Shannon Shorr is a 23-year-old professional poker player who was born on June 7, 1985 and was brought up in Birmingham, Alabama with his two sisters. He attended Shades Valley High School, where he was a baseball player. That was the game of his choice while growing up and he played it most of his life. Later on, Shannon Shorr continued his education in the University of Alabama, where he was a Civil Engineering student, but spent there only two and a half years before withdrawing to pursue a full-time professional poker player career.
How he started playing poker is a common story. While at the University of Alabama, he discovered poker and developed a great passion for it. Like many people back then, he and his friends were inspired by the success Chris Moneymaker made and so they started playing $5 home games. At first his parents were against him playing poker, but with time they got used to the idea and now they are 100% behind him in his decision to leave school and play professionally. In spite of all, Shannon Shorr plans to return to school at the same universiy. Since he wanted to be a professional, he got his start by playing online at PartyPoker.
Shannon Shorr began making a name for himself in the poker world early in 2006 and much of his success came before he was even 21. In almost all jurisdictions in the United States gambling until coming of age was banned, so Shannon Shorr had to go abroad if he wanted to compete. He won a spot in the Aussie Millions championship event in Melbourne, Australia through an online tournament. He flew for Australia where he made the final table, placed fourth and took home more than $200,000. While observing the level of his play, a few would have guessed that this live tournament was his first.
He kept on traveling around the world, playing live events in Australia, the Bahamas, Austria, Spain and etc, gaining experience until he turned 21. Soon after his boom in Australia, Shannon Shorr had another accomplishment - he finished second in the Canadian Poker Championships in the Bahamas and collected $75,265. At the 12th Vienna Spring Poker Festival in Austria he made the final table, finishing fifth and earned nearly $5,000.
His real success came at the World Series of Poker. His best finish at the WSOP for the time being was in the 2008 World Series of Poker when he was a runner-up to Matt Keikoan at the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event, pocketing $349,141. On July 6, 2008 Shannon Shorr won the $3,000 Bellagio Cup for $247,555. Just three days later he placed third at the $5,000 preliminary event in the same series, and collected $124,170. As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,800,000.