The Life and Times of Shannon Shorr

ShannonShorr.com

2006-06-04T18:45:00.000-05:00

I am no longer posting at this site. Please visit ShannonShorr.com

Nice Tuesday + last post at blogspot

2006-05-31T02:07:00.000-05:00

This is the last post I'll be making at this address. Starting tomorrow I'm going to be blogging at www.shannonshorr.com. This is my official website, and it's officially launched as of right now. It was a little bit cooler of an idea when I was final tabling every main event in sight, but I still like the idea of it.

Today was nice. I woke up around noon and started getting some stuff together for school registration. I had to go and officially get re-admitted. There is a 24 hour waiting process before I can register, so I should be able to sign up for classes tomorrow. I'm either going to take 13 or 16 hours. 13 hours would allow for me to have a lot more free time, obviously, but if I take 13 hours I'm NEVER going to finish school. So, I'll sleep on that and then make a decision. After that I came home and went for a run and then played some poker. Poker went well. I played 350 hands at +$1757. It was really hot outside when I ran though, and I think I almost died. Finally, Anthony, Matt and I smoked a Romeo y Julietta cigar and went bowling.
We got 9 games in the "all-you-can-bowl session," and I averaged about 130 over those 9 games. I came home and got 650 more hands of poker in and lost 81 bucks.

Poker totals:
1000 hands...+$1676

Thanks to everyone for your support while I posted here at Blogspot. Also, a special thanks to Grant Summerlin of Hixson, TN for doing my webpage at shannonshorr.com. He did a great job, and if anyone needs help with a page let me know, and I'll put you through to him.

Memorial day weekend wrap up

2006-05-30T02:25:00.000-05:00

First...Here's a cool interview I did with a University of Alabama student named Tricia Masucci. The interview was for Alabama Public Radio. The opening lines is a recording of my thoughts as I played a set of SnGs while she was present...
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wual/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=898166

The weekend was nice. It was very relaxing to spend some time on the lake and great to spend some time with my mom. I feel asleep on a float on the lake though and got pretty sunburned :( I finally made it back to Tuscaloosa around 10 pm. It's so nice to be back at the apartment. I haven't been here in about 3 weeks. I played 1000 hands at 3/6 tonight for a relatively even -$765. Over 20 hours at 3/6 NL I'm making about $200/hour. I guess that is pretty decent for a beginner at that level. The month of May has gone pretty well for me. The only real dark spot was blanking the Paradise $5k event. I'm just shy of +5 figures on the month, and I will definitely get there by the end of the month. It's 2 am right now, and I'm trying to decide if I want to play 500 more hands or not.

Some congratulations:

a) Congratulations to Isaac Moyales de Vega. Moyales upended me in the round of 16 at the WHUPC and went on to win the whole thing for 125000Euros ($170,000 USD). I knew he was going to be very tough to beat. The 25 year old was an outstanding H/U player.

b) Congratulations to Ramzi "Karolina23" Jelassi. My good friend went on to win the 1000E freezeout the night that I bubbled. Officially, the winner of that event would make 56200E, but they most likely made a deal at the final table. Hopefully he pocketed $52000+ USD. I'll update after I talk to him.

c) Finally, Congratulations to 22 year old U of Alabama grad student Tracy Bumpus. Tracy finished second in the $500 Ladies Event at the WSOP circuit event in New Orleans last week. For her efforts, she banked about $8,000.

I'm going to try to get 8-10,000 hands in at 3/6 this week. I'm continuing to learn things every session I play. The main focus for me this week isn't going to be poker though. I'm going on a huge diet/fitness binge. 5 months of drinking 70% of the nights, eating huge meals, and playing lots of poker can take a toll on the body :(

EDIT: I played 500 more hands at +$623.

Hangin' out

2006-05-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

So, it's Sunday morning. I had a little change of plans for the weekend. I decided to come down to our lake house with my mom in Clanton, AL. My mom and her brothers and sisters just bought some new property, so I'm going to help them with some preparatory things. It's a bit of a 180 degree change to go from big city life in Barcelona, Spain to the calm, relaxing Clanton, Alabama.

I'm staying here until Monday (Memorial Day), so I won't be playing any poker until then. The internet connection here is dial-up, and it probably would be best not to play on it. I lost about $1800 Saturday night after I got home :(

Sidenote:
I've made a huge decision that has been one of the toughest I've faced in my life. I've decided to re-enroll in school for the Fall of 2006 at The University of Alabama as a civil engineering student. There is only one condition that will prevent that: If I win $500,000+ at Lake Tahoe or Vegas I won't return. I plan on registering for classes as early as Tuesday or Wednesday when I get back to Tuscaloosa. It is undoubtedly a bad short term financial decision for me to re-enroll in school, as I have no intention of using my degree. It's not about that though. I actually miss school and I feel like you get a lot more respect in life if you have a degree. Also, it will give me a chance to get back into some of my other interests, and it will return some normalcy to my life. I'm just going to chip away at my final four semesters. I definitely will not be in school in the Spring or Summer of '07 because there are tons of great events those semesters. I'm still going to consider myself a poker player by trade. I'm looking forward to it though. I'll post my 2006 Fall schedule upon receiving it.

