In Amsterdam, The Netherlands
May 12, 2008, 2:18 pm by Shannon ShorrLeft London this afternoon.
In Amsterdam now.
Expect a blog in like three days.
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London Update + Happy Mother's Day!
May 11, 2008, 5:15 am by Shannon ShorrThings have been great in London. I left off as we were headed out to a nightclub on Friday night. Mike, Adam and I took a cab down to the famous Picadilly Square area and then wandered into the Soho district. We hit some of the pubs around there and knocked down several pints of beer. We hadn't eaten dinner so we ate an 11 p.m. meal at this place called, appropriately, Adam's diner. After dinner we headed across the street to a place called "On Anon", which advertised itself as having 9 bars and 2 nightclubs inside. There were a bunch of different rooms not unlike Jet at The Mirage in Vegas. It was a really sick setup and a particularly cool name for a nightlife venue if you ask me.
We woke up Saturday afternoon around 1 p.m. We ate a late lunch at a place called The Brompton Quarter Cafe nearby our hotel. It was the best meal we've eaten so far. Afterwards, we decided to do the tourist thing because we felt we owed it to ourselves. We spent the day checking out a lot of the sites. We took the Underground into Westminster where Big Ben is located. We then took a flight on the famous London Eye ferris wheel. It was a pretty cool experience. Mike was nice enough to pay the 75 pounds for the ride after losing the flip. We obv paid for the fast pass to skip the line, and it proved to be a good play. Next we decided to hop on a double decker bus and just ride it for a while, as we had no idea where we were going. We got caught up in prop bets on the top of the bus and ended up venturing probably a little too far into the ghetto of London, if you will. We finally got off and caught a bus to the London Bridge. This, too, was a pretty cool area. We were able to see the London tower from here as well.
Finally, we headed back to change and then headed out to this place called "The Sports Cafe" which the concierge told us would be a good spot to watch last night's NBA games. We arrived at a pretty cool looking two story bar/club/restaurant but learned that they couldn't find the NBA game after searching for it on the satellite for like 45 minutes ajdkfhaksdjfhw998qwefadsafafe3hqwqkjq. We did have some beers and some pretty good burgers there. It was around 1 a.m. or so and we decided to call it a night a little early because we were tired.
Today is gonna be the nut though because we're going to the Chelsea vs. Bolton game. I've come out of sportsbetting retirement to bet Chelsea to cover two goals at plus 105 because I wanna really get into this game. Cover one time. The game kicks off in 3 and a half hours. We intend on drinking a ton at the game and then celebrating afterwards, England style.
Finally, Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and any other Mothers who may be reading.
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Arrived in London
May 9, 2008, 3:25 pm by Shannon ShorrIt was a bit of an adventure, but Adam, Mike and I arrived at our hotel in London about 11:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. Central) this morning. My flight from Birmingham to ATL was delayed for 45 minutes because of weather, so I flew across the ATL airport and made it to the plane just as they were announcing last call. Mike and Adam were waiting for me. Mike and I played Chinese poker for about 5 of the 8.5 hours of the plane ride, and Adam slept a bunch of it. We also did a bunch of stupid prop bets that Mike got the better end of.
When we landed in London we had to wait in customs line for a painfully long hour. We then caught a train into the Victoria district followed by an Underground to the area right near our hotel. We're staying in a very nice area of town at a pretty cool little hotel called Rembrandt.
When we tried to check in we learned that we couldn't check in until 2 p.m. which tilted us. We hadn't slept in like 24 hours, but we still decided to go eat some lunch and throw down a few pints of beer. A block from our house we found a cool restaurant/pub called "Bunch of Grapes". I went right for the fish and chips. We put down a bunch of beer, too. They had this beer on tap called Kronenbourg that is sickkkkkk good. I'd never had it, but now I'll drink lots of it. Unbelievably, our small lunch and beers cost us 75 pounds which I guess amounts to like 150 us dollars, lawl. I lost the flip and paid, sigh.
They let us in our room about 1:30 p.m. local and we just woke up at 9 p.m. We're gonna go to a nightclub, we think. Should be a blast. We're having a great time.
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Leaving for London Tomorrow
May 8, 2008, 2:13 am by Shannon ShorrSoooo. My time in Birmingham was just great. I partied a little too hard as I always do when I come home and see my old friends. Saturday night after the crawfish boil we were out really late. Sunday I played online poker tournaments. On Monday I woke up kinda early and headed down to Tuscaloosa for a meeting I had with an academic advisor for The University of Alabama. As long time readers know, I am going to re-enroll one more time at the U of A in the fall. I'm switching to Business Management from the much less practical Civil Engineering degree I was originally striving for. I got some outstanding news when the advisor told me that all 56 of my credit hours that I've earned so far are applicable for the business degree. That means I really only have 4 semesters to complete to get my degree. That will fly by, I think. I'm honestly really excited about getting back down there as I promised myself that I would eventually get a degree and I won't be able to live with myself if I don't.
