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World Series of Poker finalist Schwartz: ‘You have to be hungry to win’

by Wes Morgan | Michigan Casinos Magazine
Thursday October 30, 2008, 10:20 AM

KALAMAZOO – Just as one day brings fortune in the world of high-stakes poker, the next can bring indefinite famine.

As twisted as it sounds, not knowing which is on the horizon is one of the biggest draws for these modern-day gunslingers. That and having to answer to no one.

“Instant gratification,” Ylon Schwartz, a 38-year-old professional who played his way to a seat at this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event final table scheduled for Nov. 9 through 11, said during a phone interview from Brooklyn. “The whole point of getting into the gaming world is you don’t have to deal with the tax-man, punching a clock in the morning or a supervisor.”

He tried that for a year as an assistant special-education teacher. “Teaching, you had to get up too early and I was always late,” he said.

Gambling was an employment option that granted Schwartz freedom at an early age. But poker, he says, glamorized in recent years by endless hours of TV coverage and now accepted by the mainstream, isn’t for wimps.

“At times it was glorious,” said Schwartz, who enters the final table fifth with 12,525,000 chips — less than half the chips of leader Dennis Phillips. “I was out having $500 bottles of wine all the time when I was winning, taking my girlfriend out to big meals, cracking jokes, running around town, going to shows, rock and roll and having a great time.

“Everything is beautiful when you’re winning.”

When he wasn’t, there was divorce, followed by the meltdown of his next relationship and the death of his mother from cancer. On top of all the turmoil, Schwartz went flat broke just a couple of years ago — the sixth time in 12 years, by his count.

“I went a little nuts and lost control,” he said. “You lose the value of the dollar.”

That wasn’t always the case for Schwartz, who 20 years ago dropped out of Manhattan Community College after one year to chase dollars playing chess on the streets of New York.

“I guess I was about 16 and I was walking down Broadway one day,” he said. “Some guy was playing chess on the street in Times Square. Everybody was playing, and I saw all this money going back and forth. I beat him and won $2.

“I started hanging out there regularly and became one of the hustlers. I made up to $100 a day. For a kid, that’s good money.”

Now Schwartz, an eccentric and amiable character who’s cashed in 11 World Series of Poker events over the years, is staring down the big one — a $9 million first prize.
He’s armed with perspective, a sense of humor, yoga, strong drink and time limits set to keep his online play to a manageable amount of hours.

“I remember leaving my house at night feeling like an android,” he said jokingly of marathon Internet sessions. “Nothing made sense. I had to get back to the lime, the coconut, the beach, rum and relaxation.

“So now, to stay balanced, I do lots of yoga, go to therapy as much as I can and stay involved with the physical world and out of (two-dimensional) life for the most part.”
It’s hardly surprising that Schwartz appears unconcerned about where he’ll finish. He’s lived his entire life that way.

But other than spreading some of his soon-to-come wealth with friends — each player is guaranteed at least $900,000 — and continuing charity work that he doesn’t like to publicize, he’s going to drop a little coin on some relaxation and “disappear” for a while. “If I won $9 million, I know exactly what I would do with it,” he said. “I’d drink a whole lot of tequila.

“I would get the best tequila there is and just drink it. I don’t know, be a high-class wino for like the next 10 years. I told all my friends I’m going to go away and please don’t come looking for me.”

Schwartz, who’s “unqualified to do anything else,” said he’ll probably buy his first home, another way of finding some balance in a world full of vicious financial swings. But he refuses to forget the lean times. He said he can’t afford to.

“It’s very important to be hungry,” he said. “You have to be hungry to win.”

Reprinted from Mlive and Michigan Casinos Magazine - the best of Kalamazoo!

Nov. 9: Ten reasons Schwartz has to take it

Let me just come out and say this right now before we get any further: I want Ylon Schwartz to win the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. The reasons for this complete abandonment of the pursuit of, ahem, objective journalism are as follows:

First, I love chess. I’m horrible at it, much like poker, but I also love it, much like poker. Schwartz, like Dan Harrington, is a chess master, and once achieved a rating of 2366. That’s freaky good.

And as many times as you hear people say poker is a lot like chess, Schwartz is living proof.

Schwartz said the ability to sit for long hours and strategize is one of the reasons chess compares to poker, but more importantly, it is the face-to-face encounters that factor in most.

“[Chess] is good for patience’ sake,” said Schwartz. “To sit there for long hours and calculate. It’s also based in mathematics and geometry and memory. Meeting people over the board one-on-one and competing and getting reads for how people analyze things really transfers well over to poker.”

