Young Phan came to the U.S. from his native Vietnam under conditions of hardship. In Southern California, he attended school twelve hours a day in order to bring his English up to speed. Successful in academia, he studied at UCLA and graduated from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo.

He worked for a time as a casino supervisor at the Bicycle Casino, and it was there that he had his introduction to poker. He names Johnny Chan as one of his greatest inspirations. "He played real high, and I liked his style. I learned a lot from him. He's one of the biggest reasons I got turned on to poker."

The more Young played, the more he enjoyed playing. "I decided to turn professional. Everything I went to school for just went out the window. I was making a lot more money playing poker even though I made pretty good money working at Bicycle."

For a long time, Young kept his profession a secret from his family because they were not readily accepting of poker as a legitimate enterprise. Even when Young won $370,000 in prize money at a tournament in Reno in 1999, he did not tell his mother what had happened. His cover was blown when he appeared in a television interview on the Discovery Channel, and now he says his family's attitude is slowly coming around.

Young is a no-nonsense poker player. He says: "Poker is not gambling, but work, for me. I treat it like a business, and I work hard at it." Though he is naturally outgoing and talkative, he adopts a more reticent attitude at the green felt table. "When I'm on the table, you won't hear a word from me. I'm tight because I can be. I like to wait."