I'd be interested in hearing some of your opinions, good or bad, about my decision to re-enroll. Please comment or email me shorr002@bama.ua.edu. I'm not sure I'm going to be easily swayed, however.

BHM

2006-05-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

Well it's Friday night, and I made it safely home to Birmingham. I may or may not play some poker tonight. I'm pretty tired and am probably just going to go to bed.

The flight back from BAR to ATL was ok. I was seated next to a lovely 20 year old girl from Monterrey, Mexico. We talked the majority of the marathon flight. She was in BAR studying abroad for the entire semester. When we got to ATL it took like an hour to get through the 57 security checkpoints. Finally, I learned my flight to BHM was going to be delayed 30 minutes, so I got 200 hands of 3/6 in for +$200. One hand was pretty funny. I got all-in with AA after a flop of Ah Th 5s for like a $1200 pot and the other guy had QJhh. He blanked out, but called me something to the extent of "a lucky F*@#." I was unaware getting in with the nuts after the flop and then holding makes you lucky :)

I'm looking forward to relaxing and making a feeble attempt to do some physical activity this weekend and next week.

Thanks for everyone for offering his or her support via my blog while I was competing in Barcelona.

SS

Bubbled the $1000 event

2006-05-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

It's hard for me to put in words the pain I'm feeling after I just finished 22nd in the 144 person 1000 Euro event. The top 18 got paid and would play tomorrow, giving me an extra day in Barcelona. There were lots of interesting hands, but I'm in no mood to talk about them. As always, I'm playing to win the tournament. I could give a damn about squeaking into 18th place and making 700 Euros. I'm playing to win the 50000 Euros. I had right at average stack as we came back from the break after level 12. I had 32,000 and blinds were 1/2000 (200). I was playing on one of the two 7-handed tables. I made it 5200 to go UTG with KcQh. The button looked at his cards and called fairly quickly, and the blinds folded. The flop was golden, Qc9c7c. I move in instantly for 26,500 into the 15k pot. He calls me even faster with T8cc. I'm absolutely in shock. Talk about getting cold-decked. So, I had 7 outs at first glance. I noticed that he had 2 of my outs blocked though because the Jc or 6c would give him a straight flush. Thus, I had 5 outs. The Ac,2c,3c,4c, or 5c. The turn gave me more outs. The Queen of diamonds. I missed the 15 outter though and just like that I'm out after the 5d rolls off the river. Marcel Luske and my Swedish friends Karolina23 and LittleM0lly both were in the final 21.

So, instead of being happy and changing my flight to Saturday I'm headed back tomorrow night. I'll be in Birmingham around 8 p.m. central.

This place is great, and I really enjoyed hanging out with Adam and Dave. Also, we met tons of cool Swedish kids and got to do a lot of cool stuff.

Final numbers on the trip:
May 17: +$3218 online
May 18: +$1676 online, +$140 live
May 19: +$2900 live (Satellite into main event)
May 20: -$1400 live
May 21: +$ 480 live, -$1200 online
May 22: -$726 online, -3333 live, also playing WHUPC
May 23: EVEN (playing WHUPC)
May 24: +$3200 live (WHUPC)
May 25: -$1400 live

Total: +$3557 (+2970 online, +587 live)
Hours of work: 45.5
Hourly rate: $78/hour

After the $1200 plane tickets and $1200 or so in hotel rooms the trip amounted to a fun time with a tiny bit of profit.

Not great, but I'll take it.

I fly out in just a few hours at 1:05 pm. I'll probably sleep the entire weekend in Birmingham and then go back to Tuscaloosa to work next week. My 21st Birthday is the following Wednesday, and we plan on heading out to lake Tahoe for the WSOP circuit event on that Thursday.

Goodbye Barcelona,
SS

Out of the WHUPC in round of 16

2006-05-24T14:30:00.000-05:00

I'm out of The Worlds Heads-Up Championship in the round of 16. I got paid 5000€ for my efforts. That amounts to about $6750 USD. In my first round match I disposed of Juris Bonders in 100 minutes exactly. He jumped out to an early 25k-15k lead after I bluffed off some chips. I flopped a set of 3s on a 36J board though and took a 24/16 lead. On the last hand of level 2 I picked up another nice pot with KT on a final board T6834. Juris called on the end and showed me a ten, so it turns out I could've gotten more chips, not that it mattered...
I took a 33/7 lead into the 10 minute break and finished him off 40 minutes later all-in preflop with 22 vs his A8o. I flopped him almost dead with 266 and that was that.