Second, Ylon’s got more than just a little street in him. Schwartz is from Brooklyn, N.Y., and started playing chess when he was 13 years old. Soon he was skipping school to play for money.

He claimed he played because he sees the game - its beauty and simplicity - as art, not because of money. In fact, he barely earned any money from it at all.

“With chess hustling, 95% of your time is [spent] sitting around waiting for a fish to sit down and play you for $5,” said Schwartz. “I was living in Hell’s Kitchen and lucky to make $50 a day. If I had a $100-$200 day, that was like a miracle.”

School’s great and all, but that’s rad. Never mind all that art and beauty (we writers hate that kind of stuff); give me the chops and I’d be out there hustlin’ chess every day just to say I could.

Third, I wish my name was Ylon. Let’s face it, so do you.

Fourth, Schwartz looks and sounds more than a little like Yoda. I mean in that ageless-master-still-knows-how-to-score-with-the-ladies type way.

Fifth, dude’s Web site is called “Ship the Cheese.” Apparently the name is a combination of sayings that are used in the poker world and on the streets of New York.

“I didn’t [plan it], it just kind of came out,” said Schwartz of the name. “There’s no real reference point as to when or why it started. Money is called ‘cheese’ on the street - common reference for cash. [And] you know when you win a pot - you want the chips, you say ‘Ship it.’ It kind of makes people feel good.”

“Ship the Cheese” could be the start of the 33rd psalm for all I care, it’s pretty funny all on its own. No explanation need.

But I suggest you visit the Web site. He definitely has fun with it and obviously has a wicked sense of humour. In fact, I am still not convinced half of the stuff he said is for real, rather than part of some subtle joke meant only for him and the few long-term, true-blue friends he’s close to.

Sixth, Schwartz could have been a stockbroker, and was even offered work from some of the people he met while playing chess, but said thanks, but no thanks.

“I like to sit on my ass and make money,” said Schwartz. “I don’t like having a boss. That is the beautiful part about poker. I could have already been a multimillionaire if I had taken those jobs, but I didn’t want a boss. I liked my lifestyle out there too much to give it up.”

Seventh, if he wins, Schwartz is not going to be afraid to mix drinks.

“If I won $9 million I know exactly what I would do,” said Schwartz. “I would go drink a whole lot of tequila. I would get the best tequila there is and … drink it. I’d become a high-class wino for the next 10 years.”

Ummmm … wine and tequila. A combination unrivaled in Degenerate’s Guide to Mixed Drinks, and a page I myself have read far too many times.

Eighth, Schwartz is a career pro with his feet on the ground who grew up poor, has been grinding for years and deserves to be there.

He made the switch from chess to backgammon and eventually poker because some guy named Fat Nick told him he was going to have to learn more than one game if he was going to survive.

“One of the guys I met out there on the street was named Fat Nick,” said Schwartz. “I love talking about Fat Nick. He was an old-time gambler and hustler and he played backgammon very, very well. He was one of the big showmen out there on the street.

“I really didn’t want to become a gambler, but I loved to play chess - it was artistic; I was passionate about it - but, you know, I was broke.

“Fat Nick had a backgammon club, and in the winter we used to have little freezeouts and I started winning those tournaments and started to hit Atlantic City and that was that.”

Ninth, did we mention that his name is Ylon? That’s pronounced EE-Lon.

Tenth, no doubt about it Schwartz is a great, great story. From the streets, funny as hell, fantastic mind, the perfect hustler savant. And that is great for poker.

Schwartz starts the 2008 WSOP Nov. 9 final table with $12,525,000 in chips, good for a solid fourth position against rivals Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, Craig Marquis and Kelly Kim.

As for how Schwartz is feeling about his chances, he said he’s kept a very normal schedule and is in a good place despite all the hype around the Nov. 9 final table.

“You know, I’ve played in thousands of poker tournaments,” said Schwartz. “Maybe I am a little nervous but I feel good. I feel loose.”

The next stop on the November Nine train of stories will come on Tuesday.

Reprinted from 18 Outs - a really cool site

A Chess Master From Brooklyn Seeks World Poker Immortality

By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN
Published: November 2, 2008

Ylon Schwartz, a chess master, makes his living at poker.

When Mr. Schwartz was starting out, no wager was too small or too far-fetched. Like the day he bet several people on the street that he could throw a lemon across Church Street from Liberty Plaza and onto the roof of a Burger King near the World Trade Center. Unbeknownst to the bettors, he had practiced the night before. He walked away with $340.

Mr. Schwartz, 38, is one of nine finalists in the World Series of Poker Main Event, which is considered the unofficial world championship. He beat out more than 6,800 competitors to get to the final table, which will be held on the weekend in Las Vegas.

