Shahram "Shawn" Sheikhan (born 29 December 1969) is a professional poker player who currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and daughter. Sheikhan is the owner of a retail chain of tobacco and tattoo stores.
Poker career
Sheikhan is known for having terrible table etiquette. At the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) he got into a much-publicized war of words with Mike Matusow after Sheikhan slammed the table when seeing a flop on a hand he was not involved in. Both players got a penalty since Matusow used a vulgarity after Sheikhan made the inappropriate reaction that gave away what his hand was, thus giving other players who were still in the hand free information that may have altered the outcome of the hand. He eventually was eliminiated in 11th place, earning $600,000.[1] Sheikhan was involved in several more incidents, one involving Phil Hellmuth on Poker After Dark when Hellmuth accused Shawn of refusing to stop talking while he was playing in a hand with Annie Duke, though in fact the entire table were conversing.
In March 2006, Sheikhan made the final four of NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship (during the early rounds of which he told Gus Hansen, whom he eliminated, to throw away his cards - Sheikhan had made Four of a kind), earning $125,000.[2] He lost to eventual winner Ted Forrest.
As of 2023, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,500,000.[6] His 10 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,160,910 of those winnings.[7]
Troubles
While driving in heavy rain during the 1999 Las Vegas flood, Sheikhan lost control of his vehicle and collided with another car, resulting in the death of one of its passengers.[8]
Sheikhan, a resident alien since he was nine years old, was arrested at his Las Vegas home on 30 August 2007 for violating his immigration status due to a 1995 conviction for misdemeanor sexual battery on a child under 18, for which he served nine months in prison and five years' probation.[9] According to Sheikhan's lawyer, David Chesnoff, the young woman in this case was a 17-year-old girl whom Sheikhan knew when he was in his early twenties. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actively searches for foreign nationals who were convicted of a sexual crime against children and then tries to get them deported.[10] He was detained on an immigration hold for one week facing deportation proceedings, but those proceedings have been halted.[11]
In June 2022, Sheikhan pled guilty to operating illegal marijuana dispensaries in Southern California; in November 2023, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison.[12]