This clinched atleast 5000€. The next match would be against Isaac Mayolas de Vega. Isaac put his opponent away in the round of 32 on the first hand of the match. I'd seen him play a little bit previously and knew he was a very good H/U player. We got underway and he quickly grinded me down to about 13,000. He was very aggressive and rarely folded to my preflop raises. My hat is off to him. He is outstanding, and I'm willing to admit he outplayed me H/U. At blinds 150/300 I limped from the button with J2dd. The flop came AdKcJs. Isaac led for 400 and I called. The turn was a 5d. Isaac checked to me, and I quickly bet 1000. He called. The river was great, the Td. Isaac checked and I finally decided to bet 3700. He pondered and finally called and showed me the Qs after I showed. Later, I picked up AKo on the button and made it 1100 at blinds 2/400. Isaac called and the flop came A56 rainbow. He checked to me and I bet 1600. He checkraised it to 3600 and after an acting-job I finally made it 7200. He folded fairly quickly. I stole some more pots and had as much as a 30/10 chip lead at one point. Here is where things start to go wrong though...
In the last couple minutes at 200/400 I raised to 1300 with K2hh. He called. The flop came QhQs2s. Isaac checked to me and I bet 1900. He fairly quickly moved all-in for 8200. I pondered for almost 5 minutes and finally decided to call. He showed me TT :( I was about 90% certain he didn't have a pair. He had been reraising me a lot preflop, so I assumed he would reraise me with any pair. I thought he most likely had a hand like T2 or an Ace-x flush draw. I also knew he was very capable of moving it all-in with just something like A8 on that board. It became very evident that he was planning on trapping preflop though after the hands were flipped over. I was certain of one thing, he didn't have a Q. I blank out and he doubles through to 20k. 5 minutes into the 3/600 blinds I called a raise with T7dd and the flop comes AdTs6d. I check called the flop and check called the turn when the 8c came off. The river was an offsuit 2 and after much deliberation by both of us, it finally went check-check and he showed me A4 :( I was down to about 10k. On the final hand I found 2 red tens on the button. I limped in and he made it 1700. I made it 5800 and he set me in for my last 4200 which I obviously called off. I get colddecked and he has JJ :( I blank out and am out of the tournament. Mayolas de Vega is going to be very, very tough to beat in this tournament. It's frustrating to make it so deep in the tournament and just come away with 5000, but it was a great tournament and an even greater experience. I'm pretty sure if I get through the Spaniard I would have a good shot at making it to the finals to play, possibly, Carlos Mortensen. After the $150 tip I left for the staff, I ended up profiting 4430€ after my investment in the satellite. Tomorrow night at 18:00 there is a $1000 freezeout tournament which we plan on playing. We're going to get some sleep and probably go to the beach tomorrow. Unless I make the final table of the 1000€ event (2 day event), I leave here on Friday afternoon. This is a very neat city, and I'm happy to atleast take some momentum of cashing in another main event into the WSOP.

Shannon

Moving on...Juris Bonders next

2006-05-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, wow. What a day. We didn't wake up until 5:30 pm for my 7 pm match against Jan-Peter Jachtmann. It took 140 minutes, but what a match it was...

Jan, a German suit wearing gent, came into the match with what was probably some momentum after knocking off Luske. I can recall abt 5 important pots in the match, but I prob could recall more if I didn't drink until daylight :) .....

