Jason Young - WSOP Event 17 winner Bio

News / nono / 11 June 2008 / Leave a comment

The winner was Jason Young, from Suffern, NY. He is a 26-year-old aspiring professional poker player.

Young recently left his job to pursue playing poker for a living. In his prior job, he worked for six years for the Parks and Recreation Department, involved in various community projects.

Young collected $329,872 for first place. He remarked afterward: "When I worked as a recreation coordinator, I made $35,000 a year. Now, I just made ten years of my former salary in just two days!"

Young's grandmother taught him how to play poker. He first learned Seven-Card Stud. Then a few years ago, he saw Hold'em played in television. Young began visiting Atlantic City's poker rooms regularly with his father. "It was just a hobby," he said. "It was something my dad and I could do together."

"I always wanted a job where I didn't have to work very hard. I mean, I want to work, but I wanted to (enjoy other things)," Young said. "So -- I found poker. (After playing 29 hours in two days), it looks like this is the wrong job to take it easy."

Young admitted that he had only one hour of sleep the night/morning before playing on Day Two. "It was an adrenaline rush," he answered when asked how he got through the marathon match.