Shawn is a former landscaper and house framer from Abbotsford, British Columbia. He started playing poker with his friends about 5 years ago and moved on to playing online. Because he spent a lot of time winning against faceless foes, Shawn found the transition to live tournaments a little difficult. He’s indicated that he was horrible reading people at first, but with all his tournament experience, he’s gotten much better. His parents, who were leery of poker as a career at first, are now very supportive.

Buchanan says he loves poker because it fuels competition and is always changing, causing you to adapt or flounder. He thinks a lot of people see him as aggressive but he feels he is very patient, waiting for the right place to strike and riding his rushes as they come. When he’s holding a 7-9 suited he loves seeing a cheap flop so he can “snap-off” the big hands with them. Shawn is the protégé of professional poker player Greg Mueller, who turned to poker after retiring from hockey in 1999.

Shawn wants to win a World Poker Tour title and he’s on the right track. In 2004 he cashed in the WPT’s World Poker Challenge in Reno and in 2005 he cashed in the WPT’s Poker-Stars Caribbean Adventure and the LA Poker Classic. He really started hammering the felt in 2006, cashing in the LA Poker Classic, WPT’s Five Star World Poker Classic and WPT’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic. In 2007 he cashed in the World Poker Tour’s Five Star World Poker Classic again and he has accumulated over a million dollars in lifetime winnings. Even though Shawn says he may go into business after poker cools down, that seems to be nowhere in sight for this red hot player.