As a member of the World Series of Poker final table “November 9″,  Ylon Schwartz, 38 years old, from Brooklyn, New York, is starting with  $12,525,000 in chips when the main event resumes this November the 9th.

• Schwartz has 11 World Series of Poker events cashes, including 15th place in the Limit Hold’em event this year. His cashes in 30 live tournaments have made him almost $256,000.

•  As a former professional chess player, Schwartz, realized early on he could make more money at poker. He started playing chess when he was 13. At 16, he was making a living from chess in New York’s East Village.  At 23, he became a chess master.

What to expect at the Final Table

Schwartz may have had the best attitude of any of the finalists: “I’ll evaluate my play, but I think I’m just going to find a hammock, a beach and a good bottle of tequila.”

How he qualified for the tournament

Schwartz has a Web site, shipthecheese.com, where he credits two men with teaching him poker: his grandfather and “Fat Nick,” whom he describes as “a 350-pound old man with one tooth in his mouth that crack was kind of enough to leave.”

Final table main event poker stardom?

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

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ESPN poker analyst Norman Chad:

“If he wins, he wants to go somewhere no one will find him, like Tim Robbins in ‘Shawshank Redemption.’ He’s smart and strange — you’ve got to fear the smart, strange ones — and he’ll wait for others to make mistakes at the table.”

For a brief interview with Ylon Schwartz watch this video about his expectations of the final table:

Ylon Schwartz, one of the nine players left at the final table in the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), has decided to auction an opportunity to sponsor him.

The auction will take place on eBay and the winner will earn a ten-square-inch advertising patch on his hat, chest or arm, reports Poker News Daily.

A starting bid of $100,000 will have to be made and half of all the proceeds will be donated to the EDC Habitat for Humanity charity.

Scott Neuman, president of RecordWeb Communications, the firm promoting Schwartz, said that the poker star was pleased to help out with the fundraising effort.

He commented: “What people have to remember is that while it’s a charity auction, the value of the patch is worth between $100,000 and $3 million.”

Schwartz will sit down at the final table with over 12 million chips, which will put him in fifth place when the other eight take to the felt.

Dennis Phillips is the chip leader with over 26 million and he recently auctioned advertising space on his own jacket to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.