NBC 2006 National Heads-Up Championship - Shawn Misses Another Chance

  It seems like the difference between poker players can be fairly slight, especially at the professional level. When you have a table filled with professional poker players all of these men and women are experts at their game. They have all won big events, make a living playing poker, and know all the ins and outs of poker strategy. But if you watch closely, you'll see differences between the truly great players and the average great players.  In a heads-up match of Ted Forrest and Shawn Sheikan, the differences stood out in the missed opportunities. Shawn was a good enough player to make it all the way into the semifinal matches of the 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The fact that he was facing Ted Forrest across the felt would put him in the same league, but he continued to make mistakes.  In this particular hand Shawn started off with: ... a fantastic heads-up hand, and raised $20,000 in chips. Ted also had a fantastic hand with: ... and he raised it to $50,000, which Shawn called.  The flop was: ... and Shawn bet out $30,000, earning a call from Ted.  The turn came: ... and Shawn's hand improved to a straight draw and the nut flush draw, yet he simply checked. This was his missed opportunity to build the pot -- in fact he would have likely taken the pot down at this point. Ted checked as well.  The River came: ... and Shawn missed both draws and checked. Ted also checked and won the pot of $116,000. Shawn's missed opportunity was on the turn, where he should have bet and would have likely won the hand.