A Fun-Filled January on the Tournament Circuit

The life of a tournament poker player can be very, very exciting. We get to travel all over the world, eat at some of the finest restaurants, experience the best entertainment, and enjoy it all the while. I spent my first full year on the tournament trail in 2006, and I have some memories that I will never relinquish. Now that 2007 has arrived, I plan on continuing to travel, and I hope to emulate my success from last year. January is, without question, the most exciting month of the year for a tournament player. The schedule is absolutely packed with tournaments, and by the time you read this, I will have hit all of them. This is one of the few months that I have the opportunity to get outside of the United States for a long period of time to play poker. I'm really, really enjoying it overseas, and I recommend the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and Aussie Millions to everyone.

After a fun New Year's Eve in Birmingham, Alabama, I headed down to Nassau, Bahamas, for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure World Poker Tour event. I arrived on Jan. 4 and drew day one (b), meaning I wouldn't play until Jan. 6. On my off day, I hit the beach for some much needed relaxation. Later, I decided to engage in the water sports. I parasailed for the first time in my life and just fell in love with it. I know that this activity will be a staple in any future trips to the beach. After that, I hopped on a Jet Ski for a half-hour. On my starting day, I played and ran very well, and built a nice stack up to $98,800 at the end of day one. It was good for 19th place of the 425-plus remaining players going into the combined second day. Day two was kind of frustrating. I drew a starting table with Card Player CEO Barry Shulman, who is a great player. That table didn't go so well, and ended with Barry making a fantastic lay down against me. Next, I got moved to another tough table that included Aaron Kanter and a young player named Dapo, who has really been making some noise lately. I battled with a below-average stack for most of the evening. We reached the 180-player money payout in the fifth level. I grinded away, but eventually I finished 125th for my first career WPT cash when I got my last few chips in on the flop with J-J against A-A on an A-X-X flop, Oops!

The next morning, I had a flight booked for 7:30 a.m. to begin what would be 36 hours of traveling to Australia. I overslept, but arrived at the airport to learn that our flight had been delayed six hours because of a dead battery. We were delayed even longer, and actually didn't end up leaving Nassau until 3:30 p.m. I flew from Nassau to Atlanta to Los Angeles, and Delta managed to lose my golf clubs somewhere along the way. I got to Los Angeles and managed to get on standby for a Qantas flight to Melbourne that left at around 1 a.m. I finally arrived in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 10. This is the place where it all began for me, and I was very excited to be back. As I write this, the main event will start on Jan. 14 and promises to provide a great structure and a lot of fun. Australia offers a lot of fun away from the felt, as well. My friends and I are currently getting ready to head out to a cricket match at a nearby stadium. The expected attendance for the match is more than 80,000 people!

After the tournament finishes, I have a flight booked all the way to Memphis, Tennessee, to arrive in Tunica, Mississippi, just in time for the $10,000 WPT event. From Tunica, I will head up to the Borgata in Atlantic City for the Winter Poker Open WPT event. It has been and will continue to be a busy month, but I plan on taking off most of February before heading out to Los Angeles for the L.A. Poker Classic championship event late in the month.

I hope river cards will treat you kindly in 2007.

Shannon Shorr is a professional poker player from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He finished fourth in the Card Player 2006 Player of the Year race. You can follow his progress at shannonshorr.com, or e-mail him with questions and comments at shorr002@bama.ua.edu.