Brandon Shack-Harris Enjoys Breakout Summer at World Series of Poker

Every summer, a player emerges from seemingly nowhere to take the World Series of Poker by storm and plant their name firmly on the poker map. In 2013, that player was mixed-games phenom Matt Ashton. In 2012, it was main event champion Greg Merson. The same can be said for previous breakout players Ben Lamb, Ville Wahlbeck, Brock Parker, Tom Schneider, and Jeff Madsen.

The 2014 summer series was no different, with 33-year-old poker pro Brandon Shack-Harris racking up six cashes, four final-table finishes, and his first career gold bracelet. In total, the Chicago, Illinois resident banked $1,415,510, which was roughly 11 times the $126,924 he had earned in four previous WSOP trips.

Even more impressively, Shack-Harris’ cashes all came in diverse events against stacked fields of the world’s best players. With so much firepower in his poker artillery, it may appear that poker is Shack-Harris’ first love, but the truth is that he never would’ve found poker if it weren’t for his passion for music.

Hitting the Right Notes

Brandon Shack-Harris was born in Racine, Wisconsin, but moved to San Marcos, California at a young age after his parents separated. His mother remarried when he was eight years old and the family relocated again to Farmington, New Mexico.

The shock of leaving friends behind and moving from a big city to the middle of nowhere hit him hard and Shack-Harris dealt with it the way most young adolescents would.

“I was miserable,” he recalled. “Our town had a Taco Bell, and that’s pretty much it. Our high school didn’t even have a yearbook or prom. I would lock myself in my room and play my guitar every day. Music was my way to escape.”

Things got worse for Shack-Harris at the age of 15, when his mother Suzanne passed away.

“She was the epitome of love,” he said. “She would do anything for anyone. All of a sudden, I was hit with a brutal dose of reality and my world was thrown upside down. I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of the situation. I wanted to honor and somehow validate her life by doing something big with mine.”

After a brief stint in New Jersey, Shack-Harris packed up and moved to Chicago, hoping to become an even bigger part of the music scene. He had a lot to say and he hoped music would give him that platform to speak out.

He worked tirelessly at his craft, spending countless hours each day practicing not only the guitar, but the bass, the piano, and even his singing. When he wasn’t working his day job as a server, he would do side work promoting bands and putting together his own music.

Some Time With Muse

In early 2004, Shack-Harris was turned on to the rock band Muse, a trio from England known for mixing elements from electronic and alternative rock with classical music. The band had just released its third album and were beginning to tour more heavily in the states.

Shack-Harris heard the band and recognized that they were putting out the same style of music he was desperate to make himself. He had to see them perform live.

“When I go to a show, I like to be up front so I can be fully immersed in it,” he explained. “I got in line (at a Muse show) super early, bringing my keyboard along to practice and pass the time. I saw the show and then stayed after for a meet and greet. I met Matt [Bellamy] (the lead singer) and told him how much I liked their music and told him about another band I thought he might appreciate. Then he saw my Chopin prelude tattoo on the inside of my arm and it turns out that it was one of his favorite pieces of music. Dom [Howard] (the drummer), then recognized me as the guy playing the keyboard in line.”

The band liked Shack-Harris right away and asked him to tag along for some drinks at a nearby bar. He conversed at length with Bellamy, forming a personal connection by exchanging life stories and talking about their music, and asked if they were considering bringing on a fourth member.

“He told me that they were considering it, and that I could be that guy,” Shack-Harris said. “We shared the same musical tastes and they liked me, so why not? I played it cool, they invited me to another show and in their tour bus, Matt brought it back up again. Of course, I told him that I was interested and the plan was to get back together again in the future and see how it went. But before I could get back home and start learning their music, Matt introduced me to poker.”

Discovering Poker

Chris Moneymaker and the World Poker Tour had sparked a poker boom and it turns out that Muse was just as hooked as the rest of us. Although he wasn’t initially interested, Shack-Harris went along with the impromptu poker lesson in the back of that tour bus.

“I remember there was a lot of limping,” he said with a laugh. “We exchanged contact information and I went home. I knew the other two guys were more comfortable being a three-piece band, so I thought that if I learned more about poker, they’d be more willing to accept me. So when I wasn’t learning their music, I was playing online poker. I started learning to clear deposit bonuses and my bankroll gradually got bigger.”

For six months, Shack-Harris practiced the music, improved as a poker player, and had yet to get a response to his emails to Bellamy. He saw them perform again at a music festival and was once again invited back, but the band never showed. Thinking nothing was going to materialize from the offer, Shack-Harris put it behind him.

