When I Was A Donk With Shawn Buchanan

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

If you wandered around a crowded poker tournament floor, it might be easy to miss Shawn Buchanan. The quiet Canadian poker pro usually has his sunglasses on, with a baseball cap pulled down low and covered up by a hoodie. But his results will definitely get your attention.

In addition to playing in high-stakes cash games, Buchanan is also one of the more consistent tournament players on the circuit, having made four World Poker Tour and six World Series of Poker final tables. Although he is considered to be one of the best players without a bracelet, he does have a WPT title, along with nearly $5.9 million in career tournament earnings.

Here, Buchanan talks about a mistake he made at one of the most stacked televised final tables ever that included the likes of Daniel Alaei, Faraz Jaka, Josh Arieh, Scotty Nguyen, and Steve O’Dwyer.

I made a big laydown at a 2009 World Poker Tour final table at the Bellagio that I still think about to this day. Faraz Jaka opened with a raise. I believe we were either five- or six-handed at the time. And then Josh Arieh three-bet. I looked down at A-K in the small blind, having about 30 blinds behind, and I just folded.

It really tortured me to fold it because it was such a good spot to get it in, but at the time, I felt like I wasn’t in a rush and had a decent handle on the rest of the table. Also, Scotty Nguyen was getting pretty short-stacked, so there were some ICM considerations as well. Looking back, I definitely chose the more conservative play, but I tend to go with my gut more often than not.

I ended up finding out that Arieh had K-Q and Faraz had shit like he always did back then. So if I had shoved, both of them would’ve folded, and I would’ve picked up a decent pot.

I know some people might have felt compelled to move in there with A-K, just because it was on television and maybe they didn’t want to look foolish, but I’ve always gone against the grain when it came to lines during my career. I’m pretty confident in my ability as a poker player, so I’m good about not letting the TV cameras affect my decisions, although I wish it had affected me back then.

If I had gone on to win the tournament, instead of finishing fourth, then maybe I wouldn’t think about that hand so much. I wonder what the outcome would have been if I decided to move all in instead. ♠