Shannon Shorr's 14bb shove and the Nash chart's blind spot
Shannon Shorr open-jammed Q♥9♥ for 14bb at the Poker Masters. The hand shows why a Nash chart is a baseline, not an ICM answer.
Fourteen big blinds is the stack depth where tournament advice starts to sound like a slogan. “Push or fold” is easy to say, especially when somebody else is paying the buy-in. Shannon Shorr supplied a real hand to test the slogan at the 2026 Poker Masters: small blind, queen-nine suited, 14 big blinds, three players left.
The short answer is that the shove fits a familiar Nash baseline. The more useful answer is that the baseline does not settle the actual final-table decision. Antes, position and payout equity all change the arithmetic, and the last one is the detail a simple chart cannot see.
The hand behind the question
PokerNews' Event 3 live report records Shorr open-jamming for 1,425,000 from the small blind at 50,000/100,000 blinds with a 100,000 ante. He had Q♥9♥. Joey Weissman called in the big blind with A♦9♠. The board ran 4♦ 4♣ 10♠ 5♦ J♦, and Shorr finished third for $101,400.
The hand came in Event 3 of the Poker Masters, a $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament that drew 78 entries and generated a $780,000 prize pool. Weissman went on to win $218,400; runner-up Daniyal Gheba collected $140,400. Card Player's report gives the same hand and finish, though its subtitle has a different buy-in figure. The PokerNews event page and schedule identify the event as $10,500, so that is the figure used here.
There is no need to grade the shove by its result. Weissman's call was ahead, Shorr missed, and the hand ended. None of those facts tells us whether the push was profitable before the cards were exposed. That is what the range question is for.
What the Nash baseline says
PokerCoaching's 15bb Nash chart gives a useful reference. In a nine-handed, chip-EV model with no ante, its small-blind shove range is 45.7% of hands. With a big-blind ante equal to the big blind, that rises to 61.7%. Q9 suited appears in both listed ranges.
That widening is the point of the ante. There is more dead money to win before anyone calls, so the small blind can shove more hands. Q9 suited is not a premium hand, but it has live-card equity when called and can make strong draws. In a shove-or-fold model, those properties make it a plausible candidate rather than an automatic fold.
The chart is a baseline, not a live hand oracle. Its assumptions are nine-handed play, chip EV, and opponents who respond optimally. Shorr's hand was three-handed, used a big-blind ante, and came with a payout ladder. The chart lists a 15bb stack, while Shorr's reported stack was rounded to 14bb. It is close enough to frame the question, not precise enough to pronounce the answer.
The payout ladder is the missing input
At three players, the pay jumps were substantial: $101,400 for third, $140,400 for second and $218,400 for first. Chip EV treats every chip as having the same value. Tournament life does not. When a player is at risk of dropping from third to a higher payout, ICM can make a shove tighter than the chip-EV chart suggests. The effect depends on all three stacks, not just Shorr's 14 big blinds.
The call matters too. A shove range only works when the big blind's response is part of the model. A9 offsuit is a strong hand against Q9 suited, but whether the call is profitable depends on the effective stacks, ante and payout pressure. Reading the showdown backwards is tempting. It is also a reliable way to learn the wrong lesson: a hand that loses was not necessarily a bad shove, and a call that wins was not necessarily a good call.
For a closer study, start with our Nash push-fold calculator to set the stack and position, then compare the result with the ICM guide. If a deal or final-table payout is in view, the ICM deal calculator helps show how chip counts translate into prize equity. The bankroll guide is less exciting, but it is the page to revisit before treating one tournament hand as a reason to add volume.
How to use this spot
Take the hand in three passes. First, ignore the result and write down the effective stack, position, ante and action. Second, check the chip-EV shove range that matches those conditions. Third, add the payout structure and all remaining stacks before deciding whether ICM changes the answer. If a chart leaves out one of those inputs, do not quietly pretend it is included.
Shorr's Q9 suited is a clean study hand because the shove is easy to recognize and the caveat is hard to ignore. At roughly 14 big blinds from the small blind, it sits near the point where push-fold charts become useful. At a three-handed final table, however, a nine-handed Nash percentage is a starting line, not a verdict. The chart can tell you what to investigate. It cannot finish the hand for you.
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