Abt the 10th hand in I had A9hh and made it 1400 after he limped for 400 at 2/400. He called. The flop came down 8h5h4s. I led for 1300 and he quickly made it 2600. I pondered and finally made it 5600. He reluctantly called. The turn was the 8s. It's hard to interpret this card. Obv he probably doesn't have an 8. I checked and he immediately rapped the table behind me. The river brought the 6s and it eventually went check-check and he showed me A5 for a very good call on the flop. I'll give Jan credit, he kept me second-guessing every decision I made. A few minutes later I opened one up on the button with 8d5c. Jan called and the flop came down 9h8h2d. Jan checked and I bet 1100. Jan checked raised it to 2200, and I called with the intention of seing what the turn brought. The turn brought a scary Qd. Jan led for 1k and I pondered and made it 3300 with the intention of representing JT. He called :( The river was the Td for a final board of 9h8h2dQdJd. Jan checked and I bet 3000. He made me sweat for 3 minutes and made a fantastic (or donkish) call with 9d7h. I was down to 6k (5.3:1 disadvantage). We went to a 10 minute break and Icame back and doubled after I limp-reshoved with AQo against JTss for a sweaty FB of xxxSxSx. Soon after I called a raise with A8o. This was a turning point in the tournament. The flop came down Q8x. I led and Jan called. When I flat called the flop I intended to checkraise any AK8765432 for all of my chips. The turn came an Ace and I checked. Jan bet 1k and I instantly sent my 3400. Jan beat me in with Q8. It turned out I got very lucky :) I sweated a outter (it usually gets there), but I held. Finally after a dinner + cerveza break we got it in with my K6ss on a board of AsJsTh against his JT. He held the coinflip to double to 15k. Next, I called a raise to 2200 with blinds 4/800. I had 97hh. The flop was exciting, 7s6h4h. I checked and Jan instantly sent 3x the pot. I called almost before he said all-in. Jan showed QsJd and I had him in a WORLD of hurt. The turn beamed the 2h nutting me against his 4 outter, and it was all over. Like I said, I'll give Jan-Peter credit, but like most Europeans I think he lacked respect for Americans. Either that or he was determined to out play me every pot. He showed constant limp-limp 9 high bluffs (Usually the best hand).

Nonetheless, it feels really good to overcome an 11:2 chip disadvantage to win. I play at 15:00 and if I win I play at 17:00 or 21:00 tomorrow. I railed the Latvian-born (that's really a country?) Bonders for a while in his marathon match and he appeared weak tight. I was actually able to see some of his hole cards from the rail. A win tomorrow clinches 5K E.

::Waits for grammatical criticism::

SS

Moving on...Jan-Peter Jachtmann next

2006-05-22T12:58:00.000-05:00

In what must've been the shortest match of the tournament, I moved on to the second round by beating Juan Durin in just 18 minutes and 10 hands. Juan was a true gentleman and a Barcelona local. We traded some very small pots for the first 6 hands with the button winning almost all of them. I picked up JTdd and made it 550 on the button with blinds 1/200. Juan called. The flop came down Kc 9d 4d. Juan checked and I bet 650. He called. The turn brought the 6s and he checked again. I felt he was weak and maybe had just a 9, so I bet 1200. He quickly called. The turn was nice, the Kd, giving me a flush. I still was rather sure he had just a 9 though. He checked and I pondered and eventually bet 1625. He didn't take long to call and I showed my flush. He mucked, so I'm not sure what he had. Two hands later I ended the match. I limped on the button with 2 red tens and the intention of reraising. Juan made it 800 and I quickly made it 2350. Juan called. The flop beamed Ks Tc 4s, just beautiful. Juan checked and I bet 2050. He grabbed a mountain of red 1000 chips and made it 9000? I quickly said all-in and he called off his last 7000 or so with KQcc. I knew I had him about 10:1, but I wasn't out of the woods yet. Of course the turn card is a sweat, the 6c. The river comes off black, but it's the 6s, and I move on.

I went to rail to watch the Jan-Peter Jachtmann and Marcel Luske match after that. I would be playing the winner. Somewhat suprisingly Jan-Peter disposed of Marcel in 1 hour. They got it all-in for a rather big pot with Jan's 44 vs Marcel's AJ and the window card was a 4. I'd met Jan the night before, and he knew that I would potentially be his next round match. I stood with other spectators right behind the rail. If nothing else I wanted to get it in his head that I had observed his style of play. The German was constantly looking over his shoulders because I think he thought I could see his cards. I couldn't and wasn't trying to, but it was pretty funny to see how nervous he was. Also before my match Dave, Adam and I railed Charles "THE___END" Kassin against H/U circuit standout, Woody Deck. Kassin, a 19 year old 5'3"ish former $100/200 NL player,talked as much trash live as he does online :) Deck called off a TON of chips at one point with ATcc and was all-in against Kassin's 99. A final board of KQxAx though doubled Deck and he eventually moved on. I'm heading back to the casino now though to eat dinner and maybe play some side games or online. Tomorrow's match is at 19:00 local time (Noon CDT).

