Backpacking Through Europe

Hello everyone! Once again it has been too long since my last update. I'm writing this blog entry from a hotel room in the breathtaking town of Lugano, Switzerland. Since my last update, I have spent 31 nights in the US, 36 nights in Costa Rica, and 18 nights in Europe. I'd like to go through and do the calculation for the last 15 months, as I've been spending increasingly less time in America.

After the World Series of Poker ended this summer in Las Vegas, I did about a month worth of unwinding back in Alabama. I then spent a weekend I won't soon forget with friends attending the wedding of our pal Eric Baldwin and his wife Mary in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. When I arrived back home on Sunday August 19 I got a call from my mom saying that my sister Heather, who was expecting a baby September 5, was on her way to the hospital. At 11:57 pm she gave birth to my first niece Alaina! It was a really cool experience and I look forward to watching Alaina grow up. I had a flight to Costa Rica booked for the 21st, so the timing was perfect!

From there, I headed to Costa Rica to play the World Championship of Online Poker with one of my best friends, Adam "simmsux" Geyer. Let me first say that Adam is the definition of a consumate professional. It was an honor to stay with him and watch how he operates: quitely, efficiently, and completely under the radar (by choice). With his incredibly successful WCOOP, he has cemented himself as an online poker tournament legend. On arrival, we almost immediately began an intense work schedule. Down the final 3 weeks of the stay, we averaged 70 hours per week of online poker. Talk about isolation! We did find some time for some amazing adventure. We played golf, went white water rafting, saw a volcano, went zipiling, went surfing, and saw a World Cup qualifying soccer match. I really enjoyed my stay in the country. Along with the adventure, the people and the food were fantastic.

My WCOOP series didn't go well, and I was less than thrilled with how I played at times. It's possible I'm being too hard on myself, and I'll give myself that it's difficult to maintain focus for the duration of that kind of work stint. I found myself tilting at times which is something that I can say with confidence almost never happens when I play live tournaments. Luckily, I won the Pokerstars 792 player $500 tournament last night, so I was able to more than recover my losses from the WCOOP.

I was pretty surprised with how much the online poker tournaments evolved in such a short time, and it took me a bit of time to adjust. Poker is certainly becoming less and less attractive as a means for making a living if you consider how all of our hourly rates have been undeniably affected over the last couple years. I am a firm believer that with the current state of the industry, it would be a very poor decision for any young, unestablished person to abandon school or work to try to make a living playing poker. The variance is just so incredibly remarkable. Myself and other players from my generation were so fortunate with the timing of our entry into the business: a time when the economy was good, people were uneducated about the game, and online poker was legal in the United States. From talking with other professional poker players recently, almost all agree that it would be a most daunting task to try to build from the ground up right now.

After Costa Rica, I went home long enough to see family and do laundry. I arrived in Cannes, France late last month in time for the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. I had a short stay in that event, but I can only say great things about the town. It's so chill and definitely one of my favorite stops on the poker tournament circuit. I hung around for a couple days as my long time friend and (often) roommate Jon Little made day 3 of the event. Then, we took the short train ride to the town of San Remo, Italy which was conveniently hosting a nine day European Poker Tour series immediately after the WSOP-E. San Remo is another town that I really like despite many negative reviews from poker players. Admittedly there isn't a whole lot to do there, but I found myself spending hours just staring in awe at the natural beauty of the place from our apartment balcony. The 11 live tournaments I played in France and Italy were in a losing effort. 

I intended on flying back to Alabama after the series in San Remo, but on a whim decided to purchase a backpack, cancel my flight, and do some solo leisure traveling around Europe. I am completely intoxicated by travel, and now is as good a time as any. I spent the weekend in Milan and intend on spending this entire week in Switzerland. I'll likely go through Germany the following week. On Sundays I'll check into hotels to ensure stable internet so I can play online, but otherwise I will be staying in hostels and riding trains throughout. Milan was my first hostel experience and I loved it! Meeting new people is near the top of my passions right now, so there is no other way to travel in my opinion. I was initially worried about the isolation, but I have already met a ton of amazing new friends. I feel myself growing everyday and expect this to be a lifechanging experience. I have particularly enjoyed sharing travel stories and getting recommendations on places to go. I am due in Amsterdam for a tournament series beginning November 3 and am supposed to fly home 11/9. As far as I'm concerned though, I'll be traveling indefinitely. If you want to follow along on my trip, I'll be on twitter occasionally @ShannonShorr.

