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Bluff recently caught up with legendary cash
game player Barry Greenstein to find out about
life as a father, author, mathematician, philanthropist
and poker legend.
Tell us a little bit about a
day in life of Barry Greenstein.
Well, a lot has changed because of the
explosion of tournament poker. I’ve been playing
side-games my entire poker career, but
tournaments got big and the exposure is
important; that’s how you get recognized as a
player. So I’ve been playing a lot of tournaments.
It actually makes it more difficult for
me to make a living playing poker, because
I’m not playing as much in the side games –
I’m too busy traveling and getting ready for
the next tournament. In reality, the side
games are my job, and I am taking many days
off from work to play in tournaments. So half
of the year is spent traveling, and the other
half is spent at home.
I have responsibilities: I’m a father, so I
have a commitment to my kids. And there are
business commitments with some of the products
I’m involved in. When I’m at home, I have
media commitments, but I also get about fifty
emails a day from various people, and I try to
respond to all of them myself. Many emails
are from kids who are thinking about dropping
out of school or quitting their jobs
because they want to become professional
poker players. I take those emails very seriously
because I think a lot them are making a
mistake. I think they’re putting all their eggs
in one basket when they really should be finishing
their degrees and keeping their options
open. So I take a lot of time out of my day
emailing these kids, telling them, essentially,
to stay in school, and not to let poker be their
only chance at success.
You say in your book, Ace on
the River, that you won’t give poker lessons to your
own kids until they have gotten their degrees. Let’s
talk about your son, Joe Sebok.
Well, I’m real proud of my son Joe. The
important thing is that Joe never actually
played any poker until he was 27-years-old. A
lot of these kids that I’m counseling – I’ll tell
them to play poker in moderation. Get your
degree and poker will still be around when
you graduate from college. My youngest son
Nathanial, who is 18, plays on the internet
some, but he knows I won’t help him with
poker until he graduates college. The same
with my nephew Michael, who plays probably
too much on the internet. He’s the one in the
family who’s the most into poker, and will
probably be a top tournament player, because
I know his drive. Michael, at 16, is one of the
top-rated Magic players in his age group. He’s
following the line of Magic players, like David
Williams, who go on to do well in tournaments.
Nathanial was a top rated Magic player
as well. I know that both of them will probably
go into poker. But fortunately, they are
going to go through college first, and they
have made it very clear that when they get
out of college, as a graduation present, I will
give them poker lessons, and advice. But they
know that until they graduate, they’re not
getting any.
As for Joe, he’s has only been playing the
game for about a year and a half, but the big
advantage that he has over other players is
maturity. He’s been through college; he has
experience in the business world. Joe is very
good with people. He’s not the type who is
going to lose himself in Las Vegas. He is a
very solid person and has a degree in psychology,
which doesn’t hurt either. So Joe has
the disadvantage that he didn’t play any
poker until he was 27, but I think that’s offset
by the fact that he has me as his father. I can
bring him up to speed faster than other people
would be able to.
Joe has put in his time at the tables over
the past year and a half and he has become a
good tournament player. My own definition of
a true poker player involves playing all
games, and playing side games as well as
tournaments. Joe, I have tutored to be more of
a tournament player, although he is a successful
at cash games into about the $30/$60
level and is able to make enough money in
side games to pay for his tournament entries.
Speaking of degrees, you’re pretty
close to completing your PhD in math; any chance of
becoming Dr. Greenstein soon?
Well, I finished all the course work and all
the exams, and I wrote my thesis, but what
with having kids, and playing too much poker,
I was in graduate school for about ten years. I
just didn’t finish typing it up and defending it.
I’ve been offered positions as a math professor,
and if I went down that road, I could probably
finish off my PhD in about a year. Right
now, it’s too hard to back out of the life I currently
have. I would have gone back and finished
my PhD if poker hadn’t gotten so big.
Is math one of the reasons why
you enjoy poker or are you driven more by the financial
rewards of playing the game?
The mathematical aspect of poker is not
that big a deal to me. Being good at math just
means I am good at analyzing problems. In
poker you face many problems every hand
you play and you have to solve them quickly.
I play poker because I’m good at the combination
of math and psychology that’s needed
to be good at the game. But really I play
because I have been successful at it, and I am
able to make money and support my family
doing it.
How do you continually stay on
top with the onslaught of young internet players on
the scene?
Well, I don’t think that the overall quality
of play in the tournaments is any stronger
than it’s been in the past; there are just more
players. There are some young players who
are very talented; however, the tougher thing
is spotting the good players. Many times they
are going to fool you at first.
A lot of these young players do play a lot of
hands on the internet, but that doesn’t really
help them in terms of reading people, which is
a skill that I think I’m better at than most. The
main reason you see a lot of kids doing well in
tournaments is that they just simply outnumber
the rest of the field. And in tournament
poker, anyone who has played a reasonable
amount of poker and is willing to get his chips
in the middle with some aggressiveness has a
chance to win a tournament.
Because of the number of players, many of
them sit around trying to eek into the money.
I, along with most of the tournament pros, am
playing to win the tournament. I take chances,
I bluff, I steal pots. I’m playing a style that
allows me to get a lot of chips and a chance to
win. That is an advantage that I have.
What is your biggest pet peeve
at the poker table? Does anything get you angry?
I haven’t seen anything that’s really
annoyed me. I don’t like people who act badly,
who complain a lot, who berate people who
get lucky. Things like that are inappropriate. I
don’t like it when people win and stick it in
their opponent’s face. For the most part,
though, I think the behavior is pretty good in
poker tournaments.
What is your biggest extravagance
outside of poker?
Well, a lot of money goes into my house. We
have a nice house on the ocean in California.
Because I spend so much time on the road, my
home is where I really vacation, so I like to
make it as comfortable as possible. I would
have to say my favorite place to be is right at
home.
We’re all familiar with your
epithet, the “Robin Hood of Poker.” Are you tired of
hearing it?
As long as people look as it as a positive
thing and realize that, when I do well in
tournaments, some good is coming out of it,
then it’s fine. I don’t go around calling
myself “Robin Hood.” Phil Ivey, a good friend
of mine, always likes to tease me about it.
But the real nice thing is that many other
people who have done well in tournaments,
and have had some nice windfalls, have
given money to charity as well. Some of
them have given me credit for inspiring
them to do that. So that’s why I am fine with
the association, as long as it gets others to
do positive things.
Tell us a little bit about Children
Incorporated, your favorite charity.
Well, Children Incorporated is one of
these child sponsorship groups. Most people
just give $24 a month to sponsor a child over
a year – and it really helps. I also recommend
giving the child you sponsor an extra
$200 three times a year – when school
starts, at Christmas and in the spring. For
each child sponsored, it comes to about
$1,000 a year, which is not that much to
most poker players, and there are quite a
few players I know doing this. I sponsor
seven children myself.
My tournament winnings go to help build
and maintain some of the facilities. Many of
the kids are in orphanages, and we have
facilities in 21 countries around the world.
My money goes to help when there are natural
disasters, for instance. It helps to
rebuild the facilities and keep them running.
I would urge anybody to get involved
and sponsor a child.
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