Sunday

2006-05-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

Today was nice. Dave and I woke up around 2 and walked around the city for a little while. We got into the city where all Spain's illegal immigrants sell items similar to what you'd find in a U.S. thrift store. They all have their items laid out on sheets that they can quickly roll up if the cops come. The cops came by and all of them scattered. It was pretty hysterical. We watched one guy run away from a motorcycle cop through the streets of Barcelona. After that we ate at a neat little place called "Sandwich and Friends." Finally, we headed to the casino. We were pleasantly surprised to see Dave still left in the tournament with double the average stack and 40 players remaining. He cashed in 11th and banked about 1000€. I never got anything going in the 540€ event. It was kind of depressing. There was a super hyper-aggressive Swede immediately to my right who was opening every pot. If this was a deep stack tournament I'd obviously be reraising him a bunch. Unfortunately if I made a play at a pot though I'd have to commit my whole stack. I raised some pots from MP with hands like KTcc and T7hh and then got raised when I continuation bet :( I was down to 1500 chips out of the 3000 starting bank when our table broke. About 5 levels in and at my new table my bust hand occured. There had been a ton of limping at this table and I had an extremely tight image at this one as well. The UTG+1 player limped and so did UTG+3 for 200 each. I found 56cc in the cutoff, and it looked like a great opportunity to pick up 700 chips. I sent my 1500 and get called in both spots?! Both players had AJo. Oooook. To tease me, the dealer ran off a final board of 2c 4c x x x, so I was sent to the rail. I came back to the hotel and played 10 $520s H/U on stars and went 4-6 :( I did run very badly though, getting 5 outted after the flop 3 times. Adam Geyer arrived and we went to the casino. I played some 5/10€ NL and beat it for 900€. We met up with THE___DRY (really cool guy) and had a drink at a bar then headed home. It's 6:15 am now, so I should probably get some sleep before my 5 pm local time (10 am US central time) match against Juan Sastre Durin.

PS H/U results...Opponent :(My result, Level match ended):

Jukeboxlo: (W, 1)
Moledaddy: (L, 2)
TheCamel: (L, 3)
Iftarii: (W, 1)
Iftarii: (W,2)
Iftarii: (L, 2)
Iftarii: (L, 4)
Thomas "Buzzer1404" Bihl: (W, 1)
Thomas "Buzzer1404" Bihl: (L, 3)
Iftarii: (L, 3)

Heads up info/1000+50€

2006-05-21T09:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I woke up around 2 and eventually headed to the casino for the start of the 4 pm 1000+50€ freezeout. Dave slept through it because he logged a session online from 5-10 am the night before. When the event started it turned out it was super structured. There were 139 players and 5000 starting chips with blinds starting at 20/40. I busted in about 100th in the third hour though after I got a bunch of chips in the middle with AQo and lost 80% of my stack. A good Swedish player in the cutoff opened for 400 and I quickly made it 1400 with AQo on the button. He pondered, sized up the chip stacks, and eventually moved in for 4400 total. I actually didn't take much time and called off 3000 more of my 4500 stack. It just felt really weird to me. I thought he had a hand like AJ, AT or maybe even A9 and was putting me on a play. I had been very active at the table to that point. He flips up KK though, wow. I blank out and am down to 1500 before I eventually shove AJo into KK again with blinds 1/200.

We ate a great buffet dinner that they put on for the players and then it was time for the H/U drawings. I am in bracket 4, so I don't play my H/U match until Monday at 5 pm. I drew a Spanishman named Juan Sastre Durin in the first round. I did some research and it turns out he finished 16th out of maybe 64 players in the 2004 H/U event. Here is the interesting thing though. If I win my first round match I play the winner of Jan Peter Alfred Jachtgmann and a guy you may have heard of, Marcel Luske :) Playing Marcel H/U would be really, really sweet. I'll have more updates later. We're off to the casino for a 500€ freezeout.