Thanks for reading.

SS

WSOP 2012 WRAP-UP

As I type this, I’m sitting in my office in my condo in Birmingham, Alabama. I bought this place here in the city in which I grew up in late March 2011. The online poker fallout known as ‘Black Friday’ happened three weeks later on April 15, 2011. For those that don’t know, the three major online poker sites were seized by the Department of Justice on that day and online poker was essentially banned in the United States. I was a little unlucky with the timing of things, as I clearly wouldn’t purchase a home in a place where I can’t get any work done. Although I still call it home, I don’t get to spend much time here. When I do, I absolutely love it. My whole family is here, I’m comfortable, and it’s great for relaxing and having time away from the always-stressful career that is tournament poker.

I’ve been home for five days or so after spending 53 consecutive days in the city of Las Vegas. In my seven years in this business I’ve naturally spent a lot of time in Vegas. Truth be told, I don’t like the city. I feel like it’s very hard to find genuine people. Everyone seems driven only by his or her own financial success. There are amazing dining options, but aside from that there isn’t much to do besides go clubbing and gamble—neither of which I’m interested in doing too often. Still, I cherish the opportunity to be able to go work hard out there each summer. I had the benefit of living with five very talented poker players and great friends in Michael Katz, Adam Geyer, Jesse Yaginuma, James St Hilaire and Jesse Chinni. They all also happen to be amazing, well rounded, positive minded men, which makes the experience that much better.

I arrived in Las Vegas this summer in great spirits despite being amidst the biggest downswing of my professional career. I'd never entered a summer in Vegas in better shape physically, and I'd never been happier altogether about life. Something outsiders should know about playing strictly live tournaments for income (as I have been doing for 17 months) is the volatility of the endeavor. Given that only 10-15% of the field gets paid in each tournament, just cashing in a tournament is quite difficult. Add to that most of the money is loaded to the top one or two percent of finishers and you’ll see the necessity for making deep runs often in order to support oneself. Something else that people may or may not know about me is that since the beginning of my career, I have played tournaments entirely on my own dime. The reality is the vast majority of guys you see in the tournament arena are financially backed by other individuals. I told myself from the beginning that I would never be interested in being backed, and I was extremely fortunate early in my career to be in a position where I never had to be. There is something I love about going out there each day and putting my own money on the line. Not many people are saying it, but the truth is tournament poker is getting much more difficult. I can say that without question I’ve become a much tougher individual as a result of all of the heartbreak that is inevitable in this profession that I've chosen.

The first five weeks of this summer started out as had my last three summers at the World Series of Poker: miserably. I make a habit of spending tons of hours playing tournaments each summer, so no matter how hard I try, my overall state of mind is influenced by how the tournaments are going. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time playing these live tournaments, you just have to stay positive and keep the variance in perspective if you want to stay sane. It is essential to check your ego at the door and play each hand independently of the one prior. I can't count how many times I've seen guys bust tournaments as a result of losing focus due to another person at the table getting the best of them.

After scratching just 1 small cash in my first 20 events this summer, I had a shot in the $2500 mixed hold ‘em. It wasn’t to be as I finished 16th late in the night on day 2 in front of a rail of people that was around to see my tablemate Phil Ivey. A few events later, I made a push in the $3000 no limit hold ‘em event. Again, I came up short of the significant money as I finished in 30th place after busting on the first hand of day 3. From here, I bricked 7 consecutive tournaments before cashing for the minimum in a $1000 no limit hold ‘em tournament that uncharacteristically reached the money on day 1. It was at this point that I realized that I had two tournaments left to get my summer (and career) back on track.

I entered the $10,000 six-handed no limit hold ‘em event as focused as ever. This is an extremely prestigious event, so I knew I would have to be playing my very best to have a chance. In the first 25 minutes of the tournament, I was fortunate enough to double up versus a gentleman with a straight flush against his king-high flush on a board of Ac2cJc4c9d and started to think this could be the one. I struggled to get anything else going on that day and ended somewhat short. Early on day 2, I got lucky against one of the class acts in the tournament poker world, Dan Kelly, when my eights flopped a set against his jacks after we had committed my entire stack preflop. We eventually reached the money, but I slipped late in the night and entered day 3 in 19th of the 27 remaining players all undoubtedly losing sleep thinking about the $1.15 million first prize.

