Shannon Shorr Poker

 
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In this blog post, I am going to share with you (in no particular order) 10 pros who had a huge impact on my poker career. Some were private coaches and I battled others on the felt, but all left a positive lasting impression on me.

David Benefield

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Shannon Shorr A Gulf Coast Poker.NET blog. Sunday, June 7, 2015. I just checked my blog and noticed I haven’t written in 2015. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Shannon Shorr rules at poker Thursday, July 17, 2008. Catching up my summer 2008. Hey all it's been a while since I updated this blog. But remember that's because I. In sharp contrast to the arrogant and unlikeable online poker “ballas” that seem to dominate poker media, Shannon Shorr is the personable, down-to-earth successful poker pro who you wouldn’t mind hanging around with. He’s also one of the most successful tournament poker players of all time. WPT Career Highlights Value Rank; Career Earnings: $1,452,566: 126: Cashes: 21: 36: Final Tables: 4: 53: Titles: 0: 17,277.

David “Raptor” Benefield was my first online poker friend. I used to lurk on an old poker forum and one day I posted that I was “jcardshark”, the unknown guy who was tearing up the $215 buy-in sit n’ go’s on PartyPoker. David, one of the most popular online players of the time, messaged me and asked if I wanted to talk strategy on AIM, which of course I did. We became great friends and talked through AIM basically every day for three years while we grinded the sit n’ go’s. David was one of the first people to do what was thought to be impossible: play 4 tables at the same time. I quickly followed suit. He then moved to 16 tables and I did the same. I seemed to always be one step behind him, but that was fine because he was (and still is) ten steps ahead of everyone else.

Shannon Shorr

Shannon Shorr and I have traveled and roomed together a bunch over the last 10 years. Like many of my poker friends, I met Shannon in the PartyPoker sit n’ go’s. He was clearly a good player but had a propensity to berate people when they played poorly. I asked him to message me on AIM and enlightened him as to why berating weak players is a bad idea. He took kindly to it and we started talking strategy and working hard to improve together. Shannon was my best man at my wedding. He is great!

Bill Seymour

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Bill Seymour was my first poker coach. I found him by searching “poker coaching” on google. Unlike almost everyone, he seemed to never get rattled at the poker table. When his opponents took a bad beat, they lost their minds. When Bill took a bad beat, he was stoic and continued playing great poker. I remember traveling to a live tournament stop with him and watched him play the $100 and $200 satellites (at which he was known to be world-class). He won almost every time! Bill plays all the game well, something that I certainly can’t do, and has stood the test of time, which is something almost no poker players can claim. He was a pioneer, opening one of the first poker training sites, PokerCoaching.com, which I eventually took over.

Andrew Robl

Andrew “Good2CU” Robl is another one of my friends from my sit n’ go days. He taught me to loosen up and stop being such a nit, both on and off the table. He was the first person to put the idea of physical fitness on my radar. Similar to Raptor, Good2CU seemed to be (and still is) one step ahead of everyone else. He can currently be found playing the biggest cash games in the world. He is the end boss of poker.

Greg Shahade

Greg “Curtains” Shahade was my second official poker coach. While I was having decent results in the $200 sit n’ go’s, I realized my edge was diminishing. It was initially winning $20 per game (10% ROI) but eventually dropped to 2%. I decided to hire a coach and found Greg, who was crushing the $100 games at some insane rate like 20% ROI. It may seem silly to hire someone who is playing lower stakes than you for lessons, but it was clear through Greg’s writing that he was one of the best and could easily beat the $200 games if he wanted to. He told me that the only reason he didn’t play the $200 games was because he didn’t want to experience gigantic swings, which is a concept I carry with me to this day. Just because you have an edge does not mean you should play. He also taught me to stop pushing all-in with A-x from early and middle position for 10 big blinds. That alone increased my ROI back to 8% and allowed me to print money for a few more years before transitioning to live tournaments when I turned 21.

David Pham

Shannon Shorr - An Alabama Boy Makes It Big on the ...

