November Nine Countdown -- Ylon Schwartz SpeaksGambler and Chess Master Talks About His Road to The WSOP Main Event Final Table |
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After giving up hustling chess games at parks in New York City, Ylon Schwartz decided to become a professional poker player. Since his first World Series of Poker cash in 2005, he has made the money in the WSOP 12 times, and at the 2008 main event, Schwartz has made the final table. With a medium stack, Schwartz is waiting to play out the conclusion of the event, which will take place in a few days. Just after he made the final table he spoke to Card Player about how he got there and his hopes for the future.
"I spent a lot of time hanging around people gambling for a lot of years, and I played chess on the street for a long time, so just hanging around people I got to know what their trends are. So, that’s probably it, just feeling for where they are, and what they want to do.
On day 1, I had a great table everybody was over-betting like insane amounts of money, and it was great to sit there and wait for a good spot to have my opponents dominated, and that happened a few times. Day 1 worked out, I made some money on day 1.
Maybe late, I picked up a pair of aces when someone shoved it to me, and that happened once when someone just open-shoved, and then somebody four-bet me when I had aces. So, that was a couple of times when I chipped up big, but that was kinda deep already. Throughout the early and middle sections of the tournament, I was just kind of small-balling it and trying to keep the pots as little as I could.
I got tight, and I just chilled out, I had a very deep-stack, and I started folding hands like K-Q, Q-J, A-10, because it wasn’t playing like a multi-table tournament any more, it was kind of like a super satellite, where you just have to blend in and get down deep, and get to the final nine ... I’ve played tonnes of super satellites so I felt like I would definitely make it in. I thought that “Chino” played really well, kinda loose, but ... he’s dangerous. Oh and the Russian guy on the table was very strong. He was a rock, and he made moves, and his timing was spot on. I think he’s probably the toughest guy left. And the short-stack guy, I mean he’s short but he plays really well, and he’s gonna grind that stack he’s not gonna give it away, and if he gets chips, he’s gonna be dangerous.
I expect the next months of my life will be pretty chaotic. I wanna chill out but I know that this is a big moment, and I’m gonna have to be out there, trying to get as much cheese as I can, because five years down the line I might not have this opportunity again. And then I can go kick it in the Caribbean with some tequila and a hammock, and then it will be the end of everything."
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