Things worked out on day 3, and I climbed to chipleader with around 15 players left. I will say this about that day: I have never felt more pressure to make a deep run. If I came up short it would have taken a long, long time to recover from another missed opportunity. I was feeling the magnitude of the moment. I took special care to be deliberate in my decisions, turned my phone off, and isolated myself on breaks from the tournament in order to keep my focus at the highest level.

One of the crazy things about tournament poker is just how much real money equity is at stake late in the tournament. I won’t bore you guys with details from the rest of the tournament, but I ended up finishing 3rd for $455,000. It hurt to not get my first bracelet after coming so close, but I gave this tournament everything I had. It just wasn’t quite enough. The eventual winner was Greg Merson who is a hell of a nice guy and a truly elite player. He happened to make the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event later in the summer and will play for a staggering $8.5 million when the final table plays out in October. I’ll add that everyone at this final table was extremely classy and professional. It makes the experience that much more enjoyable when you can just get lost in the grind of the tournament and not have to deal with annoying personalities and ego overdoses that, sadly, you so often see in our world.

The next week, I participated in the WSOP Main Event. I was happy with my play in this the pinnacle of all poker tournaments, but I came up short of the money by busting in the middle of day 3 around 1200th of the 6600 entrants with 666 getting paid. I was really exhausted after this tournament but as an afterthought decided to play a $5000 tournament at Venetian that would begin the next day as opposed to flying home. I just felt like my focus was at an all-time high, and I thought it would be a poor business decision to sit it out. I plugged along in this well-run, deepstacked tournament and ended up finishing 4th of the 398 entrants on day 4 for $126,000. It was a nice sweetener to end the summer, and I left Las Vegas the next day with a new energy and passion for poker.

Where do I go from here? I don’t know. I have a lot of thoughts about poker and the role I want it to play in my life, but I’d like to articulate these thoughts in a blog entry at another time. I’m considering going abroad and setting up short-term residency in order to make my return to online poker to play the World Championship of Online Poker in September, but I can’t say for certain. I’m also keeping an eye on the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, France in late September. Until then at least, it’s unlikely I’ll play a hand of poker. I have interests and projects I’m going to pursue from Birmingham over the next few weeks. Additionally, my older sister Heather is expecting a baby girl in early September! It’s an exciting time for me personally, and I look forward to what the future will bring. I’m realizing more and more just how fortunate we are to live this life, and I intend on embracing and living every minute of it.

I’d also like to add that I really appreciate the support you guys have given me throughout the summer (and my career). When I got in to this business as a 20 year old I could have only dreamed for it to materialize as it has. The words that some of you have said are so kind and so touching. Thanks for reading.

Shannon

A Blog Entry About Me

Some of you will notice that it has been six and a half months since my last entry. It's really strange to sit here and type that as I vividly remember blogging daily (sometimes twice daily) a few years ago. Honestly, I just grew tired of it. I look back and cringe a little bit about some of the stuff I put on the internet years ago. Call it poor blogging etiquette, but it got to the point that I actually took the blog entry archives off the internet. Additionally, I lost interest in talking about myself and have thoroughly enjoyed laying low and not reporting to anyone the last year or so.

It has been an amazingly fun and wild six and a half years to start my career as a professional poker player. It goes unsaid that this line of work sends one on an emotional roller coaster. That said, I'm extremely fortunate to be where I am and would do it all over in a heartbeat. Other poker players and I have it so good compared to many others, so I regret sometimes complaining on this blog. On behalf of all poker players, I'd like to apologize to anyone who has ever had to listen to us whine.

Anyway, this blog entry IS about me. Here is an honest, rambling account of what I've been up to since I last posted on November 1, 2011.

Professionally

Let's get the bad part out of the way. Professionally, things haven't been going well. One of the things I've tried to stress in my blog since Black Friday (4/15/2011) when online poker was essentially banned in the US is the volatility of playing just live poker tournaments for income. The variance in tournament poker is something that only true poker insiders will really ever understand. I am a tournament poker player by trade, so I played 124 live poker tournaments in 2011 with an average buy-in of over $5,000. Comparably, online I played around 30 tournaments per Sunday for an average of about 33 Sundays per year during the years leading up to Black Friday. Obviously, it was nice to spread the variance out over a lot more tournaments. I won't sit here and make excuses though nor will I complain. I made my own decision to play poker professionally, and I will deal with the highs and lows of the business accordingly.

