Ylon Schwartz!

If you're wondering what's with the title of this post, no, I have not gone crazy and anagrammed some other weird name for myself (or anyone, for the matter).

Here's the lowdown on Ylon Schwartz from Wikipedia:

Ylon Schwartz (born c. 1970) is a chess master and professional poker player from Brooklyn, New York, and a fourth place finisher in the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP), played on November 9, 2008. Prior to the Main Event, Schwartz had 11 career WSOP cashes and plays poker professionally online under the screen name "TenthPlanet"

As a teenager, Schwartz saw streetside chess games in Manhattan's Times Square, and won two dollars playing his first game. He was soon a regular, hustling $100 per day playing chess against passersby. Schwartz reached a peak rating of 2408 United States Chess Federation, and as of 2008 his rankings stood at 2304 from the USCF and 2259 from FIDE. He has attained the title of FIDE Master with a ranking above 2300.

Schwartz grew up as an only child in the New York City borough of Manhattan. A self-described uninspired student, he left the Borough of Manhattan Community College, having failed out of the school after a year. He took a number of jobs after flunking out of college. It was as a public school special education assistant that he started playing chess for a few dollars on the side. He soon devoted full-time to gambling on backgammon, chess, darts and horses.

An inveterate gambler, Schwartz made $340 from passersby on wagers that he would be able to throw a lemon across a street onto the top of a Burger King restaurant on the other side. Schwartz had practiced the throw the previous night and knew he could win the bets.

Schwartz was introduced to Texas hold 'em by Fat Nick, a fellow backgammon player. Schwartz entered a pair of poker tournaments at a club run by Fat Nick in 2000, winning both and walking away with $12,000 and a new passion.

Schwartz has drawn comparisons between his tournament experience as a ranked chess master, noting that many of the skills he needed to succeed in chess are useful in poker and that the memory skills needed in chess transfer to retaining details on betting patterns of opponents needed to win in poker. He also pointed out that chess strategy provides excellent preparation for knowing when to time bets to prevent other players from folding when he has a good hand. Schwartz observed that the two games share the geometric relationships between the pieces on the chessboard and those connecting the cards and chip stacks of fellow poker players, while recognizing that chess is a game of complete information, in contrast to poker.

Schwartz's mother was diagnosed with cancer, and he spent much of his time in his twenties caring for her and taking her to doctor appointments until her death in 2003. Ylon Schwartz's father, Neil, had left the family when Ylon was two years old. Neil made a number of attempts to contact Ylon over the years but it never worked out. The last time Ylon heard from his father was in the making the 2008 WSOP final table and Ylon refused to speak to him. His father remarried and now lives in New Mexico.

As of 2008, his total lifetime live poker tournament winnings exceed $4,000,000. Prior to Schwartz making it to the main table at the 2008 World Series of Poker, his biggest WSOP win was three years earlier at the 2005 World Poker Finals in the No-Limit Hold'em $500 buy-in event, in which his third place finish brought him a payout of $49,960.

On November 10, 2008, Schwartz was eliminated after going all in against Peter Eastgate and ending the tournament in fourth place, earning $3,774,974.




Why am I blogging about a gambler? Is it because of the IR? Is it because I encourage gambling? Is it because he has a weird first name?

No, it's because this guy illustrates my point of how flawed education can be, how a dropout and a seeming failure in life can actually be this really smart guy.

I mean, look at him. On top of being a chess master and world poker finalist, he somehow managed to correlate playing chess and gambling make it sound complex yet understandable at the same time.

And I assure you it takes more than any jack-on-the-street to do what he did.

Ylon isn't only just an ace on the poker table or on the chess board, he's also street-smart too. How else would he be able to make $340 by simply throwing a lemon onto the roof of a Burger King? It would take a bit more than normal sweet-talking to convince white-collared intellectual New-Yorkers to wager with him on simply throwing a lemon onto a BK roof. Pretty amazing, eh.

Plus, he's probably more human than all those people with high IQ slaving their lives away in university. I doubt any high-flyer will give up the prime of their lives taking care of a parent. But Ylon did, spending most of his 20s taking care of his mother.

Of course I don't mean that all hobos out there are really smart, and all the collegiate bookworms are heartless people.

It just proves that degree-holders may be the cleverest people out there, but there's always a college dropout who is smart enough to sucker the money off them.

Who's the sucker now?

10 Things To Do Before I Die

After transcribing several promos for "1000 Places To See Before You Die", I'm inspired to do my own version, and here it is: "10 Things To Do Before I Die"

1) Backpack across continental South-East Asia, East Asia, West Asia, Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Scandivania and lastly, to Old Trafford to watch a Man Utd match. All in one trip.

2) Catch another marlin. Preferably a Blue Marlin. All by myself.