Yep, rolling

2006-05-19T22:54:00.000-05:00

Things continue to go well. I woke up around 2:30 pm and took the metro train into the city to a jewelry shop to try to get some links taken out of a duty-free watch I bought on the plane to Barcelona. I made a feeble attempt to speak some Spanish and eventually found my way to a jewelry shop that didn't open until 5 pm. How weird is that? I couldn't wait around because of the live satellite into the main event. I came back to the hotel and Dave and I headed to the casino. Unfortunately, the World H/U poker championship main event was already sold out. I was planning on direct buying into the event and then playing the 100€ R+A satellite for cash. This meant I HAD to win a seat in the satellite to play the H/U event. There were 87 entrants and nothing really interesting happened involving me until the third hour. I got in f0r 80% of my chips against an extremely reckless Spanish female player with AKo vs her 33? The window card was an Ace and it rolled off A45 for sweat. I held and ranked amongst the chip leaders with 50 players left. After the rebuy period they announced that 12 players would get a seat (or the cash equivalent, 2600€). I lost some pots and was down to avg. with about 25 players left in what was now a freezeout. With 20 plyrs left I had abt an average chip stack and opened for 4k on the button with A8o and blinds 8/1600 (200). The SB shipped 6500 in, and of course I called. He showed 99. I lucksacked my way into a final board of 88xJx though. This was sufficient chips enough to coast into the final 13. Wait though...with 13 plyrs left the tournament director shocks us all by announcing that they only alloted for 8 seats to be given out via the satellite. If some players were willing to take the cash then their chips would be taken off the table and we would play it out with the remaining players to see who actually got the seat instead of the 2600€. 3 of the 12 players elected to take the cash. That meant the 9 of us had to play a final table. After one elimination, we would all get seats. It only took abt 15 minutes after a short stack shoved 66 from the SB into another shorty's instacall with AQcc in the BB. The ultimate short stack bricked out on a final board of xc xc x 6 x board, so I got a seat. After that Dave (who busted the 20/40 game for 25BB) and I went across the street to the Barcelona club/bar scene. It is really sick. We had a blast, and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of fun there in the nights to come. Tomorrow entails a 1000€ freezeout at 16:00 and then the drawing for the H/U matches at 21:00. We have to check out at this hotel in the morning at 12:00 pm and it's 6 am and daylight right now. It's going to suck. Also, I saw some of my Swedish friends Karolina24, littlem0lly and Morbo. Also, SnG sensation "THE____DRY" and the loud, obnoxious, yet cool "THE____END" are in town. I've yet to meet them though. If possible, I'm going to try to get in some $200 and $500 H/U SnGs on PokerStars in preparation for the event. It's such a great time here. I think it may pass Australia for "best time" award if things keep going well. Of course, I'm partial to Oz :)

World Heads-Up Poker Championship Payout Structure
(128 players):

1st: 128.000€
2nd: 60.000€
3-4: 25.000€
5-8: 11.250€
9-16: 5.000€

Sidenote: I've had a few drinks and probably made some mistakes, so if my jealous blog grammar critic could correct all my grammatical typos it would be very much appreciated. I know that grammatical correctness is the most imperative thing my readers look for in my poker blog. Also, NSXT2 is not "a kid."

Keep sending it,
SS

Running good and having fun

2006-05-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

Dave and I didn't wake up until about 7 pm tonight. We showered and headed out to an authentic Spanish restaurant nearby. Spanish food is much different than Mexican food. The meal was rather good and unbelievably low priced. We got a full meal for 12 €. After that we walked to the casino. It's about a 13-15 minute walk from our hotel. We got inside and found out that you HAVE to wear long pants and closed shoes, so Dave had to walk back to the hotel to change. I played some roulette while we waited for our seat at the 20/40 fixed limit game in the poker room. I broke even over about 30 spins. Strangely, there were only 2 cash game tables running. Hopefully more will run as players start to arrive for the tournaments. Over the 3 hour session I beat the 20/40 game for just under 3 bets, 105€. Finally, I came back to the room and busted up 3/6 NL over 500 hands for $1660. I'm really starting to love that game. It's 5:05 a.m. local now and time to go to sleep.

Until tomorrow,
Shannon

In Barcelona, finally

2006-05-18T05:16:00.000-05:00

Trip12s and I just got to our room at The H10 Marina de Barcelona hotel. It's 12:10 pm local time here. Barcelona is 7 hours ahead of US Central Time. Right before the flight Dave and I both got really good sessions online in. I busted up 3/6 NL for a sweeeeeeeet +$3800 over just 675 hands. I think I'm really learn how to manipulate players into giving me their whole stack when I have the best hand. I think that is going to be the key to my success in those games. Dave beat 30/60 H/U and ring games for +$1k. When we got to Barcelona we hopped a cab to the casino to get advice on where to stay. We roamed around the streets of Spain for half an hour before finally finding this hotel. They could only book us for tonight and tomorrow night, unfortunately. They said something may come available for the remaining nights if we check in later though. We're about to catch a nap and then see what this city has to offer. Our hotel is very neat with a view of the city from the 4th floor. We're excited about it...

In Atlanta

2006-05-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

I just touched down at the Atlanta International Airport in preparation to leave for Barcelona tonight. Dave Anderson should be meeting me here at the gate any minute. We're both really excited about this trip. It should be pretty sweet.

Since getting home from Bahamas I haven't played much. I did a media interview and photo shoot with Birmingham Magazine yesterday that took most of the day. I've played 1800 more hands at 3/6 and lost 2000 bucks, but I'm still up about $2k over my first 3800 hands of 3/6. I've heard from some people that the most you can make per hand at 3/6 NL over the long term is somewhere around 80 cents. I'm going to get 20,000 hands in and see how it looks after that. As I sit here in the airport, I'm going to get about 1200 hands in hopefully before we board the flight. I'm making a few mistakes that are pretty natural I'm sure for a beginner at NL cash. I'm going to start giving people credit for having hands when I get checkraised a little bit more often. I've tried to resteal a couple of times and lost my whole stack on a bluff. Updates to come from Barcelona...

