Shannon Shorr has more than $1.7 million in lifetime tournament earnings, and remember, he is only 22 years old. His first big score came in January of 2006, when he made the final table of the Aussie Millions. Shorr's most recent cash was at Bellagio; he took third in a $5,000 buy-in event at the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic. Card Player sat down with Shorr to talk about his future as a poker player.
Lizzy Harrison: A few months back, I heard a rumor that you were done with poker, but here you are. What is going on with you?
Shannon Shorr: Several times I have said that I am done with poker. I haven't had a good 2007, as a whole. I mean, it hasn't been terrible, especially after I just won $100,000 the other day, but it is still a losing year. It's not so much the money, I am just getting tired of being lazy and playing poker every day. I feel like I could be more productive doing something else.
LH: What else would you like to do?
SS: I really do not know. I have considered going back to school to get my degree; I am halfway through. My major was civil engineering, and I actually enjoyed the curriculum. I quit because poker was so good, at the time. Now, I don't think poker is as attractive as a career; I am just getting burnt out on it. It's fun to do, though, so we'll see what happens.
LH: What made you decide to play so many events this month?
SS: I am renting out here [Las Vegas], at the moment, through the end of the calendar year. I usually try to hit all of the big series where there are a bunch of preliminary events, because they are such a good value. In the $2,500 and $3,000 buy-in events, there are just so many guys who do not know how to play. I decided to make a run at trying to turn '07 into a winner. I'm close, I need to knock one more off.
LH: Since it has been a losing year, so far, is your bankroll able to cover all of these tournaments?
SS: I really do not have the bankroll to be playing every $10,000 buy-in event, like I do. I mean, I have only missed two or three World Poker Tour events this year. I know a lot of these guys have like $15,000 to their names and they are playing $10,000 buy-in events. And a lot of guys borrow money; it is just a really sketchy business, sometimes. You just have to be really, really careful with your bankroll. I do not really have a set percent for how much you should have in your bankroll to play in a certain game or tournament, you just need to be careful.
LH: Have you ever had a backer or at least considered it?
SS: No, I haven't. I have always played with my own money. A lot of people have been telling me that I should take up a backer, just to take some of the stress off of me, but I don't really like the idea. I am either going to play my own money or not play.
LH: Do you ever regret leaving college to pursue a career as a poker professional?
SS: I don't. It has been a great experience. I mean, I have gotten to see more of the world than I ever would have. I have had the chance to do so many cool things, and I have met so many interesting people. I probably never would have done any of that if I had stayed in college for two more years. I do miss it, though; I miss being a college kid.
LH: You've had three cashes in the last week, two at Bellagio and one at the Venetian. Do you think that your game has improved in any way?
SS: I do. Actually, one of my friends is a great online player, and I had him examine my game. He found some things I was doing wrong; I was making some fundamental mistakes. I'd rather not say what changes I have made, because I don't want it to get out, but I will say that there is a very distinct way that I am playing now. I am definitely doing a couple of things differently, and I am playing tighter. It is working so far, I can notice the difference.
LH: Let's talk about the $5,000 buy-in event that you just placed third in at Bellagio.
SS: That might have been the best overall tournament poker that I have ever played. I got off to a nice start early. I had a big stack early because I won a big pot off of Tony Cousineau. I busted Barry Greenstein in a pretty big pot in which we both had draws.
LH: Did he give you a copy of Ace on the River?
SS: Actually, no. He did not give me a book, but I have his book, and I have read it. I don't know if he gives them out during the prelims. Anyway, I busted Barry. I had a better draw, and my ace high actually won the pot. I took the chip lead going into the dinner break. Then, I came back from dinner and lost half of my stack to this kid, Thayer Rasmussen. We both flopped trip kings, but I had K-Q against his A-K. That was a pretty sick pot. After that, I battled uphill all the way until we got into the money. I doubled up against Max Pescatori, pockets kings against pocket jacks, exactly on the bubble. I could have gone home with nothing. From then on, I cruised nicely. I won a big race with 7-7 against K-Q. You just have to win races to do well in poker tournaments, that's all there is to it. I got to the final 14 and I was playing really tight, like I mentioned earlier. I actually didn't bust anyone. Then, it got to threehanded play and things just didn't go my way. I couldn't flop a pair.
LH: You were fifth in chips going in to the final table. What was going through your mind when Jack McClelland said "Shuffle up and deal"?
SS: I was excited. I didn't intend to have to deal with the players who were there; they were great players, but a lot of them were guys who were not used to the pressure of playing for such big money. I decided that I was going to play for the $300,000 [first-place prize]. That was all that was on my mind; I was going to make decisions based on that. I did not care if busted out, I was playing to win the tournament. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the $300,000, but $100,000 [the third-place prize] was still nice.
LH: Were you familiar with any of the other players at the final table?
SS: Only a few of them, like Fred Bonyadi and Mark Muchnik. I knew Muchnik from the heads-up event at the World Series of Poker. We both went deep in that. Some of the guys I didn't know by name, like Zach Hyman. I didn't realize it at first, but he won a big event at the Wynn [the 2007 Wynn Classic championship]. And Matt Casterella, who I was threehanded with, I did not know who he was, but he has $1 million in cashes. There are a lot of guys out there who quietly make a good living playing poker, and they are great players. They are not the guys who run around the room when they win a pot, so you never hear about them.
LH: What do you think you could have changed about your play at that final table, if anything, in order to have won it?
SS: There is not really anything I could have done differently. I do not regret one decision that I made. Matt Casterella made a great laydown against me with two sevens, when it was threehanded, and I had two jacks. When a guy makes a laydown like that against you, it is hard to win a tournament. It is always hard when the other players are making great plays.
LH: Do you feel most comfortable playing at Bellagio since you have had so much success there?
SS: Yeah, I do. It is like there is something in the air here. I feel comfortable playing here; I like the chips, I like the cards, I like the dealers. I guess it is like a sports team playing at home.
LH: You came in second in one of the preliminary events of the Venetian's 2007 Vegas Open, what prompted you to play that tournament?
SS: I found out there was one going on up there, so I went. I am just trying to play as much poker as I can through the end of the year. I need to decide if this is what I want to do. That one went well, even though it only had 22 players. We chopped it up heads up, Keith Lehr and I, it was a decent score.
LH: Where can we expect to see you in 2008? Will you be traveling the tournament circuit for another year?
SS: That is what I am still trying to decide. I don't know what I am going to do.
LH: Does it depend on if this year is a winning year?
SS: That does have something to do with it. I want to know that I can win every year. But people do not realize that a year is very short-term for a poker players. There are tons of guys out there who lose over the course of a year. I don't know, I am just going to see how I feel about the game, and then I will do what I want to do. Up until the day school starts, I could end up back in college or I could be in Australia playing poker. We'll just have to see what happens.
LH: When do you think you will call it quits, if ever?
SS: I don't think I will ever call it quits completely; I still love the game. I just get tired of the routine. Waking up at 1 p.m. every day and lounging around, never doing anything physical… I just feel so unproductive. Even in 2006, when I was killing and winning all of that money, I still felt like there was something missing in my life.
LH: How much money would it take for you to quit right now, for good?
SS: I could never play the game again?
LH: No.
SS: It would have to be a lot. I really love playing the game. But if you told me you would give me $10 million right now, and I could never play a hand of poker again, I think I would take it.