My short term plan is to move to Las Vegas for 50 days starting next week. This will be my seventh consecutive summer in Las Vegas. I will be renting a house with five of my friends, and I look forward to the experience. I intend on playing a bunch of events, but I won't go out of my way to play almost everything that runs. For the last 3 years I have been near the top of all players in events played. That isn't necessarily a good category at which to be near the top. After the summer, I will most likely hop up to Canada to set up residency so I can log in and play poker whenever I'm outside the US. Honestly, I would like for poker to be more of a secondary source of income for me within the next 5 years. I'm not sure if that can happen though as Black Friday was a big setback. Add to that the fact that I don't have a passion for any other kind of work at this time. I can still say with confidence that I love waking up and playing poker each day that I do. I'll enter each tournament this summer in a positive state of mind ready to work.

Fitness/Diet

As I type this, I am in the best shape of my life physically. I weighed in at 173 lbs this morning--down from 237 on Jan 3, 2007. I can't tell you how good it feels to type that! I have fully dedicated myself to my health over the last 9 months or so, and I'm reaping the benefits. As my 27th birthday approaches in a couple weeks, I look back and am pretty disgusted with how I treated my body for most of my twenties. Something just clicked one day, and this sense of awareness came over me. I realized that my overall life could only be improved by getting into tip-top shape. I did it all by myself which makes me feel even better. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to find out if I had it in me, and I got the answer. I've developed a passion for running and look forward to getting into other outdoor activities.

I won't go into what exactly I've been eating because I'm no diet expert. I will say though as many have and will: DIET is the key to success in weight loss. For years I ran often enough but didn't understand why I couldn't shed pounds. You just must show the discipline to lay off the junk food, the late night food, and the big meals if you want to see a difference. Straying from your diet multiple times per week won't cut it. I educated myself on what foods actually were healthy--something else that you must do. I feel like so many individuals don't understand what they actually need to and needn't be eating. It's going to take a lot of work and it's not easy, but I hope this section of this entry motivates just one person to turn his or her life around with regard to health.

Women

Any poker player you talk to you will tell you the difficulty of having relationships when you do what we do. By choice, I've spent most of my twenties single aside from one childish 19 month relationship I had. I've been gone so often and was never in one place, so it didn't make much sense to try to cultivate any sort of romantic relationship. I made some mistakes with girls by not being honest upfront, and I truly regret that. It finally hit home that my actions do have consequences.

At this point in my life, I'm still focusing on me. There are a lot of things I'm still trying to do and places I'm still trying to see while I'm single. I've enjoyed not having to report to anyone. The difference now is that I'm honest upfront with girls about my situation, and it just makes things easier for everyone. When I find a girl that I like that likes me, I hang out with her and we do what we do without labels and don't make a big production about it. I think there's something to be said about that. It's not for a lot of people, and I can respect that.

Family

This is the section of this blog that I'll get the greatest joy from typing. I have increasingly been strengthening my relationships with my family over the last year. I love my dad, mom and sisters Heather and Carly so much. It has given me great pleasure to grow closer and closer with them. I'm in contact almost daily now and know what is going on in each of his or her lives. I've always had a great family life but at times people get busy and lose touch. It's a matter of making it a priority. I've always looked very highly at people with very strong family relationships, and I'm glad to be part of one.

Goals/Plans

Poker is about to take over my life again, as I'll be playing up to 80 hours per week for the next 7 weeks. Still, I have some non-poker goals and plans for the rest of 2012. I have been doing quite a bit of reading in 2012 and hope to continue that. A lot of my reading has been on communication, eye contact, self improvement, and human relationships--things in which I'm absolutely fascinated. Additionally, I'll spend much of my spare time attacking Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) that I just purchased. I've developed a fondness for foreign films, so I plan on watching a bunch more of them.

I'll continue to spend time in the gym. It's so easy to sacrifice diet and fitness at the WSOP each summer because of the horrible work schedule, but I don't intend on letting that happen this year. Another thing I'm really getting into is meeting new people. For the longest time, embarrassingly, I wasn't receptive to it. I love talking with new people now and believe that there's good in everyone. You just have to dig to find it. I cherish every interaction that I have in my daily life now.

