Donovan Dean makes a living playing poker around the South, most often in private games, and he became the third player to win a second WSOPC Cherokee Main Event — regarded as the toughest field on the Circuit. His soft-spoken drawl and quiet table presence belies his monster game.
On Monday, Dean rode an elevator up the 32nd floor of the MGM Tower to the VIP suite with 30-foot floor-to-ceiling windows — a far cry from Rainsville, AL. His hometown could all comfortably stay at the Borgata with a population of just 5,000.
Playing above the Mason-Dixon Line
Dean has $1.7 million in career earnings according to The Hendon Mob — playing mostly in the South — but he has been expanding his territory by securing his first Borgata tournament cash on Sunday in the $3,500 Borgata Poker Open Main Event.
Dean shared the chip lead coming into play with Frank Funaro after a smooth Day 2. He lost half his stack in the opening level but rallied back. “Within the next 30 minutes I had 600,000, then I moved tables and built to 1.3 million,” Dean said. “I flopped a set of fours against a guy’s jacks and then had ace-king against kings and queens and hit an ace. I never dipped after that.”
The chance to play for over $400,000 isn’t lost on Dean; he’s been playing for a living since he was 17 and “was always up to something.” He runs some home games now and learned how to win in games where there could be more handguns at the table than players.
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A top-two finish on Tuesday could put him in third place on Alabama’s all-time money list. “It’s going to be hard to catch Shannon (Shorr) and Hoyt (Corkins). Shannon keeps going but hopefully I can catch Hoyt in several years. I know I’ll get third because the guy (Sandeep Pulusani) above me doesn’t play enough.”
Dean has risen up the tournament rankings quickly since 2021; something he attributes directly to having children. “I had my babies at the beginning of 2021 – twin boys – so that makes you buckle down and take it more serious,” he said. “If I’m going to be out here, I need to be winning. I need to bring money home.”
He’s also got a 16-month-old boy added to the mix. “Honestly, I’ve got a great family that helps me keep the kids,” said Dean. “I wish I had a little girl — if I had a girl I’d probably stop trying to have them. The boys are rough and rowdy – tough, but that’s what I want them to be. They’re tough little country boys from Alabama.”
