Pro-file: Sean Sheikhan

I was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1969. Everything was cool until the revolution happened in 1979, and we had to flee the country because my parents were on the wrong side of the new government, I guess. So we moved to the Bay Area. But when I was a kid, even back in the Old Country, I would always sit there and play cards with my family, or even by myself, every day and night. That’s what we used to do for fun – gamble with friends and family.

Yeah, you couldn’t drink alcohol; you couldn’t play cards… I was born a Muslim, but there’s a lot of what they say that I don’t believe in. I never read the Koran or the Bible, so I don’t know what’s what. I’m not a religious guy, whatsoever. I just believe in acting right and doing the right thing, and helping people out. But that’s how it all started with me – playing with my family or the maids, and often just watching other people play. It was a fascination from an early age.

From the Bay Area, we moved to Las Vegas in 1988 and I started playing at the poker room at Caesars Palace. I’d play $5/$10, $10/$20 and $15/$30 Stud. I grew up playing Stud, which has always been much better than my Hold’em game. But I’d just bounce around all the casinos, learning the games, playing $40/$80 Omaha 8B at Palace Station – places like that – until one thing led to another. You just want more and more competition, so your limits get higher and higher; and the next thing you know, you find yourself playing the biggest game in the world.

I’ve always loved to gamble, whether for a hobby or a living. At first, being a high stakes poker player wasn’t about trying to be a professional, and trying to win to survive; I just did it because I enjoyed doing it. But after a while, the money got so good that you couldn’t help paying attention to what you were doing, and you can’t help get-ting better, because the players you were playing against were the best in the world; so you just pick up on all the styles that they have. So one thing leads to another, and here I am! I’ve been playing $300/$600, $400/$800, $1,000/$2,000 for the last nine or ten years, and that’s helped my knowledge of the game a lot. I’ve never read any of the books by the topnotch pros, but I know them well enough to pick up what I need.

Yeah. There was a tournament yesterday at Caesars Palace – a $5,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament – and all the top pros were there; all of them except Billy Baxter, Eskimo Clark, and me. The three of us were playing cash games – Badugi, Deuce to Seven, and Razz. We just enjoy the cash games more. If you want to get famous, you gotta play the tournaments, but I don’t care too much about that. I don’t really play the WPTs – I might play one a year – but I do plan on playing a lot World Series events. I plan on getting at least two or three bracelets this year, so I’m really going to take that down as hard as I can.

We just got in a situation and I blew up a little bit. But Mike and I are friends. We’re not good friends, but I’ve lent him money, and he’s lent me money; I know his habits, and he knows my habits – he’s a good guy over all. He’s a good player, too, but he just likes to play around like a little kid (laughs).

It seems like it’s become part of my game. After I beat Doyle in the NBC heads-up tournament, I was really out of line. I acted like a little child and, after I saw it on TV, I felt real bad. But he knows me; he knows how I act, so it was nothing new to him. He’s seen it before.

But I want to apologize to him one more time. I mean, he knows what’s going on. He knows I love him and have a lot of respect for him. But some people get out of line and act like they’re something they’re not – I try to let them know what’s really going on. They haven’t been around long enough to know everybody – to know who’s who and what’s what – and I just try to call it the way I see it.

It was actually the first time I played in a heads-up tournament, and I started to realize that heads-up is really my style. I just like to run over people, and it’s much easier to run over one person than a whole table. I haven’t made a point of playing much heads-up poker, to be honest with you. Back in the old days, I could never get a heads-up game because I was too much of a loose player who liked to gamble.

But the NBC thing was great because I got matched up with some of the best players of all time – Gus Hansen, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest – and I put on a good show, I thought. I did pretty well.

That actually wasn’t really a bluff. I had the same hand he did – the straight. I had K-4, Daniel had 7-4, and the flop came A-5-7; then came a three, giving me the open-ended straight-draw. I checked. I did think about moving all in if he bet the turn, but he checked behind me. Then a six came and I had a straight, but there was also a flush on board. I check-raised all in. Daniel flipped his hand over to see if he could get a reaction out of me. Obviously I didn’t react, so he just thought about it, did the regular Daniel Negreanu routine, and folded. I only showed the king. I guess it was all downhill for him after that.

I admire players that come up to you and say, “How you doing?” I admire players that are always playing – and playing with their own money, so they don’t want anything from you. I admire players that can stay in the money, basically. Staying in the money is really hard to do in the gambling business.

I spend time with my family – I have an eight-year-old girl and she’s aspiring to be a professional tennis player; so I spend time with her and watch her play tennis tournaments. She’s really good. I try to teach her about competing in poker tournaments and how you have to keep your cool. But then I’m always losing my cool in poker tournaments, so what do I know?

I have a few businesses in town that I try to keep an eye on, but it’s really difficult. Poker takes up so much time. But that’s about it – just a normal, simple, happy life.

Well, I like to play and I like to gamble, so I probably play too many hands. I like the marginal hands. If I could just trim that down – throw away the bad hands – I’d be a really good player. But aggressiveness is the only way to go, especially in No Limit Hold’em. If you just sit there and wait for hands, people will always know where you’re at; but if you’re constantly aggressive, constantly bluffing and winning, sometimes you can catch a hand when they call you, and you got ’em.

Cash game play is about experience – you’ve got to put in the hours. But just try to read patterns of people’s betting styles. It will help you know when they’re bluffing; when they’re slowplaying – it’s all experience. Someone said you can’t be a poker player unless you’ve played for eight to ten years. I’ve been playing since I was sixteen, and I started as a bad player – a loose player. I’ve just had to learn how to play the right hands, put in the right money, and finish with the hand at the right time. With time and experience you gain knowledge.

I’m working on the Sheik’s Palace. It’s going to be an online site where people come to hang out, chat, learn the game, and just play. Hopefully, we’ll have it up and running in the next month or two.