That's all I have for now. If any of you are interested in keeping up with me, feel free to follow at twitter.com/shannonshorr. Additionally, I always welcome emails about anything, shannonshorr@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I really appreciate you guys reading. Have a great weekend

Poker and LIfe Post Black Friday

This entry is being written from an apartment in Budapest, Hungary as I'm currently vacationing here with my boy Matt while I'm about halfway through a seven week European poker trip. This is a really incredible city with so much history, and it's such a great opportunity to visit it. Our time here comes after 12 days in Cannes, France for the World Series of Poker Europe and seven days in San Remo, Italy for a European Poker Tour series. This weekend we'll head to Amsterdam for a week long series followed by a two day vacation in Athens, Greece. Then, Ill head an hour west to a town called Loutraki for another EPT series for a week to conclude the trip before heading back to Birmingham for Thanksgiving. Needless to say, this has been an experience of a lifetime. I've really taken the time to see some sites and haven't taken a moment of the trip for granted. If I could offer one piece of advice from all the travels that I've been so fortunate to experience during my time in this business, it would be to see the southeastern coast of France as it meets Italy. The views of the houses on the hills on the Mediterranean Sea were images that will never escape me as long as I live.

Before, I headed overseas I had a  sort of ten week lull where I spent a lot of time in Alabama making a lot of changes in my life. For those of you who don't know, the three major online poker sites were seized in April of this year, and online poker was essentially banned for now in The United States. The reality of this didn't hit me until after The World Series of Poker which took place this summer, as I was extremely busy trying to grind out a living in Las Vegas over the course of six or seven weeks during that time. I had a lot of growing up to do quickly as my style was cramped with a major source of income being taken from me. It turns out that for the last six years I have been making a very good living for myself playing poker on the live tournament circuit in addition, so I was not entirely dependent on online poker. 

I should make clear that I am in no way bemoaning my luck or complaining. I am incredibly grateful for everyday that I get to spend playing poker for a living as it's something I love and is a career that has afforded me opportunities that I would have never had otherwise.  The reality is that myself and thousands of other poker players were just a coin flip or two away from being in or out of this business many times at the start of our respective careers. No one deserves anything in this business of playing cards for a living. There's no room for complaining when you consider possible alternatives, and it's something regrettably I've been guilty of many times in my career. I've grown out of it and am completely over hearing it from other poker players, many of whom are top names who have been more fortunate than anyone to be where they are. 

During my downtime, I had some decisions to make as far as what the future holds for me. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just sit around and complain about the state of the business and the economy, and everyday that you're not making moves you're falling behind. Many poker players made the completely understandable decision of relocating to Vancouver or Mexico or Europe in order to play online. For a couple reasons, I couldn't make a rash decision and uproot from my condo in Birmingham, Alabama. I decided the first thing to do was to get in great shape physically. The online poker seizures were kind of a blessing in disguise as I was able to, at long last, have some time for myself at my home to entirely dedicate myself to fitness and diet. I quickly shed fifteen pounds and as I type this am nearing the best shape of my life. During this period of my life, I've become extremely goal and business-oriented and couldn't be happier. I've grown closer than ever with my family that I love so dearly and have become extremely active in a side business project that will supplement income. I traveled to Los Angeles and Las Vegas (twice) for a few other poker tournaments and spent a few days in Atlanta watching my Braves collapse at the end of the regular season. Additionally, I took an amazing 1700 mile round trip RV trip up to Happy Valley with my boys from Birmingham for the Alabama vs Penn State football game over the last couple months as well.

As I'm getting older it seems like things are becoming a little more clear despite the ever-changing, volatile, career and life that I've chosen. I need to be working and it turns out that traveling around the world playing poker tournaments is my best skill set for the time being. Not having much time at home to relax and get things done is tough sometimes, but it's something with which I'm at peace, and I don't exactly think I'll regret spending my twenties experiencing many of the things that I've experienced. Also, there are no women in my life right now, so it's a really great opportunity to do me. In Alabama to be 26 and to not be trying hard to settle down is a foreign concept to a lot of people, but it is not a priority for me right now. It will happen when it happens. 

Thanks for reading,

SS

Fourth in World Poker Tour ii

On day 4 we set up in a different ballroom to play Texas Hold'em and on the very first hand I raised then 4bet ATo from the button for Hoyt's stack from the BB and he thought a long time before folding. Once we got down to 18 we redrew and I got the worst seat in the room with eventual 5th-place finisher and then chipleader Ryan Hughes to my direct left.

