Poker Player Shawn Sheikhan - Winning Sheik

Prior to the airing of the 2005 World Series of Poker, you’d probably never heard of Shawn “The Sheik” Sheikhan. And if, after seeing him on those ESPN broadcasts and then again on GSN’s High Stakes Poker, you thought you might never hear from Sheikhan again, you weren’t alone. He didn’t necessarily look like a serious poker player with an overabundance of staying power.

But first impressions can be very, very wrong. As the ’06 World Series looms, Shawn Sheikhan is one of the biggest rising stars in the game. Some may love him, some may hate him, but nobody is taking him lightly anymore.

One of the highlights of the 2005 WSOP was the verbal confrontation seen by millions involving Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and the then-unknown Sheikhan. The Sheik finished 11th in the Main Event, but gained more notice for his willingness to exchange trash talk with Matusow than for his prowess as a poker player.

Fans then got another look at “Sheiky” on High Stakes Poker, the first-ever televised No-Limit Hold ’Em cash game. Sheikhan did not exactly come off as a superstar in the making. He was criticized for everything from the way he played certain hands to talking at the table when he wasn’t involved in a hand, and just about everything in between. Todd Brunson, annoyed by Sheikhan’s antics, went so far as to label Sheikhan an “idiot” in an off-screen interview. Sammy Farha asked Sheikhan in one episode whether he was going to be back the next day, implying that if Sheiky was, then Farha preferred not to play that day.

But all of that was before this past March, when Sheikhan created the Cinderella story of the year with his performance in the National Heads-Up Championship. While oddsmakers listed him as 70-1 or worse to win the event, Sheikhan shocked the poker world by reaching the semifinals of the highly prestigious tournament, coming within one bad beat of advancing to the finals.

Sheikhan’s road to the semifinals was fraught with some of the greatest players in the game. His opening match was against the unpredictable four-time WPT champion Gus Hansen. He then was paired against Doyle Brunson, possibly the greatest poker player of all-time. Next was high-stakes cash-game specialist and two-time WSOP bracelet winner David Grey. Sheikhan then had to defeat 2004 Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu to have the privilege of playing five-time WSOP bracelet winner Ted Forrest in the semifinals. None of the other three players who reached the Final Four had tougher obstacles placed in front of them than did Sheikhan, yet he defied the odds. But that’s nothing new to him.

Shahram “Shawn” Sheikhan was born in Iran in 1969. His father was a judge and a high-ranking military officer, and because of that, his family had money, power, and a lot of perks, like bodyguards, drivers, and live-in domestic help. Then the Islamic Revolution occurred in 1979, forcing Shawn’s family to leave the country. They had a relative living in Santa Cruz, California, so that’s where they went.

Sheikhan recalls that it was very stressful making the transition to a foreign country where he couldn’t even speak the language. Back in school in the old country, they offered students English classes, but he always used to cut them. Instead, he’d have his driver pick him up and take him home or to the arcade.

When Sheikhan first started school in Santa Cruz, it was at the time of the hostage crisis in Iran. He was only in the fourth grade, and the kids in school were coming up to him and telling him to free the hostages. He says he’s been called every name in the book—his 10th grade woodshop teacher even used to call him “C.J.,” for “camel jockey.” So when it comes to people calling Shawn names today, he’s sufficiently hardened.

Sheikhan’s family arrived in the States with only $30,000. His father bought a little gas station in San Jose, and commuted from Santa Cruz for several years to operate it. The family eventually moved to San Jose, where Shawn went to high school. Then they moved to Las Vegas, but Shawn didn’t like it there, because by this time, he had friends in San Jose. So he moved back. His father bought another gas station, and Shawn managed it for him there. But he finally returned to Las Vegas in 1995 to follow business pursuits and be closer to his family.

Sheikhan now owns a chain of six retail stores in Las Vegas called Diversity. They are smoke shops that sell other items also, like shoes, clothing, and novelties, and are well known for tattoos and piercings. He’s currently negotiating a commercial real estate deal for a piece of property where he plans on building a strip mall with another Diversity store anchoring it, while leasing out the rest of the property. He’s also invested in other residential and commercial real estate, doing quite well over the past 10 years.

When ALL IN asked Sheikhan if he was inked, he laughed as he replied, “Me? No. I know myself too well. If I got started, I’d never stop, so I never started.”

Sheikhan first got interested in gambling because his parents loved to gamble. They would often play cards with family and friends, and he would watch. He first played poker at Caesars Palace back in 1986. After he lost all his money in a $5/$10 Stud game, he got carded, and they threw him out because he was only 17. His game improved when he moved back to California and found himself playing a lot of poker there.

