For all the similar poker stories about the young people who left their education to pursue poker dreams, the story of Steve “Zugwat” Silverman comes as a curiosity, to say the least. He was born in 1987, in Derwood, Maryland. Work ethic of his parents had influenced his attitude towards his professional endeavors and eventually translated into achieving a huge amount of success in poker. He discovered the game itself when he was fourteen during a summer camp, but at that point he did not really know the rules properly, let alone anything else. However, upon his return home, his brother made him an online account and he started playing freerolls and eventually clearing up deposit bonuses. His experience and bankroll kept growing, and by the time he eventually enrolled to the University of Maryland, poker was the only thing on his mind. It did not take long before he started falling behind on his class obligations and decided to drop out of college, much to disappointment of his parents. Silverman started grinding $1-2 underground games together with Greg Merson, whom he befriended. However, combination of bad variance and couple of robberies that he had the misfortune to be a victim of shifted his interest more towards a safer environment. He started taking occasional trips to the Turning Stone Casino, and at this point he realized that he was still not ready in terms of his knowledge of the game. He went back to college and continued to play online, only to drop out again after making several big scores. He started playing some of the live tournaments in Europe and South America, as he was still not old enough to play in the USA. The results came live as well, and he was still crushing it online, with his biggest score coming from the $1k FTOPS to the tune of $350k. “Zugwat” then turned his attention more towards the cash games, and by the mid-2009, he was one of the most feared players in the highest stakes online cash games. And this is when he made the very uncharacteristic decision for a poker player – he went back to the University to finish his studies despite of making millions from poker. Although he turned most of his attention to his studies, he did not allow for his poker skills to become rusty, and continued playing on the live circuit whenever he could. Now a 25-year old, Silverman has more than $3 million in live tournament cashes and undisclosed amounts of money that he won from his cash game playing days. His biggest live score came recently, during the 2013 EPT in Monte Carlo where he took the 1st place and the prize money in excess of $1 million. He also came 3rd in the 2012 WSOP $10k PLO event taking home $300k. Although still without a WSOP bracelet, it is certain that he will be gunning for one in the coming years.