3) Go to Myanmar again (When it's safer, duh!) and finish what was unfinished.

4) Go back to Fremantle, Autralia to have Fish & Chips at Cicerello's!

5) Write a novel. Doesn't matter if it's a worstseller. As long as it's my brainchild.

6) Attend a John Williams Boston Pops Orchestra concert live. Provided the Great John Williams outlived my lack of funds.

7) Play drums for 12 hours straight.

8) Master 5 languages. English, Mandarin, Latin, Greek & Hebrew.

9) Own a boat (That I can live in). So that I can live in the high seas! And maybe make a road trip (so to speak) around the world.

10) Somehow, directly or indirectly, change Singapore's Education System.


There ya have it! That's my 10, which probably will change after a year or two. But it's still up anways.

Do feel free to post up your 10 too!

The World Is Just Unfair? Maybe it's just Awesome.

This post is for everyone out there, but especially for my classmates who have just got their results and the A & O Levelers.

A few years back (gasps! I'm THAT old?!), I was telling everyone how unfair the education system is, where students who are smart don't necessarily do well. I was brushed away, deemed as sour grapes, sore loser and other similiar terms.

Now, I am so tempted to say "I told you so" to many of my classmates. So I shall.

I TOLD YOU ALL SO!!

This semester's results found their way into a lot of rather unhappy students. Many of my classmates believe they deserve better, or so-and-so shouldn't have done so well. A lot of them are also saying that the system is biased, the lecturers don't like them, the lecturers are marking them down.

There've been many a classmate talking to me about confronting the lecturers, petition this, petition that, etc. etc.

So here is my take on what's going on:

Yes, I do feel that a lot of people did not get the grade they deserved (including As which should be Bs and Bs that should be As), and the lecturers could have done much better in grading by looking at what happens at ground zero.

But why are so many of you complaining when I'm not?

I'm sure my result is worse than more than most of you out there, despite coming in earlier than anyone else, wasting my time hounding everyone to take up ad-hoc projects and all the other responsibilities that comes packaged with my role.

Ironically, it is not I, whom many of my peers say that is an 'angry man' who's all worked up. It is all the docile little people who are freaked out by insects that are incensed over the matter, and threatened to push people into ponds, strangle and wring necks, amid other unpleasant courses of actions.

Short of torching down the entire NYP compound with the staff inside, nothing is going to make a difference.

I'm sure most of my classmates would know our lecturers well enough. It's not that they don't want to change, it's because they're bound by the school rules. Well, also throw in the fact that "people from the media industry are a**h**es", as quoted from almost all our lecturers.

I know a lot of people out there are feeling like 'sian, why should I work hard now, since the system will mark me down anyway.'

I have come to terms during my time in poly that this system we are in is flawed in many ways, and the meritocracy we practise is not really meritocracy at all. The people who make use of the system will have their come-uppance, as life progresses, when the real world will slough away the pretenders from the real deal.

Just like what's happening now. Many of *you* came through into poly in the very flawed system. Now, I'm talking to God (in a way), thanking Him for this. Because now, many of you experience what I experienced. And are now trying to do what I was trying to do.

Hopefully that means more people in my camp of thoughts.

All we can do is to get on with life, and in the future when such cases come about, do an Obama, campaign for change before it's too late.

As the Latin phrase goes: Age Quod Agis. Do best in whatever you do.






P.S. Christmas hath arrived earlier!!

Introducing the BK Quad Stacker!!!

Elitism: A Myth?

“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society. So what happens?"

“There will be fewer bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.”

-From National Day Rally 1983

“We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two (children),”

“We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic.”

-From National Day Rally 1967



Source: http://www.singapore-window.org//sw08/081101ST.HTM




The above quotes are the best I could find. Apparently transcripts from such old National Day Rallies don't exist, since it was behind closed doors, not broadcasted, like how it is currently.

Obviously, the issue of the 'stop-at-two' policy is secondary here. The major point is that our MM Lee meant the birth control policies only for the non-graduates, which he so gracefully termed 'dumb people'. It's grossly reminiscent of something that fits into George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Such courses of actions are an anathema to what Singapore really is about: Meritocracy.

Our leeders have always insisted that Singapore rewards the best of the best, cream of the crop, top of the line. In a way, what MM Lee proposed is to distort the values of meritocracy.

By insisting that the best are offsprings of the best, meritocracy becomes a twisted version of monarchy and nepotism, since the best will inherit the best.

However, a perfect slap to MM Lee's face was when his grandson was born a slightly autistic albino. The child's mother, Wong Ming Yang, allegedly died of heart attack, and the husband, current PM Lee, remarried to current Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching. That's the official version.

The word on the street (however untrue it may be) is that Wong Ming Yang committed suicide because MM Lee was unhappy that she gave birth to a son that was obviously not going to be 'the best', and made PM Lee remarry a fast-rising civil servant for power.