Sheiky considers himself primarily a cash-game player. He’s only recently started to dabble in Las Vegas tournaments, and doesn’t go on the circuit at all, except for one World Poker Tour event a year in Los Angeles. He plays four to six days a week, usually at Caesars Palace, in $400/$800 or $1000/$2000 mixed games, although he has played higher. He especially likes drawing games, like Triple Draw, Deuce-To-Seven, Ace-To-Five, Omaha Eight-Or-Better, Stud Eight-Or-Better, and regular Seven-Card Stud. Hold ’Em is actually his least favorite game.

But he is making a name for himself in “the Cadillac of poker,” even if he’s an extremely inexperienced Hold ’Em player. In fact, Shawn revealed to ALL IN that during last year’s World Series Main Event, he played more No-Limit Hold ’Em in those six days than he had in his entire life.

But if the World Series put Sheikhan on the map, then it was the Heads-Up Championship that has made him a burgeoning star. Each match started out the same way, with Sheiky blowing off a good portion of his stack to his opponents. But then he bore down, got aggressive and lucky at the right times, and beat them. That is, all except for Forrest, who caught a two-outer on him on the turn and made trip fours to beat Sheikhan’s top pair. If it weren’t for that hand, Shawn would have been in the finals, but instead that hand crippled him, and eventual champion Forrest busted him shortly thereafter.

Doyle Brunson had issued a $100,000 challenge at the drawing party the night before the tournament began, betting that someone from his bracket would win the event. Howard Lederer, who was also in a deep and talented bracket, accepted the bet. Sheikhan asked Doyle if he would give him a percentage of the money if Shawn won it on behalf of their bracket, and Doyle said, “Whatever you want.” So Shawn asked him if he’d give him his hat instead, and Brunson said yes.

Sheiky faced Brunson in the second round, and admitted that his hands were shaking. None of his other opponents had that kind of effect on him; it was just that he had so much respect for the legendary “Texas Dolly.” Sheikhan wound up being the final representative in Doyle’s bracket, and when he lost to Forrest (who came out of Lederer’s bracket), he was hugely disappointed and depressed for days. Even though people marveled at how well he played, he felt like he let Brunson down.

“I wanted to win so badly,” Sheikhan said. “Having Doyle give me his hat would have meant more to me than the title and the money. I came so close. But Ted spooked me out with his pair of fours and crushed my dream.”

Ever the gambler, Sheikhan related an interesting story to ALL IN about a prop-bet experience.

“I was seated next to Sammy Farha in the Main Event at last year’s WSOP,” he recalled, “and play was hand-for-hand because we were approaching the money bubble of 560 players. Play really slowed down with that many players, and Sammy and I were getting bored. So we decided to cut cards in between hands. I had $1,600 in my pocket, and Sam had pancakes ($25,000 chips). We bet $1,000, and I lost. Sam wanted to do it again, but I told him I only had $600 left on me. So he said keep $100, and we cut again for $500, and I won. Then I won again. At this point, one of the tournament staff came over and told us that it was against the rules for us to touch the cards. So we started flipping coins. To make a long story short, I took that $500 I was down to and wound up winning a little over $25,000.”

With lifetime tournament winnings of $866,435, it isn’t the money that motivates Sheikhan at this point. His primary goal is to win a bracelet or two at this year’s World Series, and he hopes to do so in one of the drawing games. He plans on playing in about half of the events, including the Main Event. He says that if he’s playing well, and the field is a good one, he’ll probably play in the new $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event also.

A bracelet will, of course, earn Sheikhan even more respect. But no matter what, he figures to have his detractors because of the somewhat arrogant image he projects when he plays.

“I’m aware that people see this image of me on television as kind of a bad boy, because maybe they’ve seen me talking smack when I’m steaming, but that’s just an image,” he told ALL IN. “I’m aware that I have my critics among fans and players. Some love me, some hate me, and some love to hate me. I’ve probably got all the bases covered.

“But I love people, and getting to know them. I especially love my family. I have a beautiful wife, Tawnya, and she deserves everything she gets, because she’s the best. My eight-year-old daughter Tatijana is my pride and joy. I just don’t believe that bad people can be blessed in their personal lives as I have been.”

Asked about his personal strengths and weaknesses, Shawn replied, “I have faults, just like anyone else. I tend not to follow through on ideas, thoughts, and dreams. I feel I could have made millions in the real estate market here when I got my license years ago, but simply didn’t follow through. And I’m dogging a couple of other ideas right now.

“One of my strengths is that I love to share and to give. When I’m playing, I try to take care of everyone, from the dealers to the chip runners to the cashiers. I’ve been known to toke a $100, $500, or $1000 chip after winning a big pot.”

If he keeps on the streak he’s been on, there will be plenty more of those chips to go around. And as he continues to earn the respect of the poker world, and people begin to see him as a man with an adept mind for poker, those won’t be the only tips people are turning to him for.