I didn't know Shronk well but we had some hilarious chats...in the PokerNews ShoutBox. During the WSOP people would fill up the ShoutBox with demands for chipcounts or updates on certain players and Shronk would start up with "Hey, is Steve Moneymaker playing today?" and asking who we preferred among the "Top Chef" finalists. When there was a ShoutBox flame war in progress he enjoyed poking the hornets' nest with a stick, especially as they never got the humor in his provocations.
I followed Shronk's Twitter feed because from the ShoutBox I knew how hilarious he could be in such a confined space. I read about his hospitalization and meant to say something but, again, I didn't know him that well. And then he was home and left that final, funny, utterly Shronkish final tweet. The fact that we're now talking about him in the past tense is terribly sad. And something
Pauly wrote made me feel even sadder, that when you're stuck in a casino at dawn covering a tournament, having someone like Shronk around made those airless moments bearable. His passing is a loss for poker, and for the poker media especially.