Zach Hyman

Hometown
San Francisco, California

Birthday
October 3

Total Winnings
$358,744

Some poker players are in the game for the pure fun and excitement of it, though they do not play full time. Zach Hyman is one of those who likes his career but plays tournament poker as time allows. That time is fairly easy to come by as he and his brother run a credit card processing company in Marin County, located in the Bay area of Northern California. With 85 employees and 500 outside salespeople, the sibling duo runs the company but takes time off to play a little poker now and then. In addition to the success of the current company, they also sold another company in 2003 for a profit that allows them to enjoy life.

Zach’s brother actually introduced him to poker about two years ago. In an effort to simply immerse Zach into it, his brother took him to the Ventura Player’s Club and bankrolled him into a $5-$10 no-limit hold’em poker game, when he admittedly didn’t even know what a flush was. By having to learn it as he went, with a sizable amount of money at stake, he picked it up rather quickly. He supplemented his learning curve through a little online play, and he is now playing the biggest tournaments on the circuit.

In March of 2007, Zach made a splash in the poker community by winning the $10,000 main event of the Wynn Classic for $729,033. He has also appeared at a final table of the Five Diamond Poker Classic $5,000 no-limit event, among others. As a big fan of the World Poker Tour, one of his goals was to win an event, and though he has yet to accomplish that goal, he did make the final table of the World Poker Challenge in Reno in early 2008 and finished in third place. Only a few weeks later, he went back to Las Vegas for the Five Star World Poker Classic at Bellagio and won the $2,000 no-limit hold’em tournament there. Whether it is skill, love of the game, or a combination of the two, this part-time player is looking to make his mark on the poker tournament circuit.