many friends." Deeb said caring for his family, and using poker as the means to do so, has always been his number one priority. "I take care of about 50 people through poker every month, including my family in Lebanon," he said.

Freddy Deeb contemplates his next play.

The Smart Investor

Freddy's positive outlook on life and competitive tenacity have kept him riding high for 30 years. He credits mental and tactical consistency for his success. "No matter if I am down or up, I have the same mentality," he said. "I am always happy, and the harder I hit the ground, the higher I bounce. I am like a basketball. So, when I screw up and make a mistake, I just play better and rise back to the top. That is one of my big edges."



When interviewed during his first World Poker Tour final table in 2002, Freddy described his line of work as "investing." He said that if you met him before poker was on TV and asked what he did for a living, he would never tell you that he played poker. "I would tell you I am an investor, because, first of all, people would never believe I play poker. They would think I am lying, a drug dealer, or in the mob."



Freddy Deeb is an investor, and he has picked the one sector that seems to withstand any volatility. While the stock market ping-pongs back and forth, gambling – and now, to a greater extent, poker – just continues to gain momentum. "Gamblers always find money to gamble with, and the game never slows down," Freddy said. "It just gets bigger and better, even when the economy is no good."



You could say that Freddy has conducted enough market research to assure a positive return on his investment. After all, every day when he goes to work, even if it is at 4 a.m., he is entertaining himself, keeping his mind working, and making great money. "It's like I run my own business, and when you own your own business, you can make a good living, rather than work for someone else, just pay your bills, and never have a chance to relax," he said. "Poker is something I don't think I'll ever give up."