It’s been a rocky start back with slow growth in Steve’s game. Although he hit the podium in Texas, he struggled to find strong partners and get himself back in the game at other events. He managed to get drafted for the MLP Challenger series which will hold 3 events before a redraft happens. This is good and Steve is hopeful to make a splash in the team event. His team is the Texas Ranchers owned by Tim Klitch, Dan Ferreri, Bryan Sheffield, Kit Sheffield and Richard Veitenheimer. Team members consist of Steve Deakin, Pat Smith, Lee Whitwell and Genie Erokhina.
A new partnership for 2023 is also exciting. He and Travis Rettenmaier have committed to playing the season together. Travis is an American living in Florida, aged 39 years, former tennis player with a former doubles ranking of #57 in the world. Travis knows how to win…so does Steve. These two grinders are very promising together with much to prove to the power set of youngsters that have bled into the sport over the last two years. Both prefer a smart and consistent partnership that can be honed to improve with each event.
Year end Bubly PPA team event was a blast. Steve played on John Isner’s team along with Ben Johns, AJ Koller, Lindsay Newman, Jesse Irvine and Lea Janzen. The team came second overall losing to Team Querry which had Riley Newman on fire. Lot’s of fun and lot’s of poker…shshshshsh