The guy is a very tough poker tournament player and is constantly applying pressure. I kind of sat on my hands and decided I was only going to put chips in the pot preflop for value. I opened 6 pots in an hour or so and Hughes called once and 3bet 5 times. The first two times he 3bet I had two kings and 4bet. He folded to both. Later, I opened two black queens from the cutoff and he flatted the button. Flop JhTh5d. I bet 22000, he made it 52000, and I made it 157000 of my 757,000. He thought and called.

Turn was an awful 7h, but Hughes had been maniacal that I told myself I was going broke on the hand. He checked though and then checked behind when the 5h came on the end as I'm pretty sure he had an idea that my plan throughout the tournament was to bluffcatch/checkraise rivers against him. I was shown Q8hh and breathed a sigh of relief.

The last hand before break with 12 left, I won a pretty amazing pot to double through Hughes. I opened UTG 6 handed with AdJc to 15k and Hughes made it 40k behind me. I made it 116k and was fully prepared to call off my last 400k if he moved in. He called. Flop QdTs5d. I checked and Hughes quickly bet 160k or something. I fully expected him to call, so I had a big decision as to whether he was on a draw or not. I decided he was, moved in, and he called with J9cc for an open-ended and was dead to a 9 or an 8.

It came T then 2 and I doubled to 1.05 million. I climbed to chiplead with 8 players left with about 1.5 million in chips and 6 making the TV table. I then lost a massive pot to double Allen Carter in a 3way 3-bet pot where I had 55 vs his 22 on A42 and missed to slip all the way to 350k. I immediately won a pot off a tough young player named Pat Mahoney with AK vs his AQ on KQ272 to climb back to half a million and rallied to make the TV final table with 665k when we lost Tuscaloosa native, BJ MacBrayer on the TV final table bubble.

Twenty friends and family came down to watch my final table, which is something for which I'm incredibly grateful. I'm very lucky to have so many great people in my life. The final table got off to a good start as I busted Ryan Hughes with JT vs his 74 blind vs blind on a J94 board. I then went up and down after playing a couple pots with Kuzmin. The kid was insane and 3bet me 4 consecutive times from the BB when I opened the button!

Once I called with two sixes and sadly he checkfolded after a K96 flop. I then ran a pretty huge bluff against him that will make TV. On the 4th time he 3bet my button open from the BB I decided to call with K2ss because we were so deep. I was certain he would jam if I 4bet. Flop JJT. He bet 70k into like 190 and I decided to make it 170k. He called. Turn 7x. He checked and I bet 225k leaving myself around half a million. He thought 20 seconds and folded and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was 2nd of 4 in chips when a big pot came up.

I opened KdKc from the cutoff and Carter flatted the button and Kuzmin called from the BB. Flop T94 all hearts. I bet 62000 and Carter called and Kuzmin folded. Turn 2d or something. I bet 145k and he called. River gross Ac. I checked and Carter bet full pot, half a million. It's such a good spot for Carter to bluff with something like QhJc, and I was almost certain from my history with him and the way he put chips in the pot that he did not flop a flush.

I had him polarized to AT or a bluff, and I made what is probably a pretty awful call still. I was shown AT. Carter rudely asked me something like "I guess I got there on the river huh?" immediately following the hand. I ignore the question and then ignored Mahoney when he followed by asking me an equally rude "Big pair, Shannon?" I don't think I'm being over-sensitive here, and let this hopefully be a lesson to people who play poker. When you beat a man out of a pot just collect the chips and don't make any comments.

I nitted it up for a long time because the stacks were awkward, but then I doubled through Carter with 99 vs 88 and Leif Force with AQ vs A9 in a 15 minute span to climb back to 2nd of 4 in chips.

Shortly after a break, I came back and played a huge pot with Kuzmin. He opened to 50k at 10/20 from the button and I decided to defend with A6dd from the BB. Flop JdTd5c. The line is simple here given the stacks, bet/3bet all-in, and that's just what I did when he raised my 77k to 250k. He quickcalled with red kings, a hand I was fine with seeing as I had about 43% equity in the pot. Sadly, I missed though and was down to a few hundred thousand. I moved in a few times successfully before shoving J7o into Carter's QJo bvb and missing to finish 4th for $145,000.

Tournament poker is a very funny business, as the ups and downs are pretty insane, especially when playing mostly big buy-in live tournaments. $145,000 isn't a life-changing score by any means especially when I was quickly stuck $65,000 on the year. It is what it is though, although it hurts to have left $450,000 on the table with first place getting .6 million.

