Curly-haired New Yorker Ylon Schwartz is a career hustler: he started playing chess on the streets in Manhattan when he was 13 before widening his repertoire to pool and horse betting. A friend suggested that if he wanted to be a real hustler he would have to master several games, so he also took up poker and backgammon.
25 years later, he has the chops (and the bankroll) of a professional: his live poker tournament winnings exceed a quarter million dollars without counting his Main Event run (over $900,000 so far with more coming according to his performance in the Final Table.)
In spite of his vast and varied gambling experience, Ylon Schwartz is neither used to nor keen on the spotlight – he claims that his play suffered at the TV table while he adjusted to the experience: “He made it $350,000, and I made it $1.6 million. With ace-queen – I’ve never done that before in my life! I went a little nuts. I just snapped there for a second.” In spite of that he made it squarely into the middle of the Final Table, with a $15,500,000 stack.
Ylon Schwartz has come a long way from his first major tournament cash (3rd place in the 1998 US Poke Championship) to his current position as one of the November 9, and his manifold gambling skills make him a serious contender for the bracelet. His aspirations afterwards are modest and endearing: “If I do well here, I’m going to get a hammock and a bottle of tequila and that’ll be that.”
Click here for Ylon Schwartz’s interview with Poker News Daily.com