Wrapping things up

2006-05-15T02:28:00.000-05:00

It's 3 am Monday morning. John and I head back to the states at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

The trip has been fantastic. We had a blast enjoying the great weather and just relaxing. Today I went jet skiing and that was goot time. I had a sick time hanging out with Apathy, durrr and OkemosGod. I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of them in the near future. This place has got to be the most expensive resort in the world. We spent an unfathomable amount of money but enjoyed every minute of it :)

There is going to be a major transformation in my daily poker habits. I've decided to, atleast for a month or so, switch to no limit cash games. I have very little experience playing them, however. I've been talking to lots of other young pros here and it seems that NL cash is definitely where the money is. SnG will eventually dry up, so I need to learn NL cash for a number of reasons. It's a lot more convenient for travel and playing on shaky connections because I can get my hours in and get out. I don't have to wait around until primetime hours to get the $530s in. I think I could have a great future in NL cash. The fact that there is so much postflop play caters to what I feel is my strength in the game. I played my first ever legitimate session of NL cash tonight and 4 tabled shorthanded 3/6 from 10 pm- 3 am and absolutely crushed it. I beat it for $4100 over 2000 hands. I must say it's a lot more interesting than SnG. It's absolutely mentally and emotionally stimulating. I'm not sure at what point I'm going to move up to 5/10. I'm really not in a big hurry. I want to learn the ends and outs of shorthanded NL cash before I jeopardize any substantial portion of my bankroll in one session.

Back in the States tomorrow evening long enough to do some laundry and get a haircut before leaving for Barcelona for the World Heads-Up Poker Championship on Wednesday.

Ouch

2006-05-13T03:05:00.000-05:00

Play a 6 hour evening session of $530s at 3/3/7/34 for -$5910. I'm pretty sure I just ran bad. I can't remember winning many hands :(

Fuck!
SS

Out of $540

2006-05-12T13:50:00.000-05:00

Really weird tournament today. I'm out in 68th of 100 players. I got to my table and found that it was stacked.

Seat 2: Me
Seat 4: WSOP bracelet winner, Sean Rice
Seat 5: Online MTT great, leggggggy
Seat 9: Paradise Poker's NSXT2

NSXT2 is so nuts. I played with him in Australia and he didn't stop talking for an hour, and he did the same thing here. It's honestly impressive that he is able to talk for such a long period of time without shutting up. He looked at one card for almost the entire tournament and made his decisions without looking at the other until he was really forced to. I didn't play one hand the entire tournament other than completing from the SB and checking the BB. The hand I busted out on there was an UTG limper for 150, UTG+1 limped and I watched NSXT2 look at one card and splash a stack of chips in that amounted to 1650. I found 99 in the cutoff and sent my 1850 total. We started with 2500 in chips. NSXT2 calls the 200 more of course and turns over the card he'd looked at, a Queen. Amazingly he dramatically flips up the other card and unbelievably it is another Queen. The whole table can't believe it. I blank out and lose with 99 again :(

Other than that, things have been cool. I lost $2270 by going 0/1/1/7 last night at $530s. We then went to Carmines again for dinner. Finally, we went out to a club called Fluid and then ate some late night breakfast. We didn't make it back to Atlantis until around 5 am.

Also, Jon squeaked into the money in the main event and cashed in 45th place for his second straight main event cash. 45 places paid. He got it all-in on a blind vs blind hand with A5 vs AJ on a A96 flop that was impossible to get away from given his chip stack and the way the hand played out. Jon cashed $5k so we each got $250 of that.

Time to head to the beach.

Sweeeeeeeet online session

2006-05-11T01:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight was cool. I slept from like 4-7 and then we went out to eat at this really nice restaurant in Atlantis. We ended up dropping about $700 on dinner + wine. We're thinking our final bill for our room, dinner and drinks is going to be somewhere around $20,000 at the end of the week :( That is split 5 ways though, luckily. We went and played a live SnG which I busted out of for -$330. After that though I came over here to the lounge and bruised $530 for 3/1/1/5 and +$5230 which makes me feel really good. That makes up for the $5200 I lost by busting out of the main event. The last 4 or 5 times I've done really well at $530 I've been kind of drunk. As sick as it sounds, I think it may be advantageous to have had some alcohol before playing $530 to loosen up on shoves late in the game. +$810 on the trip so far. There is a $500 tournament here that I'm going to play on Friday, so maybe I'll do well in that.

