When I Was A Donk: With Brandon Shack-Harris

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.

Brandon Shack-Harris exploded onto the live tournament scene back at the 2014 World Series of Poker when he racked up six cashes, four final tables and a bracelet win en route to finishing second in the WSOP Player of the Year race to George Danzer. The Chicago-native won the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $205,634, finished second in the $10,000 razz for $182,155, and then third in the $1,500 limit hold’em event for another $78,335. He topped it all off with a runner-up showing in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship event for $937,975.

After another final table in 2015, Shack-Harris made three more in 2016, including a runner-up showing in the $1,500 stud eight-or-better event for $96,750. Most importantly, he won his second bracelet and $894,300 when he took down the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event. Shack-Harris now has more than $2.8 million in live tournament earnings.

Here, Shack-Harris talks about the hand that may have cost him one of the most prestigious titles in poker.

“I think you could say I’m a perpetual donk. (laughing) But the last really big mistake I remember came in the 2014 $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker. I had a pretty sizable lead, and there was a pot-limit Omaha hand against [John] Hennigan. We were three-handed, and Jesse [Martin] was down to like a nub of a stack. At the time, I had enough chips to where I felt like I could double up John and still be able to grind. It felt like it was an okay spot to gamble.”

“The hand played out where I opened a double-suited rundown hand. Hennigan potted out of position, and I honestly figured his range was going to be way wider than just aces. Given how short Jesse was, I thought there was a chance he could be doing it with a double-suited, ace-high rundown type of hand.”

“I called, and the flop came down ace high, giving me a flush draw. He just potted, committing himself to the hand. I had the flush draw, I had backdoor redraws, and I didn’t think he had trips. In the end, I figured even if I doubled John up, I would have enough chips to grind them back. But if I won the hand, my biggest threat at the table would be gone, and I would pretty much be guaranteed the win because Jesse was on fumes.”

“So I ended up putting him all-in, and he called, of course, with top two, aces and nines. I turned a wrap to go with my flush draw, but he faded it and doubled up. That gave him the chip lead and he ran everybody over. I ended up finishing second. The biggest lesson I learned was that you can’t get ahead of yourself. You might feel the end of a tournament coming, but you can’t force it. Let the game come to you and be patient.” ♠