Later that night for Cinco de Mayo a big group of us headed to Superior Grill here in Birmingham. It is THE spot to be on May 5th each year. We ate some great food, had a ton of margaritas and had a blast. Around 1 a.m. we saw comedian Bill Bellamy when he came in with his entourage. He was in town doing a show or something. It was interesting to say the least. Yesterday and today I had some business to take care of around town. Last night I ate dinner with my Mom and sister Heather at a place called Costa's Italian that I highly recommend. Today I got to spend some time hanging out with my Dad. We made a day out of it first stopping off at a local bar/grill called Gilley's and playing several games of pool. Afterwards we headed back to his house and played this sickkkkkk addicting game called "Cornhole" (yea you read that right). I'm sure a lot of you have heard of this beanbag tossing game. Finally we watched some basketball, ate dinner, and called it a night.
For those looking for poker content, I don't have much from the last week. I played the late slate Sunday MTTs on the internet and went like 1 for 8 with only a small cash in the FTP main event. The day could've been salvaged though as I was just about to win another WSOP ME seat when this unbelievable pot went down. If I win this pot I can literally turn my computer off 65 seats away from the money and still get a seat. I am perfectly content with taking the pot down preflop at this point as I already have enough chips to get a seat, really. Notice how large my reraise is preflop and then notice that it's overcalled by a third party. Somehow this guy gets the money in with two jacks in a satellite here. Oh well. Bye bye 12500 cash.
Tomorrow Mike, Adam and I depart for London, England for a vacation of sorts. If I had it my way I'd leave my laptop and phone at home, but I have a feeling I might need them in case of an emergency. I don't plan on playing poker though. We'll arrive at Gatwick airport around 8 a.m. local time on May 9th. I don't think we have any real plans until we go see Chelsea take on Bolton in a Premier League futbol match on the 11th. We'll probably drink a lot of beer at the pubs and eat a lot of fish and chips. I'll have lots of updates. Can't wait. I was in London in September 2006 and really fell in love with the place.
Until then...
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In Birmingham
May 3, 2008, 4:13 pm by Shannon ShorrWeeee. Always fun to be back. I got back here around 4 p.m. yesterday and promptly met up with my friend Kaleb. We pre drank a bit and then headed into the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil. We got inside and put down way too many beers way too fast during Seether's performance. Next up was this rapper T-pain. Not my style. The night finished with 3 Doors Down. They were ok, but Seether was by far the best. The crowd was interesting. Kaleb and I were fucking fossils at age 22 at this show. Everyone there was like 14-18. I remember now why we liked going to this thing so much in high school, lawl.
Afterwords we joined my sister and some friends at this bar called Back Nine which was fun. We're heading back down there again today. Tonight's lineup is pretty lame with Flo Rida, Corey Smith, Gavin DeGraw and Fergie, but it'll be a cool atmosphere.
The last few days in Vegas before heading home were pretty uneventful. I had to run some errands around town. I did go see the new Harold and Kumar movie with a friend and laughed my ass off. It might even be better than the White Castle movie. I usually hate Comedy movies because they're always lame, but I did like this one. Also I almost missed my flight home to Birmingham yesterday because the cab company never showed up at my house after I called. I waited 90 minutes, so that was a good sweat as I literally sprinted through McCarran airport and arrived just in time for boarding. My roommate Jerry came to the rescue and woke up and drove me at the last minute. I gotta shower and head out to the concert.
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Out of WSOPC Caesars
April 29, 2008, 8:29 pm by Shannon ShorrGod. This one just went painfully bad. Early on I was around the starting stack and entered my first pot for a raise to 175 with red tens. A really bad player in his 70s called the 175 behind me and then a player who seemed competent but had no fold button called as well. The flop was 942 with two spades. I bet 400, the 70-something called and then the third guy raised to 1650. It felt a lot like a flush draw, but you can't just blast it to 5000 in level one with an overpair, really. I settled on call and then the 70-something overcalled. The turn was the interesting Ts giving me top set. I checked, old guy checked, and then the third party bet a tiny 2250 into 5550. So, I quickly crunched some numbers and even if the guy shows me a flush faceup I'm getting like exact odds to call with top set, even if there are no implied odds at all. Not to mention, there was a good chance the old guy would call behind, too. It's just a shitty tournament spot. The river was the 3h. I checked the old guy checked and the third guy shoved. I tossed top set and then the old guy found a call with red Kings behind me. The third guy showed 65ss. It's really unfortunate that he didn't reraise me preflop because instead of losing 5000 I win 10000 chips.
