Heeeeeee’s Back: Return of the “Poker Pervert”

Written by:
Thomas Somach
Published on:
Apr/21/2011

Another Gambling911.com Exclusive:  Poker Pro Shahram "Shawn" Sheikhan “The Poker Pervert” Attends Charity Tourney

Poker pro and convicted child molester Shahram "Shawn" Sheikhan was an invited guest at the recent World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational Tournament at the Commerce Casino outside Los Angeles, Gambling911.com can reveal in an exclusive report!

Observers of the poker world thought they had seen the last of the 41-year-old Iranian as a charity poker tournament invitee when he was disinvited from a charity tourney at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles in 2009.

Nicknamed "The Poker Pervert," Sheikhan was invited and then abruptly disinvited from the '09 Memorial Poker Classic, a charity poker tourney at the Bike run by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, after Gambling911.com revealed he was a convicted child molester who had served nine months in prison.

Sheikhan, who was convicted in California in 1995 of three counts of child molestation and one count of sexual battery, stemming from separate incidents involving a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, had been a regular but then became persona non grata on the celeb/charity poker tourney circuit after exposure of his past embarrassed the Bicycle Casino and the LA Sheriffs Department two years ago.

But now he's back.

Gambling911.com has learned that Sheikhan, who lives in Las Vegas, was one of about 500 invited celebrity guests at February's WPT Celebrity Invitational Tourney, a charity poker tournament that was part of the 2011 Los Angeles Poker Classic.

The WPT and the Commerce Casino either didn't know--which seems unlikely given the past publicity--or didn't care about Sheikhan's past, which also includes the accidental killing of another driver in a traffic accident in 1999 and an unsuccessful effort by the U.S. government to deport him back to Iran in 2008.

Another black eye for professional poker.

So what else is new?

By Tom Somach

Gambling911.com Staff Writer

tomsomach@yahoo.com

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