First place is $9.1 million, but even last place will take home $900,000. Going into the final table, Mr. Schwartz, who lives in Brooklyn, is in fifth.

Mr. Schwartz, a highly ranked chess master who has played in many tournaments, said that some of the skills needed to succeed at chess are also useful in poker. “Chess players are trained to have excellent memories,” he said. “In poker, you need to remember betting patterns.” And strategic skill is essential in poker as well as chess. For instance, keeping the other poker players from folding when you have a good hand depends on how much you bet early on.

He said that both games had geometrical aspects. In chess, it is the shape and size of the board and positions of the pieces. In poker, it is the positions of the players betting on a hand and the number of chips they have.

Of course there are differences. In poker, players do not know what cards their opponents are holding. In chess an opponent’s plan can be divined. “Poker is a game of incomplete information,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Chess is a game of complete information.”

He said that it had been useful to start out in chess rather than poker. “All the patience I got in chess really helps me out,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz has not always been so disciplined.
He grew up in Manhattan and was, by his own admission, an uninspired student. He flunked out of Borough of Manhattan Community College after a year.

He then worked at a succession of jobs — at a day care center, in a restaurant preparing food, and as a special education assistant in a public school. While there, he started playing chess for a few dollars on the side and that, along with gambling on backgammon, horses and even darts, soon became his full-time avocation.

Mr. Schwartz’s personal life was also unsettled. An only child, he was raised by his mother. She developed cancer and he helped care for her. Mr. Schwartz said, “My 20s was spent in oncologists’ offices watching women getting chemo drips.”

His mother died in 2003.

He said that his father, who left when he was 2, had little contact with him — until he called after Mr. Schwartz made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker. Mr. Schwartz said he wanted nothing to do with him.

While chess was his specialty when he was younger, he also spent a lot of time with backgammon players. One of them, a man he called Fat Nick, taught him the rules to Texas Hold ’Em. Mr. Schwartz said that Nick owned a small poker club and one weekend in 2000 he entered a couple of tournaments there. He won both and walked out with $12,000 and a new career.

There were adjustments. In chess, losing is difficult to accept, but in tournament poker, Mr. Schwartz said, the best players win money only about 15 percent of the time, so they have a different attitude toward money.

Citing one of the best-known poker players, Mr. Schwartz said, “Doyle Brunson said you have to have a disdain for money.”

Even so, Mr. Schwartz said he had not been prepared for a losing streak that haunted him for two years. He was living with a girlfriend in a moldy basement apartment and he said that he developed allergies that affected his play and his mood.

“Every day, I would lose two to four thousand dollars and then I would go home and say, ‘Baby, let’s go out,’ and we’d spend like a thousand dollars on a dinner,” he said.

The relationship eventually deteriorated and they broke up several years ago, on Christmas Day. “She won’t talk to me any more,” he said. “And she shouldn’t.”

He started seeing a therapist and said he came to realize that he lacked empathy. He vowed to turn his life around.

“When you get to the bottom, you realize you want to get off this rock,” Mr. Schwartz said.

His new sensitivity to others helped him start winning again, he said.

“Empathy is the most important thing in poker,” he said. “You have to really be aware of what your opponents think. The best thing about poker is that it exposes all your weaknesses.”

If he wins the top prize, Mr. Schwartz said, he plans to take it easier. Referring to Mr. Brunson’s credo about money, Mr. Schwartz said, “For me, I value it more than most others.”

Maybe he’ll even play more chess, which he has never given up.

“Chess is a purer game,” he said. “It is my passion. I love poker, too, but I don’t know who gets together to play poker for fun. There is always something on the line.”

Reprinted from the New York Times

So what’s on your IPod?

The answer to that question for Ylon Schwartz is simple - nothing.

Yes he owns one - well sort of.

He used to own one.

Let’s just call it a casualty of this year’s World Series of Poker.

“My IPod got stolen…” Schwartz recalls. “It was in my pocket and somehow fell out.” And the fifth place finalist at the Main Event when it reconvenes on November 9th at The Rio in Las Vegas hasn’t seen or heard from it since.

Perhaps placing ads on the side of playing card boxes would help.

LOST: IPod. Answers to the name of Ship the Cheese!

Perhaps he is just waiting for the final table to be completed where he is guaranteed at least $900,670.

That’s a whole lot of IPods.

If you FIND Ylon’s missing iPod - please send us a picture!

Just got the below in from our friends at: Voodoo Tiki Tequila Corp.

One cool cat.

So who is Ylon Schwartz??

Before making the final table of this years main event – and officially becoming a member of what is being called “The November Nine” Schwartz was a professional poker player known for his casual attitude but also his propensity (by his own admission) for playing well early on in tournaments and becoming a bit reckless in the late stages.