I'm proud of myself for battling though, as its easy to really lose confidence after losing a lot of money in tournaments consecutively (albeit a very small sample size). I'm very grateful to be in the business as I really enjoy what I do. As it stands, I plan on playing a ton of live tournaments through the end of the 2011 WSOP in July. For the most part, I have a net-worth figure that I want to reach, and I'm kinda gonna work hard to get there before taking a break.

I continually wrestle with whether I want to spend my time traveling to poker tournaments as opposed to doing other things and hobbies that I would probably enjoy. I'm in a very unique situation at 25 in that I don't really have to work often and could really do some amazing things, but I also want to try to make a lot of money while the business is still good. I'll try to decide that as I move forward this year.

4th in World Poker Tour Main Event i

A month of January that started off miserably just took a very welcome turn for the better as I finished 4th at WPT Texas Hold'em poker Main Event in Biloxi last week for $145,000.

Since I last posted I spent 9 days in Nassau, Bahamas for the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure poker tournaments and then 9 more days in Biloxi. The Bahamas was an altogether miserable experience, if you can believe that. It might sound insane, but there's very little I look forward to about that trip down to the Atlantis resort every January.

My friends and I talked about it and they mostly agreed, so I guess I'm not totally crazy. The weather wasn't great and the service from the staff was predictably awful. I also don't like to get caught up in the conversations and ego that goes along with 5000 poker players being in one place. I'll stop complaining though. I played 8 tournaments including the $25,000 buy-in and bricked all but one of them as I finished 9th for peanuts in some $1500 nlhe event. I might've been the happiest man ever to leave that island. I roomed with my boys Jon Little and Adam Geyer and really enjoyed their company though.

I came home for a couple days to relax and then headed down to Biloxi. I stopped off to watch Bama beat then #12 Kentucky in basketball in what was probably the most exciting Bama hoops game I'm ever attended. I got down to Biloxi and quickly bricked 3 prelim events and was down $65,000 in 2011 before I knew what hit me. I told my dad I was going to win the main event though, a prediction I almost never verbally make. I came close.

I started day 1 at what must've been one of the toughest tables in the room at a WPT event that could've been the softest of the 36 I've played in my career. I kind of hung around the starting stack of 30,000 chips until I 3bet Frank Kassella in a pot with AKo. Yuval Brohnstein called cold and Kassella called. Flop KKTr. Check, I bet small, fold, and Kassella checkraised my 1800 to 4800. I actually really hated my life at that point. I decided to call.

Turn 6 or something stupid and Kassella moved in for 14000 or something and I called and was shown TT. I just don't think he's ever going to bluff his tournament away there, but he might show me KQs or KJs. I was down to 12000 but quickly rallied back to the starting stack after winning a bunch of small pots. With a few hands left in the night, I opened 75dd upfront and a loose older gentleman predictably defended. Flop 9d4h2h. He led 1200 as he'd done often and I decided to float. Turn 3h. He led 3500 and for no particular reason I decided to raise to 8500. He thought 3 minutes and asked "do you have a flush?" and then called.

River Jc. He checked and just when I was about to give up and check behind I instead reached for 13400 in chips and bet. He thought 5 long minutes this time and then said "I give up" and folded. I took 50k to day 2 with average around 43.
On day 2 I danced around to 4 different tables in total. At the third table, I was at around 55000 with average 70k. A kid opened the cutoff and I 3bet QQ on the button to 3800. Chad Brown 3bet to like 9800 from the SB. This really is probably a fold, but I'd been incredibly active and decided to go with it.

Chad had two Aces but a magic Queen came right in the window to keep me alive. I really appreciated how Chad handled the beat. He is a complete gentleman and is always a class act. Later I showed up with AK in a pot where I shouldn't have AK on a board of QT8J and busted a kid who had two 9s. I ended the day with 146k and average around 93.

On day 3 I got off to a good start and was quickly up to around 260,000. I slipped a little to around 200 and then ran a big semi-bluff against this character named Shawn Cunix. He opened the HJ to 3500 at 6/12 and I made it 9900 with T8ss on the button. He called. Flop Js9h4d. He checkraised my 12100 to 30000. I pushed for his 145k and he thought 2 minutes before folding what he said was two kings. I got moved to a new table with 54 players left (and 27 paying) and kind of held steady until we got down to 36 and redrew.