I took a 5300 stack to the break. Things continued to go poorly in level 2. I raised AQo in the cutoff and a guy who had 2000 chips and was just itching to bust out moved in in the BB. I had a pretty easy call, and he showed me the A8dd. The board came 867xx. Sigh. So now I was down to 3500 instead of back up to around 7600. I ended level 2 with 2500 chips.
In level 3 there were 5 limpers for 200 into my BB, and I found KJhh and had a trivial shove for my 2500 total. The first guy folded and then the second limper, a great online tournament player named "USCPhildo", moved in over the top. He showed up with black AKo, but I got lucky on a board of Th 4h 3s Js x. I think Phil must've had an idea that I'd be moving in hence his AK limp. I ran hot for a couple of hands and was actually all the way back to 7200ish before losing a ton of small pots and taking 5000 to the third break.
Fourth level nothing good happened. I was down to 3100 at 1/200 (25) in the BB when the bust hand came up. A guy limped, Justin Bonomo limped, a guy completed and I decided to check T8o in the BB. The flop came JJ9. Checked to Justin who bet 700. SB folded and I decided to go with my OESD for 2200 more. Justin quickly called with J8dd, and I missed.
It sucks because there isn't another live tournament that I'm going to play until the WSOP prelims.
I'm going to just chill tomorrow and Thursday, and then I fly to Alabama on Wednesday. I'm going to go to the Schafer Eye Center Crawfish Boil in Birmingham, so if anyone's going let me know. I'll be in Alabama for a week and then I'm going on a one week vacation (no poker) with my roommates Mike and Adam. We're going to London for a few days and then we're going to head over to Amsterdam which should be a blast. We're going to a soccer game in London, so we can't wait for that. After Europe I'm coming back to Vegas on the 17th to entertain my sister Heather who will be in town on business. Just before the start of the WSOP all of us roomies are going on a 4 day houseboat trip on Lake Meade.
It's going to be a busy month, but I'm obviously really excited about it. There probably will be very little time for poker, but that really doesn't matter to me at all to be honest.
I'm going to the gym. I'm going to try to get in the best shape physically and mentally as I can before the WSOP as it will be a long, grueling summer. I'll be playing an event just about every single day.
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Playing WSOPC Caesars Today + New Watch
April 29, 2008, 3:29 am by Shannon ShorrIt's about 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Later today we'll all play the WSOPC event at Caesar's. I finished 21st in this event last year, so I wouldn't mind improving on that finish. Yesterday I played a pretty big slate of online MTTs. I had four tiny cashes which weren't good enough to get me to break even, but I did make a couple of buy ins playing cash to make it a winning day. Roommates Eric Baldwin and Adam Geyer both made the final table of the Caesar's 2000 which was sick. They finished 9th and 5th respectively for decent lil paydays. Congrats to them. Also congrats to Jon Little who was able to fade all of the other players in the WPT Championship to lock up the WPT Player of the Year. This is a remarkable accomplishment. Jon had three final tables (two of them televised) on the season which makes me incredibly jealous. I am just 3 for 23 cashing in WPT events in my career with 13th place at WPT Mirage in 2007 being my highest finish :( It's allllllll good though. I'll knock one off soon.
In other news I purchased a new watch today. After a few hours of searching online I decided to play it safe and go with a Breitling. I settled on the Breitling Aeromarine Super Avenger with diamond bezel. The face is pretty damn big, and that is what I really wanted most out of this watch, so I'm very happy. It feels good to finally buy myself something. I think I could get used to it. I just don't know what to buy.
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Out of Caesars 2000
April 27, 2008, 12:39 am by Shannon ShorrOut of the Caesar's 2000 in like 43rd place of the 191 entrants. 18 will get paid. I overslept until noon and was half an hour late arriving. I drew a starting table that looked delicious. I recognized only my roommate Cody Slaubaugh. Early on I ran my stack up to about 9500 from the 6000 starting stack. Then in level three a funny one came up. A really bad Euro raised from MP and I decided to call with KcTd to try to play a pot with him, because I knew if I flopped well I'd double through him. The flop came KT2 with two clubs. He bet 500, I raised to 1450 and he called. The turn was the 8c. He checked, and I decided to bet 3100. He looked back at his hand and decided to insta just call and save my last 4500. The river was the 3c. He bet out 2000 into the pot of 10000, and I have to press call with the second nut, I think. He showed me black Aces. In the third level I lost another big pot to the same guy. I raised 96dd in MP, Gene Todd called and said guy defended in the BB as well. The flop was J94 with two diamonds. The Euro led out all-in for 3850 into 2000, and I moved in over the top. Gene folded, and I was in pretty good shape against Euro's Q7dd. He rivered a diamond to cripple me to 300 chips. I ran super hot though and ran my stack all the way from 1.5bb's to 6000 over the next few hands. I then just grinded and grinded to stay afloat for like the next 6 hours. I'm very happy with how I played the short stack all day.
