Home / Poker News August 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – RIP Ryan Young
The Poker Grapevine – RIP Ryan Young
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-08-03 10:44
The poker community was shocked to learn about the passing of Ryan Young, a 28 year old poker professional from Torrance, CA on Monday. While information on exactly how Young died remains scarce, it appears that he had had a car accident. Several of his friends posted their condolences in various spots. Amit Makhija, who says he used to be close to Young for years, says he first prayed for the news to turn out to be nothing more than a tasteless joke.
Bryn Kenney posted his condolences on his Facebook wall, while David Benefield wrote on Young’s wall.
Young’s biggest poker accomplishment was his 2007
WSOP bracelet win. He won $615,955 in a $1.5k NL Holdem event, and he quite literally burst onto the poker scene with that win. He went on to amass $1.6 million in live tournament winnings. He played online under the name ‘youngluck’.
In other news: Greg Raymer may have disappeared off the poker scene lately and ever since he parted ways with PokerStars not much could be heard of him. The WSOP Main Event Champion was apparently busy behind the scenes all the while though. On Monday, he added a Heartland Poker Tour trophy to his portfolio, by winning the $1.5k Route 66 Championship event. The win netted him $71,875. He had to best a starting field of 131 to get there.
Although the event did fall short of meeting its guarantee, the victory was one with special significance for Raymer: it was his first televised win following his 2004 WSOP Main Event victory.
Allen Kessler and Kathy Liebert also played in the event, together with Rob Perelman. Robert Crawford finished 2nd for $42.5k and Scott Dougherty 3rd for $26.8k.
In still other news: Caesars Entertainment picked up a license from the Maryland authorities which will allow it to build a major casino in Baltimore. The establishment is set to open in 2014, and it will offer the usual selection of games and restaurants.