I found myself at a table with the eventual winner an unknown Russian named Alex Kuzmin who had a lot of chips to my immediate left. The word on the guy around the tournament was that he was a huge bluffbot, so I fully intended on having to make a huge call against him as the bubble loomed. With 35 left I opened red AJo and he 3bet the button. Flop QcJc4x went check-check. Turn 8x. I checked and he bet 25000 into 40k which I called. River 2. I checked and he blasted it for 80,000 of my final 180,000.

I had fully intended on calling him down but now I was sick. I made what I think is actually a bad call given the board texture, but I talked myself into the fact that he could bet KJ or JT. I was shown a turned set of 8s. Later, after slipping some more with 30 left I found a double with AK vs Todd Keikoan's 99 all in pre. Later on the exact bubble I found a double to 240k against a guy who was very tired of me moving in over his limps and raises.

He limped with SB and I cautiously checked 98dd and we saw Ts4d2d. Check, I bet 5000, and he checkraised to 20000. I called. Turn 5d. He checked and I decided he was so fed up with me saying "all-in" that I should just move it all-in. He quickcalled the 99000 in the pot of 50k but was drawing absolutely dead with two black queens. Once we reached the money, players really started to fall off. I busted 4-time FTOPS winner Yuval Brohnstein in a pretty big pot to finish the night in 3rd of 19 in chips.

...continued tomorrow

2010: A Poker Year in Review (2 of 2)

I headed pretty much straight from Vegas over to Newport, Wales (lol) for this $20,000 6 person Texas Hold'em poker sit-n-go that I'd won a package to online. It was winner-take-all, and Annette Obrestad and I pretty much flipped for the $120,000 in equity as Tony G was very short. My ATo couldn't hold against her QJss as it came 9xx8Q.

I came back to the States and headed to Los Angeles for WPT Legends and had yet another disappointing early day 1 exit. From there, I embarked on another trip across the pond. This time it was London for 23 days for the WSOP Europe as well as EPT London. I really enjoyed my time in London (a city that most either love or hate) and roomed with a cool group of guys that I liked getting to know better. The poker was miserable though as I bricked everything there. There were several huge buy-in poker tournaments I played there, so my yearly figure had pretty much taken a nosedive back to even overall.

When I got back home again, I had a week off before heading for another 3 week or so journey. I went to Las Vegas and bricked a few prelims before busting the WPT Festa al Lago. The next stop was in Indiana just outside of Chicago for the inaugural $10k WSOPC Regional Championship. This tournament actually treated me well as I went on to finish 6th at the televised final table for around $100,000. After the final table, I headed up to Foxwoods in Connecticut where I bought in on day 2 of the WPT and busted in the last level of the evening.

I had one more tour to close out the year. I went to Los Angeles where I cashed in the NAPT event and then went to Florida where I cashed in the Fall Poker Open. I concluded the year with unsuccessful trips to Vegas for WPT Five Diamond and then WSOPC Atlantic City. I battled hard on December 26th, the final workday of the year to book a $37k winner by outright winning a tournament on UB as well as winning my 3rd PCA package. This helped to make my end of the year figure look more attractive.

All told, I'm satisfied with how 2010 ended up. I've resolved to make some changes to my routine both in and out of poker. As far as poker goes, I'd really like to play as many of the Sunday online tournament sessions as I can. In 2010 I played 32 Sundays, compared to 23 in 2009 and (surprisingly) 39 in 2008. There is a lot of value in playing these, although often a live event overlaps. Not to mention, I hit a few NFL games each year and there are other matters that sometimes cause me to miss one.

Outside of poker, I want to become more cultured and find some new things that interest me. I consider myself a very happy individual, but I want to continue to challenge myself, and I want to continue to grow everyday. I really want to get in tip-top shape, too. This starts by cutting down on the nights that I go out, sadly. It's just too easy to decline the gym trip when you're hungover as hell and I'm too often a slave to the nightlife schedule Thursday-Saturday nights. I'm in a very unique situation being young, financially stable, single and not having that many responsibilities, but that doesn't mean I hafta be out 3-4 nights per week, and I'll work hard towards finding a balance this year.

That's all I've got. Thank you very much to those of you who read it all. I encourage you to follow me on Twitter (shannonshorr), as I post a lot of random thoughts there as opposed to the much harder work that is blogging.