The difference between Phil Hellmuth and Justin Schwartz is that I hear a lot of professional players and other professional "poker world" people remark about how nice and genuine of a person Hellmuth is. I don't hear anyone speak that way about Schwartz, from first-hand experience. It could be that he is not as well-known, so no one has really cared to bring him up in interviews and such. There is something to be said about the narrative that ESPN sought to convey with their presentation of the WSOP, but all I have seen from other sources is a confirmation that Schwartz's character matches what is portrayed on-screen. I will read the 2+2 post. It will be interesting to learn more about Justin.
He's a great poker player, but you should read the 2+2 post he wrote, he answered people there and it's a long and elaborated post about his entire life.
After you read his life story, the video becomes even more interesting to watch, with "different eyes" you may say.
He's just one of those many different personalities you will meet at a live poker game. Some of them you dislike and others you like and then there is others that do neither for you on any given day. Kudos to the game of poker that brings us such a different array of personalities for a gathering.
He is an interesting character and the video is focused more about his personality and talk around the table, yet he's a great poker player as well, so you have here both a good player and someone interesting on TV
good video with a good player
Thank you so much, glad you liked it and I agree, a good poker player indeed.
He seems like someone that is genius level that is just now having a chance to fall in love with and understand the game. (Assuming he is inexperienced by his totally inappropriate table talk in the D negs hand) I may be wrong. The typical course for a guy like this seems to be, fall in love, crush it, fall out of love, get bored, walk into the sunset to find something new to crush... the genius game playing action junky... a shifty, transient beast
He said in the post 2+2 something about being good in school but not so interested at it or something, I'm sure he's very intelligent and it's connected to his poker success.
Its like pro wrestling. He's a "heel" and you need the heels to make the good guys look more appealing. He should ramp up his "heel" persona and capitalize off of it.
I liked it, "heel!"
So now, before the next river is drawn, Vince will come out with music and shout, don't deal the card yet...here's the stipulation
I am a post donkey, and now have done more reading on this dude. He has been playing at highest level for a long while. He wasn't inexperienced, just rude and brash in his table talking... other than that spot on... the prolonged and insurmountable victim mindset as a recourse of not being able to produce serotonin from drug abuse makes sense. It takes a new challenge a new rush, and even then... the end is tragic for the junkie, what ever you're a junky for... best of luck and best wishes to him. I have fought some of the same demons, and can relate %100 to some of the darkest things the guy has written. Life can be a dark journey, and being meta enough to be able to peer behind the theoretical curtain can be a bit much to bear...
Like I said before, he's a great poker player with an interesting life story, people should look his post at 2+2 to get more of a feel about what he's been through.