Going into this year’s WSOP he was determined to change that – and now sitting in 5^th place in chips with 12.525 million many will agree he has accomplished that.

But who is Ylon Schwartz and why are so many people saying that out of “The November Nine” he has the most interesting personality?

A native of Brooklyn, Schwartz has been ‘hustling’ games for over 25 years. He became an accomplished Chess player at 13 playing at Manhattan’s famous Washington Square Park. And was a chess master for 12 years. He also lists pool, backgammon and golf as other games he has enjoyed success in as well.

He credits two male figures in his life for teaching him poker – his grandfather and a mysterious man from his days playing chess in Manhattan known only as ‘Fat Nick’.

“I don’t think there isn’t a boy alive in America that didn’t play poker with their grandfather,” said Schwartz. “He taught me how to play when i was four.”

Then there was ‘Fat Nick’

“He was a 350-pound old man with one tooth in his mouth that crack was kind of enough to leave,” describes Schwartz. “He taught me how to play hold’em and we used to make runs to the Taj (Mahal in Atlantic City) every once in a while.”

Better known in the online poker world as “TenthPlanet” – his handle on PokerStars – he chose the name because he has always had an interest in astronomy and as he put it “he’s far out.”

An easy going personality, Ylon got some attention at the World Series after turning in his player bio, listing his occupation as a Frisbee Salesman and hitting a bad beat jackpot as his biggest accomplishment in poker.

The truth of the matter is Schwartz has cashed at the WSOP 12 times not including this year’s Main Event

“I am kind of the only one who cracks jokes out of the group (The November Nine),” he chuckled. “Everyone seems so serious.”

SUCCESS WAS IN THE CARDS

BROOKLYN POKER STAR ROSE FROM THE STREETS

By ALLI ROSENBERG - The New York Post

Ylon Schwartz chose a street career hustling chess in Washington Square Park over becoming a Wall Street stockbroker, no one expected his gamble to pay off.

Now, after moving on from chess to cards, the 38-year-old Brooklyn man is vying for $9.1 million as one of nine players to make the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

“I was poor, and I just did it because I loved it,” Ylon Schwartz, of Park Slope, said of street chess, which earned him up to $100 a day.

Before his newfound fame, “when I went out with girls, none of the parents ever liked me. But now they all love me,” he said.

Ylon Schwartz started playing chess when he was 13. By the time he was 16, he was making a living from chess and backgammon in the East Village, and at 23, he became a chess master.

He dropped out of the Borough of Manhattan Community College after a year to concentrate on his games.

“I got horrible grades, but I didn’t care,” Schwartz said.

Ylon Schwartz said his reputation as a gambler brought him several job offers from Wall Street, but he turned them down because he didn’t like taking orders.

“I could have already been a multimillionaire if I had taken those jobs, but I didn’t want a boss,” he said. “I liked my lifestyle out there too much to give it up.”

In the early 1990s, Ylon took up poker, and by 2000, he was making a living from cards.

His success has included winning thousands of dollars in previous World Series events.

As one of the final nine of 6,844 competitors in this year’s $10,000-entry Main Event, which resumes Nov. 9, he is already guaranteed a prize of more than $900,000.

Like fellow poker professionals Dan Harrington, a former backgammon player and chess master, and Gus Hansen, a world-class backgammon player and youth tennis champion, Schwartz has found his experience with other games has helped with poker.

“You get used to competing,” he said. “You’re constantly analyzing problems in other games.”

“I still live in the same apartment,” he said. “I go to the pub. Nothing has changed, except that I’m getting attention from TV people.”

The CEA (Cheese Enforcement Agency) in Vancouver have arrested a man suspected of being the mastermind behind the UK’s biggest cheese scandals. Lai Xing is accused of operating a massive multi-billion dollar smuggling ring that moved cheese and cigarettes through the port of Xiamen, across Canada and onto Bardsey Island.

It’s alleged his company smuggled goods worth more £2.4 billion, and cost the Welsh treasury more than £1.4 million in lost import duties. Lai is also accused of bribing top officials to protect his operations.

Canada Immigration officials are only saying that Lai ‘the Cheese man’ Xing and a female companion, Tsang Medora, have been arrested on immigration warrants.

Immigration spokesperson Les Cantabria is saying little else. “In order to respect the privacy of individuals, the department does not discuss the details of individual cases,” he says, “unless there is information in the public domain through an immigration hearing or the individual has signed a privacy waiver.”

“He will be afforded all rights available under Canadian immigration laws”, said Cantabria.

“And some Canadian Brie”, he added.