While I have never had a strategy discussion with David “the Dragon” Pham, I have learned a ton by watching him at the table. In a world where everyone played a tight, cautious game, he would reraise and run insane bluffs to his heart’s content. This occasionally sent him to the rail early, but often led to him having a mountain of chips. I realize this makes him sound like a maniac, but I have also witnessed him make some overly tight folds, including one against me deep in a WPT where he raised to 2.5 big blinds from the button, I went all-in for 14 big blinds, and he folded A-J face-up. Of course, I had K-K. Don’t mess with the Dragon!

Lee Markholt

I have the utmost respect for Lee Markholt. He is truly a master of no-limit hold’em, excelling at both nosebleed cash games and high stakes tournaments. While he seems to play a decent amount of hands, he always seems to have top set at the showdown, earning him the nickname “Top Set”. Lee has taken my money many times by showing me top set (and sometimes just Ace-high). Thanks for that! Lee is my favorite poker player.

Aaron O’Rourke

Aaron “Daliman” O’Rourke was one of the pioneers of early sit n’ go strategy. I learned a lot about sit n’ go’s, cash games, sports betting, and casino games from him. Many times, we have won and lost money together. There is something about winning and losing together that bonds people, which doesn’t happen too often in poker because it tends to be an individual game. We always seem to be on the same team though. Win or lose, I am happy to be in action with Daliman.

Hoyt Corkins

Hoyt Corkins is an awesome dude. He is my hiking buddy whenever we are both in Vegas, which at this point seems to only be during the WSOP. Hoyt taught me long before the GTO solvers to really push the aggression in spots where the opponent should have a range they cannot defend properly. As an aspiring poker player, I remember watching Hoyt push around (and get a bit lucky against) Phil Hellmuth in one of the first WPTs. It was fun to watch!

Mike Sexton

Shannon Shorr Poker

Mike Sexton is the reason many poker players play the game. He was not only the face of the WPT (the show that brought poker into our homes each and every week on the Travel Channel), he was also instrumental in making PartyPoker the most popular and trusted poker site in existence. I have hung out and played with Mike on many occasions and he is as real as they come. He is larger than life, but still down to earth and kind. We could not ask for a better poker ambassador. I can’t think of a better person to represent the game we love.

Poker

Shannon Shorr Poker Game

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Born in 1985, in Birmingham, Alabama, Shannon Shorr was amongst the first who taken up poker seriously after the boom of 2003. He grew up playing baseball and he transferred a lot of principles from sport and coaching into poker. He says that during the early days of his career he used to be very arrogant and had the “I against the world” type of mentality. His results were more important to him in terms of what other would think than what they meant for him specifically. During that period, he was quite out of shape and struggled with finding the balance in his life. He finally managed to change his approach after getting out of the big downswing during 2011. Pocketfives.com lists his online scores, under aliases “basebal1b” and “BLUFFforRENT” as being in excess of $2 million. His biggest online cash came during 2010 FTOPS, when he bested the field of nearly 900 players to walk away with $213k and the title. His live showings trump these impressive results by quite a margin. During his live tournament career, Shorr has banked over $5.5 million in cashes since 2006. This is the year in which his biggest result came in as well, as he emerged victorious in the Bellagio Cup II in Las Vegas taking home $960,000. 2008 saw him finish runner-up in the $2k WSOP event, good for $350,000. During 2012 WSOP he came third in the $10k six-max event, banking $455,000, but once again missing on the bracelet. He loves traveling, but unlike many who enjoy the safety and comfort of different traveling arrangements, he fell in love with backpacking and enjoys doing it whenever the time permits it. For him, traveling is about meeting new people in hostels throughout Europe and the world, and getting out of his comfort zone. Berlin is his number one favorite city. Shorr states that pursuing career as a full time poker professional is not the wisest choice for young people these days, as circumstances have changed a lot and it has become much tougher to make a living playing poker. He believes he was lucky that he got into it during the boom, when average players were much worse and American market was still open to the rest of the world. Instead of relying on poker as the main source of income, he thinks it is better to treat it as a side activity nowadays, while pursuing a professional career in a different field. Although he feels like he is on his way out of poker himself, he is not sure he would be leaving it because he loves the freedom and the lifestyle this career path has provided him with.