Shack-Harris had spent an entire year waiting to see if he was going to be a member of Muse, a band that has since gone on to sell over 15 million albums worldwide and even win a Grammy Award. Just to rub some salt in his wounds, in 2006 the band added a touring keyboardist to their lineup.

Poker Progressions

“The whole situation with Matt left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “I was so disappointed that I really couldn’t think about music for a while. I was making more money playing poker than I was at my day job, so I decided to just focus on that.”

Shack-Harris was spending his days short-stacking $5-$10 no-limit hold’em online and was doing it incredibly well. He would withdraw only the money he needed for bills, leaving his bankroll online. That decision proved to be costly when Neteller froze almost the entirety of his winnings in a 2007 case brought on by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

“With what limited bankroll I had left, I decided to see if I could make my rent payment by playing Omaha. Then I tried to do the same thing with razz. Little by little, I was learning how to play all of these new games.”

Being able to adapt kept him from returning to a traditional job. When the DOJ struck again in 2011, on poker’s Black Friday, Shack-Harris adapted once again.

“Black Friday was kind of a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to start playing live,” he explained. “Without that experience, there is no way I could have put together the kind of summer I did.”

Before long, Shack-Harris had joined a twice weekly $40-$80 mixed game at the nearby Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. There was also a private $40-$80 game in Chicago where he was able to cut his teeth. In addition to the usual H.O.R.S.E. rotation, the game often features poker variations such as badugi, badacey, badeucy, razzdugi, and limit Omaha high.

Tournament Success

Shack-Harris was doing fine in the cash games, but the lack of mixed-game tournaments limited his experiences to the summer events at the WSOP. In 2012, he strung together three solid cashes when he took third in the $1,500 stud eight-or-better event for $84,415, 10th in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event for $35,923 and 30th in the $2,500 eight-game mix for another $6,587.

In 2013, variance was not kind and he didn’t record a single cash, but Shack-Harris vowed that his 2014 campaign would more than make up for it. In May, he even went so far as to make it public that winning a bracelet one of his immediate goals. It only took him four days.

This summer, Shack-Harris cashed a total of six times and recorded four top-three finishes. He opened things up by winning the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event for his first career title and a $205,634 payday.

A week later, he took second in the $10,000 razz event for another $182,155. Then he finished third in the $1,500 limit hold’em event for $78,335. Despite the fact that his final table ran into the $50,000 Poker Players Championship starting day, he registered late anyway and began building his chip stack. Five days later, he found himself heads-up for the title with John Hennigan. Shack-Harris ultimately fell just short, cashing for $937,975.

Some Much Deserved Recognition

A summer full of final tables put Shack-Harris firmly in the poker spotlight. Not only is he the front runner for the WSOP Player of the Year award, with only WSOP Asia Pacific left to go, but he is also now on all of poker media’s most wanted lists for interviews. The newfound attention is a far cry from his days of grinding cash games with relative anonymity.

“People have been saying that I was flying under the radar before this summer, and I guess that’s a fair thing to assume, but the truth is that I don’t grind the circuit and I don’t play rail heaven online, so there was really no reason to have heard of me before. I completely understand why I’m being considered a breakout star, even though I’ve been playing poker for years now.”

That being said, Shack-Harris is completely fine with his new status as a known player.

“I don’t mind the attention,” he admitted. “It’s validation, really, for all of the hard work I’ve put in over the years. It’s nice when the blogs list you as one of the notable players in the field and take your picture, rather than being referred to as the guy in seat three or whatever.”

Not only has the media taken notice, but so have his fellow competitors. Players who routinely play in the $400-$800 or higher games now know all about the kid with the hyphenated last name from Chicago.

“This summer has been great for me in that I’ve been able to look at my game and how it compares to those guys who play the big mixed games every day. A big goal of mine is to be one of the most feared mixed-game players in the world, so it was nice to see that I’m not too far away from achieving that. Maybe in a few years, we’ll see what happens. I want the respect, but I’m going to earn it.”

Moving Forward

Shack-Harris believes he has the skill to stay atop the poker world for the foreseeable future, but he also wants to return to music at some point.

“If I didn’t put out a record and go tour at some point, I feel like my life would be unfulfilled.”

The problem is finding a balance between his first love and poker, which pays the bills.

“I’m constantly moving from one hobby to the next,” he admitted. “I could totally see myself using this big summer as an excuse to do something else. I probably won’t, but it wouldn’t be that surprising. I just have one of those personalities that constantly challenges me to go and be the best at whatever catches my interest. It’s a negative and a positive. Martin Bradstreet once told me that he didn’t understand why everyone in the poker world was so focused on finding balance. The only way to be the best is to become obsessed with something.” ♠