My Last Night in Alabama

It's been quite a while since I posted, so I'll do my best to catch you guys up. I spent the first four days in AL in Birmingham going to The Crawfish Boil, celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and visiting with my family. The Crawfish Boil just isn't the same after you turn 21, I think. The live music was great, but there is just much more appeal to music festivals when you're underage because there's that gamble of drinking when you could get caught. Nonetheless, we drank incessantly both nights including margaritas on Saturday, May 5 for Cinco de Mayo. On Wednesday the 8th I rode with Stephanie to the Atlanta airport to pick up her cousin Allen and his friend Steve. Stephanie is Scottish, and most of her extended family still lives there. We picked Allen and Steve up and I could hardly understand a word they said because of their thick accents. It took me a couple days, but I eventually was able to understand them pretty well. It's pretty neat that the English language can be spoken so differently in two different countries. On Friday night Stephanie's dad arrived from Orlando with his mom and his sister. I'd met her Dad on a couple of occasions and was happy to see him again. Her grandmother and aunt were very nice women whom I also I enjoyed meeting. We went to dinner with everyone but retired after only a couple drinks because we had to get up early for Stephanie's graduation. On Saturday morning we woke up and got dressed for the graduation. My Mom and sister, Carly joined us. It was a good time. Aside from Stephanie walking, the highlight had to be when the ever-liberal graduation speaker went on an anti-war rant in front of the 10000+ people in attendance. Alabama is of course very conservative (I vote Democrat fwiw), and the speaker received lots of boos and mid-speech "Sit-down!" cries from the crowd. After graduation we headed to a nearby Japanese restaurant and had a great meal. Later, Stephanie, Allen, Steve and I headed to The Houndstooth and met up with my sister, Heather. I saw so many old faces that I possibly will never see again, and it really was sad when we had to leave at 2 a.m. after last call. After going to this graduation, I think I'm more likely to finish school. There are few actual goals I have at this point in my life, but finishing the last 2 years of my Engineering degree is one of them. I mainly want to do it just to prove to myself that I can. Right now, I'd peg myself at 9:2 to finish college in this lifetime :) Today, Sunday, we slept late and then woke up to celebrate Mother's day with my mom. We had a Mexican food lunch and then headed over to Lake Tuscaloosa to relax for a bit. Later, my sisters and Mom watched a movie at Heather's apartment as my lazy ass took a nap. It's 4 a.m. now on Monday morning, and I have a direct flight from BHM to Las Vegas that leaves at 12:30 p.m. I'm excited to get back home and refocused on my poker career now that I've had a nice 10 days off.

I am trying to decide where I want to go and where I want to be as far as poker goes. I've been very public about how bad 2007 has been for me, professionally. On Tuesday there is a 5000 dollar heads-up tournament at Mirage that I am very excited about. I feel like I am very knowledgable about how heads-up tournament poker should be played. The last hu tournament I participated in was The World Heads-Up Poker Championship in Barcelona in May 2006 where I finished in the round of 16 after losing to the eventual champion, Isaac Moyales de Vega. After that there are a couple days off before the 10000 dollar WPT Mirage event. I've decided that I will fly to New Orleans for the 5000 dollar WSOP circuit event if I get knocked out of WPT Mirage on day 1 or day 2. New Orleans starts on what would be day 3 of the WPT tournament. I am obsesed with New Orleans, but I hope I'm busy final tabling the WPT and can't make it. Also, I have to start playing cash games again. I like to think that I can be lazy enough to just play tournaments and hit often enough to not even have to grind. It hasn't been the case lately, however. I have wired a substantial amount of money out to Vegas that I plan on using as a bankroll for cash games live at Bellagio. As bad as it sucks playing 35 hands/hour I just have to get out there and do it and make some money. There are also a sick amount of tournament buy-ins coming up. A couple other things: First, I've decided to start posting at 2+2. I post under the name ShannonShorr. Second, I've decided to begin playing anonymously online. It just makes so much more sense. It's sick how often I get played back at in the online tournaments when I play under "Shannon Shorr." There will be much less pressure to perform and I don't have to deal with the rail chat. This industry makes me so sick at times with all the superficial bullshit. There is so much ego and testosterone it makes you puke. I read posts on message boards and hear guys talk in the urinal at tournaments, and every guy in there thinks he's the best player on the planet. Just ask him. I just want to play poker. I don't want to show any emotion, I don't want to talk, and I don't want to be recognized. I can do this by playing under unknown screen names. Obv the names will leak eventually, but I appreciate you guys respecting my privacy. That being said, I won't be able to post what games I'm playing online because it will give it away :) At times, I will still post win/loss amounts, although I feel there is little to gain by doing this anymore. April was yet another losing month for me making in three of four losers in 2007 and 5 out of 7 losing months dating back to October 2006. I wish I could explain it. I am almost certain that I don't want to play poker full-time for very much longer. Ideally, I'll make another half-million to one-million taxed dollars before getting out, investing and hopefully returning to school. After that, I'd maybe take on a backer and just play tournaments here and there. All of that is still fairly long-term though, I'm going to keep taking it day by day. I'm re-energized and ready to get back to work starting Tuesday. Thanks for reading. SS