The last two days were great. The 51s game was great and so was the Kanye West concert. I'm not a hip hop fan at all, but the atmosphere was sick. Tomorrow we'll play online. Our water heater broke in our house, so we're tilted. Hopefully they fix it tomorrow. Gonna relax for the rest of the night because the last two days were hectic with very lil sleep.
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Out of Caesars 1500
April 23, 2008, 5:34 pm by Shannon ShorrOut on the first hand of the third hour of the Caesar's 1500 tournament. I drew a starting table where I recognized only 2008 PCA Champion, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. I lost a pot early where I bet two streets with A2cc on a board of Ah6h3hKs5d against a random. He has the Kh a bunch of the time, so I felt a turn bet was in order. I checked behind on the river and he showed me A7ss. Next, I tried to bluff Elky on the end with 97cc on 54385, but he called with A4. I got moved to a table with Alex Bolotin and 2007 WSOP ME champion, Jerry Yang. I was crippled down to like 550 chips at one point before doubling through Jerry. Then the first hand back from break Jerry raised the button to 400, and I decided to go with A6o in the BB for 1625. He called with AKss and I was sent to the rail on a board of 6s8xTx4s5s. It was my first time meeting Jerry, and he was a gentleman and as far as I can tell has been a good ambassador for the game.
Not much has been going on the last couple of days. Mike made a nice run in the 25000 event finishing 57th or so. We've gone to the gym two days in a row, so I feel good about that. We'll go again today. We also had a big, elaborate draft of the 55 players that were left in the 25000 event going in to today, so I'm watching the results with interest, as we have a bunch of fun props and payouts. For example...one of the situations, the roommate that has the player that finishes 32nd in the event has to take the roommate that has the player that finishes 28th in the event to the Las Vegas restaurant of his choice, heh. I'll probably play the 2000 at Caesar's on Saturday, but until then I just anticipate relaxing. Tomorrow we're going to the local AAA baseball team, Las Vegas 51s game. It's dollar beer night. Friday night we're going to the Kanye West concert at Red Rock.
Thanks for reading.
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Out of WPT Championship
April 21, 2008, 4:11 pm by Shannon ShorrSigh. Out of the WPT Championship in the first level of day 2. Entered 4 pots. I raised T8dd in the cutoff and Darrell Dicken called in the SB. Flop 864. He checkfolded. Then a big one came up. Rodeen Talebi raised up front to 3000 and had about 14000 more behind. This guy Patrick Bruel called behind him and then an unknown Canadian called 3000. I found AKo in the HJ. I decided to raise to just 9800. This was probably a mistake, although I think it saved me money. Rodeen and Bruel both tank folded and then the unknown thought for 2 minutes before just calling 6800. I figured he had a pair and would never give me credit, so I hated my spot. Flop Q74r. He checked and I just decided to check. Turn 9. Check-Check. River K. Strangely, he led out for 11700 into the pot of 28000. My hand is rather faceup, so for him to lead out here is incredibly weird. I initially thought about raising all-in for value for my last 20500, but that's pretty thin. Then, I actually thought about folding the hand. His line is so strange, so I finally just settled on calling, thinking he's maybe blocking with like AQ or TT or something. He showed me a set of queens, wow. How he shows up with two queens here I'll never figure out, but he did, and I was crippled. I was shocked he didn't CRAI on the river, as I would've bet like 14000 and then had to puke and make a decision for my last 17000. Same guy decided to hold over me. I raised AQ up front soon after and he defended from SB. Flop T88. He led out 2300. Ok I fold. Very next hand is busto hand. Same guy raises button unopened to 2700 and I see the Ace of spades first. Then the.....Th. I have a pretty standard shove for 17500. He called with AK ajha;kjhakq;kheue;huq. The board came A3258.
Always stings to bust from a main event, but all in all it was a great series. I have no real plans for the next week or so until the WSOPC event at Caesar's. There are a couple of prelims this week that might be worth getting out of the house to play. I've got some real life errands to run, and I'm going to try to hit the gym a few times. The NBA playoffs are also going on, so I'm sure we'll watch those. I might get back to playing some HU cash games online, but the idea of that is pretty disenchanting and seems like work. I also think I'm going to buy myself a nice, expensive watch. Since I've started playing poker professionally the most expensive thing I've bought myself was my 2004 Chevy Tahoe. I don't think I've bought anything else that costs over even 5000 dollars, so I figure it's time I treat myself for working hard. Wish it could be me winning the 3 and a half million, but my time for the life changing money will come...hopefully sooner than later.
Mike is still alive and basebaldy is short at 25000 at the first break of the day. Adam is out, too :( Hopefully one of the roomies win.
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