Rob Yong
About Rob Yong
| Current Residence | Nottingham, UK |
| Born | N/A |
| Birth Place | UK |
| Total Winnings | $845,000 |
Rob Yong Trivia
- Founder of 'Dusk Till Dawn' poker room.
- Has an interesting and well-documented partnership with partypoker.
- Regular at Triton’s Super High Stakes cash games, Poker Night in America and partypoker's Big Game.
- 3rd at Triton Poker Series in Madrid for €173K.
| PLAYER SCORE | 8,4/10 |
|---|---|
| Aggressiveness | 8 |
| Looseness | 7 |
| Limit | 7 |
| No-limit | 9 |
| Side Games | 10 |
| Steam Control | 8 |
| Against Strong Players | 9 |
| Against Weak Players | 9 |
| Tournaments | 8 |
| Short-Handed | 9 |
Sometimes being late is a good thing – as Rob Yong found out in the early 2000’s when he and a friend arrived at a casino to play in a poker tournament, got turned away, and a couple of years later opened his own poker room and casino. This defines who Rob Yong is and always has been – a person of the people and poker players. He has always had leadership capabilities and that has helped him become one of the most successful and renowned poker personalities today.
The Early Years of Rob Yong
Rob grew up in humble beginnings, selling small pieces of antique ornaments with his childhood friend Nick Whiten to make money. Rob always had a business sense and knew that he had to work for what he wanted in life, but also knew that relationships are what builds a person. Nick Whiten and Rob are still friends today; in fact, Nick still works with Rob today, all these years later!
Like many other famous businesspeople, Rob did not finish college; instead, he left school to work for a recruitment agency, and then turned around over a year later to open his own agency. That mind set has always been with Rob and helped him become the influencer he is!
Don’t Like Something – Do It Better!
Rob took to poker around 2004 due in large part to the Chris Moneymaker boom. While Rob didn’t have a ton of success early, he did manage a trip to the USA in late 2004 and was heads up to win the $1000 NLHE event during the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, but he failed to close the deal, earning just over $29k for his efforts. But just over a year later something happened that would change Rob’s life. He and Nick were off to play in a poker tournament when they arrived at the check-in desk one minute late to register, and the casino staff turned both away. Undeterred, Rob vowed that poker players shouldn’t be treated this way and instead began work to open his own card room. Wanting to be a poker room for recreational players, he opened Dusk Till Dawn.
The Poker Operator
Rob has been vocal in the past about live and online poker rooms and how they operate, and Rob is someone who puts his money where his mouth is. Dusk Till Dawn opened in 2007 and has wanted to cater to the recreational, low stakes poker players – where he, and most players start their career. The room offers customer service to all players that high rollers would expect, and his bet on low buy-in, high guarantee tournaments to bring people in and mostly worked. One of the bigger tournaments that backfired was in 2011. Then, DTD offered a £50+£10, £250,000 guaranteed tournament as part of one of their popular Grand Prix series that featured multiple day 1’s online, but missed the guarantee by almost half, leaving Rob to pick up a £125k tab. Did that deter him? No, because two years later, they offered another £60, £250k guarantee as part of the Grand Prix and missed that guarantee by well over £50k.
Rob has had an interesting and well documented partnership with partypoker – while not an official employee of GVC, he has influence on several fronts, thanks in large part to his existing relationships with many of the top brass at Party, including people like John Duthie that have resulted in positive changes with the poker room. Some came online others with their live series, but improvements seen by players can be partly attributed from the DTD owner.
Rob was at the forefront of the FastForward scandal that happened on partypoker and worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of the matter; as always, he was looking out for the players first and operators second.
The Poker Champion
It is very hard to believe that someone who has been a name in the poker world for as long as Rob does not have many trophies on his mantel, but Rob is seen as a poker figure first, player second. And while Rob has played his fair share of tournaments, he didn’t taste victory until the summer of 2022. In Kyrenia at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party, Yong finally got a win and a big one at that. Playing in the $11,111 One Drop event, Yong faced off against the reigning WSOP Main Event Champion Espen Jorstad and beat him, winning $87,000 for his efforts. He has 4 six-figure cashes to his name in his career including a €173k cash for a 3rd place at the Triton Poker Series in Madrid a few months before his first win.
Rob’s bread and butter seems to be cash games though as he was a regular on Triton’s Super High Stakes cash games, Poker Night in America and the Big Game that partypoker hosts during their partypoker Live stops.
What’s Next for Rob Yong?
Rob is still going strong at Dusk Till Dawn, operating the card room to full houses most nights but it appears that other operators are holding events at the poker room as GGPoker will be holding the United Kingdom Poker Championships in January 2023 and given his recent success on the tournament circuit, one would not be shocked to see Rob go for more glory in the next big tournament series!
Image Credit: paulphuapoker.com