No worries,
SS

Out

2006-05-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

I'm out. Such a frustrating day... Right after the break I got trapped in a blind vs. blind hand and gave away about 2k bluffing with 94ss. I sat around for a while and played 96ss like a maniac until I was down to 2600 in chips. Finally the cutoff opened for 600 at the 100/200 (25) level and I instashipped my 9h9s. He called even faster with KhKd. I blanked out on a final board of xh xh xh xh 9c to add insult to injury. Not sure what the plan is for the rest of the trip. Hopefully Jon will win the thing.

jkfls;gdlkfjlkfsdj'glk

2006-05-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

Down to 4875 at the end of level 2. Each level is 1 hour and we take a 15 minute break every other level. I played 3 interesting hands in the first 2 hours. I got crippled 30 minutes into level 2...

The UTG raiser made it 200 (min raise) and got called in 2 spots. I flipped the extra $100 chip in from the BB with AsQh.
The flop came down QQ7 with 2 diamonds. I led a weak lead into the 3 other players (225). The UTG raiser made it 500 quickly so I put him on KK or AA. The first caller in MP ponders and finally cold calls the 2 bets. The other caller folded and I fairly quickly made it 1800 total. The UTG raiser groaned and folded and then the caller moved in fairly quickly for 4400 more. I actually considered folding here. The guy has 1 of 3, maybe 4, hands. Ace-face suited in diamonds, AQ, 77, or KQ. I pondered for a bit and then called and of course he has 77 for a made full house. I brick out and was down to 3900. A few hands later I played 88 really weird but won a $2200 pot on a final board of KxxAx when I bet the river and he folded. Finally, I avoided going broke against Matthias who was also short. I opened with from MP for 325 and he made it 900. I pondered and finally flat called. The flop came Kxx with 2 spades. I had the JsJh. The turn came a blank spade and we checked both streets to that point. The river came the Kh and I checked and he finally checked behind me. I was a little surprised he checked the river. I'm not certain I would've called though. He turns over QQ for the winner. I'm ok. I hope to be at 12-13k at the end of level 4.

Day 1a over

2006-05-09T22:41:00.000-05:00

Day 1a is finally over and Jon is the lone player in our crew still alive. He finished the day at 49,500. I think 48 of the 162 players who started day 1a survived, so Jon is about 15k over the average which is sweet.

I spent the evening playing 8 $530s online at 1/1/2/4 for +$1760 and one $550 live SnG which I busted in for a total of +$1210 on the day. It's 12:00, so I'm probably gonna go chill in the room and watch the end of the Dallas/San Antonio game then go to sleep and get ready for tomorrow.

This just in...

2006-05-09T17:25:00.000-05:00

Jon must have gone on a tear over the last couple hours because he is now one of the overall chipleaders at $55,000 in chips. Peter is close to average from what I could tell.

Day 1a...part 1

2006-05-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately Tom "Durrr" Dwan and Andrew "OkemosGod" Robl were eliminated in the early going, so only 2 others besides myself remain from our crew. I may try to buy some of my action back from the guys who've been eliminated if we can work out some sort of deal. Jon and Apathy are actually seated at the same table right now as they round out level 5. We're going to get some dinner at Carmines Italian and hopefully they'll both have a strong finish. I spent most of the day out by the beach and pool and railed everyone for a little bit. The field looks relatively younger than most of the live events that I've played, for some reason. Maybe players at Paradise, as a whole, are younger...which is kind of a bad thing. I'm not sure Jon and Peter's chip counts, but I will update them later tonight. I'm feeling very confident about how I'm going to do tomorrow. A touch of bad news though...A Swedish friend of mine, 18 year old online phenom, Mattias "Matkov" Lannermark is going to be at my table tomorrow. He is in the 8 seat and I'm in the 6 seat. He probably won't put up with me opening TONS of pots. I will have to mix it up a little more.

Some other notable day 1 exits:
Ozzy87
Jeff Sealey
PP $530 player, Enigma4u4me

Not playing 'til Wednesday

2006-05-09T03:41:00.000-05:00

I drew Day 1b, so I actually won't be playing until Wednesday. I haven't really thought about the advantages/disadvantages of playing after half the field has already played. We'll see how it goes. Of the 5 in our crew, I'm actually the only one who is playing on Wednesday. It's like 4 am, so I probably will sleep through the start of the other guys' playing tomorrow. The event starts at noon. Poker is EXTREMELY boring to watch if you can't see the hole cards, so I'll probably catch some rays during the day with some of my other friends that I've seen down here. It turns out 5th place finisher at Aussie, Jeff Sealey is down here. It was cool to see him and have a couple'a drinks and reminesce about the final table at the party we had tonight. We're having a blast here. We went out to Senor Frog's in the mainland tonight.

I grinded out some poker from 12-4. Did it at 2/2/2/16 for -$1660. 3 bubbles was kinda frustrating :(