Obviously that was a bit of a far-fetched theory, but had it been in a media circus of a place like Taiwan or Hollywood, the investigative journalism may reveal more than meets the eye.

But what is definitely the factual is the elitism that still exists today.

A few good examples would be from a couple of Ang Mo Kio GRC representatives that are strangely similiar.

Comparing both the Wee Shu Min and Li Hongyi public fracas, we can find lots of eery likeness.



Both are children of big shot politicians (one Wee Siew Kim, one PM Lee Hsien Loong)

Both went to the supposedly 'elite' RJC.

One condemned a 'commoner' for crying out about how tough life is, the other bypassed all chains of command, even emailing the Minister of Defence (thanks to Dad's conatcts) just to complain about a CO.

Both got away with a slap on the wrist. Wee Shu Min's father only reprimanded her. Her only loss was to close down her blog. Li Hongyi was "formally charged and administered a reprimand after a summary trial", even though in other states what he did tantamounted to a court-martial case that would have gotten him fired.

Both parents kept decidedly mum about the entire business. Wee Siew Kim later released a statement condoning his daughter's actions and even praised her, saying "As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson, and it's good that she has learnt it at such an early stage in life.'"

And lastly, both Wee Siew Kim & PM Lee's political career won't be affected by their children's action.

Imagine if Sarah Palin's son in Iraq emailed US Defense Secretary Robert Gates over an officer only getting 10 extra duties for punishment. Palin's political career would be as dead as Achmed.


Another issue is the usage of the term 'graduates' as an equivalent to 'bright people' (see quotes from National Day Rally 1983, where female graduates were used as an equivalent to bright people).

This is a stereotype that has gone on until today, where degree almost equates you with cleverness, which is certainly not true. Granted, a lot of them really are clever, but they aren't smart.

They're just servants entrapped into the system, capable of rote learning, but unable to think for themselves or be creative. Much like a human robot.

Personally, I feel that this is nonsensical. A person's future career can only be justified through a degree. Just this slip of paper can give a much higher pay. What if someone who's really smart, but didn't want to waste his money and years of his life getting buried in books in university?

Would that person be less talented than a degree holder? Certainly so, in the current society, where I've seen and heard many such similiar cases when the smarter, more capable person was not accepted, with a degree holder chosen in favour.

Well, having society filled with the results of non-graduates (stupid people, as MM Lee put it) will only be detrimental to our future generations, as there'll be "fewer bright people to support dumb people".

Is it elitism? I rest my case.

Public Transport Prices Increase AGAIN

The costs of living has yet gone up another notch. What else would prompt me to return to my writing sojourn?

From October onwards, electrical costs will be up by 21%, public transport costs increase, and all these amid an economy that may fall flat on its face. These policies are rather ridiculous, in my not-so-very-humble opinion.

Take for example, the fare hike (or fare adjustment, as they nicely put it) for public transports, the second hike in a year. Adults have to pay 4 cents more for each ride, but will get 15 cents more transfer rebate (for those of you who don't know, rebate=discount).

A person who transfers a public transport once will get a 7 cents discount, they say, and a person that transfers transport twice will get an 18 cents discount, they say, and the calcuation goes on, getting cheaper for an extra transfer. Supposedly, the costs are cheaper now because of the increase in rebate.

Really confusing, isn't it? I suppose this is a point they use to confund the public so that they can suck more money from us.

They don't give statistics showing whether there are more people taking a direct route or more people transferring, much less giving details on the demographics of each category.

What if an impoverished families take more direct routes because they find jobs that are near their places in the first place, to save money?

And those who transfer are high-income executives forced to turn to public transport because of ERP & oil price increase?

Wouldn't they be taxing the poor and rebating the rich?

The lack of such concrete evidence is the crux of the matter. If SBS is able to come out and prove that they have the correct motives for such ridiculous fare adjustments, I'm sure the public will feel more assured that they can trust further adjustments in the future.

However, the price increase does not seem to stem from the need to improve their services.

Everyone I know seems to have a gripe against SBS. Be it from rude bus captains, buses that drive off without waiting at the stop, or buses that arrive once in 60 minutes (80 minutes, in my case), SBS's service is doing a disservice to their reputation.

Despite adding the IRIS service, which is useful, it does not help when the reply coming back says "Next Bus: 75 minutes, Subsequent Bus: 80". (Yes, I received that message before. I would have taken it down with my camera phone, but the message was in my phone) When the bus arrived 8 minutes later, I was so relieved that I could have relieved myself on the spot.

Obviously, the public transport sector has to account for a lot more now that the nation is turning to them for many reasons. ERP costs, fuel prices, pollution, license revoked, etc. etc.

Without improving to meet the further demands, they might just be the ones to take a hike.