2010 World Series of Poker Wrapup - The Summer that Wasn't.

Where to begin? As I type this I'm 3 hours removed from day 5 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. I had high hopes as I entered day 5 with 1.25x the average and was feeling great, but it wasn't to be as I got two tens in against two kings on KT33 for a 2.5x average pot.

In total I played 34 WSOP events this summer. In 2009 I played 29 events, so needless to say I shattered that figure. This is a product of me becoming more adept at the mixed games, so I played a few more of those. I can say with confidence that I'm gonna be a long term winner in all 34 of those events because there is just so much dead money at the World Series of Poker. The reality is that one summer of live tournaments is such a small sample size. I'll play like 25 tournaments on a single Sunday online. Also, there is such high variance in these things due to the often big buy-ins. These things said, I'm completely at peace with how things went on the summer albeit very frustrated. Even with the miserable series, I'm still a decent overall winner in 2010 thanks almost entirely to my FTOPS win in May.

I managed to cash a career best 5 times on the Series. If you told me I was gonna cash 5 times in 35 events, I would've asked, "Where do I sign?" and written home to Mom about it as I expect to cash at right around that clip. Alas, in tournament poker you need to make very deep runs to cover buy-ins though, and none of my 5 cashes was for more than 4 times that tournament's buy-in. My deepest finish was 17th in the $2000 Limit Hold em event.

This is the first year in the last 4 that I failed to make a WSOP final table, so that's a little disappointing. Of course I still wasn't able to capture my first bracelet. I'm only 25 though and it will come soon enough, and I know that the moment it happens will be magical.

In total, I invested $128,500 this year in buy-ins (slightly less than last year's $131k) and found only $57,344 in cashes. As a result I was a career WSOP-worst $71,156 loser which amounts to a -55% ROI on the summer. My lifetime WSOP numbers are below:

In 2006 I cashed 3 times in 22 events and was a $35,135 loser.

In 2007 I cashed 3 times in 21 events and turned a $5,249 winner.

In 2008 I cashed 4 times in 22 events and turned a $314,498 winner.

In 2009 I cashed 3 times in 29 events and was a $59,600 loser.

In 2010 I cashed 5 times in 35 events and was a $71,156 loser.

In the 5 summers combined, I've invested $453,500 in buy-ins over the 129 events and have cashed for $607,356. This amounts to a $153,856 profit (34% ROI). All things considered, I expect that I've actually run below expectation over that small sample of events and hope to turn a much higher ROI over the next 5 summers in Las Vegas.

My next poker stop is in The United Kingdom next Thursday as I'll be playing in a made for TV $20,000 buy-in sit-n-go called "Poker Lounge" which is put on by Full Tilt Poker in Wales. I'll apparently be playing with 5 Full Tilt pro's and it'll be winner take all for the $120,000. I'll be updating on Twitter if anyone wants to follow.

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World Series of Poker! Updates on Twitter.

Also, while I did meet some fascinating people back in the real world, I also found that there are so few people who are extremely driven. I kind of like Holdem poker because I'll get to pick the people I interact with and can avoid otherwise annoying people I might come in contact with in the corporate world.

I'd considered sending out resumes upon graduating just to see what kind of work was out there, but obviously there are no jobs available anywhere, and my resume would be mostly blank :)

The majority of the time since I last posted has actually been playing poker. I put in probably 180 hours over 2.5 weeks, and the results were there. I captured an FTOPS title and $214,000 on a Wednesday night before I graduated. The win was my biggest and most memorable of my online poker tournaments career.

I stayed hot and won the $100 rebuy on Stars last Sunday night for $44,000 in the midst of the Pokerstars' SCOOP series. All told, the SCOOP itself was not a success as I turned a loser in those events despite cashing at a decent clip. Actually I final tabled some $100 SCOOP event and after 17 long hours of playing, I finished 8th and barely turned a profit on the day after busting some other events.

Well, the time has come once again for the World Series of Poker. It's hard to believe, but this will be my fifth consecutive summer in Vegas playing the slate of events. Earlier this week, my roommates and I checked into our summer rental house. It is, in a word, breathtaking.

The inevitable pain that comes from busting event after event will be eased by just how wonderful it'll be relaxing at this place. I'm really geared up for the series this year. I feel like I'm playing really well right now and I can really focus on poker now that I got school out of the way. Maybe this will be the year that I capture the bracelet that has to this point eluded me. As usual, I'll be playing 25+ events. In fact, there's only a handful of events on the schedule that I won't consider playing at all.

Most days there are events that start at Noon PDT and also at 5 p.m., so I'll play at 5 on any days where I bust the afternoon event. I expect to be playing 70 hour weeks for the next 6 weeks or so, but I know what I'm getting myself into, and I love it. It's pretty draining, but I like the idea of really grinding it out and pressing value for a couple months then hopefully not having to work very hard for the rest of the year.

I'm at a point where I just don't really have the drive to post tournament recaps of every tournament I play this summer as I've done in every year past. I will however be updating my twitter page, twitter.com/shannonshorr each break of every tournament that I play. It's just much easier that way. I'll still blog every now and then, I guess.

There isn't much more to say. Let the bliss, heartbreak, sleep deprivation, money chasing, unhealthy eating, unforgettable summer begin!