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Like Father, Like Son |
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December 2007
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"“It’s been a long couple of weeks at the RIO and we are reaching the
climax of an astounding World Series of Poker Main Event 2008. The
money has been placed on the table and the cards are ready to fl y
again, as we prepare to crown a new champion. We’re all on the edge of
our seats, waiting to see who can claim victory. And what makes this so
different from other World Series Main Events? Well, not only did this
father and son tandem make the coveted final table, but they are now
heads up with one another for the $10 million fi rst prize, the
bracelet, and, of course, the glory. Will it be Barry Greenstein, the
seasoned veteran who has been playing poker longer than most of us even
knew about the game? Or will it be Joe Sebok, the young gun, who picked
up the game after being told
by his father that he would have to learn the hard way, on his own?”
The Bear
With tournament winnings exceeding $5 million, it’s no surprise that
Barry Greenstein has made quite a name for himself in the televised
poker era. Greenstein picked up poker from his own family when he was a
kid growing up in Chicago. He was a winner from the get-go and,
inspired by his love and knack for poker, he spent many years in
graduate school attempting to get a PhD in mathematics, which to this
day he is only a few months short of obtaining. Greenstein then headed
to Symantec, where he worked as a software developer for a number of
years, before fi nally following his calling and taking the leap into
full-time poker
Playing poker as a professional in those days was different than it
is today, remembers Barry: “It was not necessarily a good thing to say
you were a professional poker player back then; there was a stigma
attached to it. I always told Joe, if his school asked, to say that I
was an investor.”
Although the money was good and Barry was known amongst his peers
as one of the best players in the game, it wasn’t until poker hit the
TV screens that Greenstein became a household name. Before television,
tournament poker was never an area that the cash game pros really
thought much about. Sure, most would play in the $10,000 buy-in World
Series of Poker Main Event, but it was usually much more lucrative to
play in the big side games and cash games.
Greenstein recalls his first time on a TV table for a filming of
Poker Superstars: “The producers asked me what I had won, so they could
put in their graphic bar below my name; and at the time I hadn’t really
had any big tournament wins, so I told them just to hold off. With the
start of the WPT, I had already planned on taking a stab at playing on
this new circuit, and I felt confident I would win one within the year,
so they could add that win when it came.”
Greenstein was right, and he went on to make his first televised
final table. It was at that table he would see first hand the influence
that the cameras would have on the game. He recalls the producers
encouraging him be more talkative at the table and to chat more with
the rest of the group – a group that included Chip Reese and the
trash-talking Randy Jensen. “Randy wanted me to talk; he was
uncomfortable with my silence. My strategy was to keep him as
uncomfortable as possible. I told the producers that there was no way I
could change my strategy to make for better TV. I mean, we were playing
for over a million dollars.”
The win would be his first, and since then he has become feared —
not only in the cash games, but on the tournament circuit as well. He’s
also known for donating his winnings to charity, particularly Children
Incorporated. “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.”
Barry’s opponents should keep this in mind when he knocks them out:
Not only were they up against one of the best in the game, but their
loss is the gain of many deserving children.
The Cub
Unlike his stepfather, Joe Sebok did not grow up around cards as you
might think. In fact, the biggest card game they had going (if they
even had a deck of cards in the house) was War. Sebok attended the
University of California, Berkley, and graduated with a major in
psychology and a minor in Native American Studies. Based in San
Francisco, Joe found his way into the dotcom world and succeeded in
growing a couple of businesses. “Working in the dotcom industry was a
blast. I learned right then that I loved getting a company off the
ground and working on the operations front,” he says. Unfortunately the
success was short-lived and, like many in the industry,
when the bubble burst Sebok found himself without a job.
“For me, poker just seemed to come at the right time. I had been
laid off a bunch, the job market was down in the Bay Area, and it was
the same time that poker was becoming big. So for me, getting into
poker was circumstantial.” But poker was a good fit for Joe, and right
off the bat he experienced the kind of success that others can only
dream of. The very first tournament he played, at Lucky Chances, he
finished third. “Like anyone who has played poker, if you have even a
hint of success it really lights your fire, and that’s what happened
with me.”
The fire was well and truly lit, and in 2005 Sebok went on to make
two World Series of Poker final tables. He finished eighth in the
$5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em and fifth in the $5,000 Limit Hold’em events,
and made just over $100,000 during his rookie World Series. While he
has been quiet on the televised table front, he remains one of the most
consistent competitors on the circuit. In 2006, he won three
tournaments and made numerous final tables, earning almost a million
dollars for his efforts. He has finished on the TV bubble for the WPT
twice in 2007 and is still yearning for that bracelet or WPT
championship. “While I have had a lot of success, I have not really
accomplished anything,” he reflects. Well, that should be up for
debate. Sebok currently sits as the second ranked player in the BLUFF
Power Rankings, a system devised to highlight players who continuously
excel in tournaments with over 100 entrants and buy-ins of over $5,000.
Growing up Greenstein
People are sometimes puzzled about Joe and Barry’s relationship; they
seem so close, yet have different last names. Barry explains: “Joe’s
mom was divorced and had three children when we first started dating.
It was just natural to meet the kids, so I met Joe for the first time
when he was about four years old. Of the three boys, Joe and I were
probably the closest, right from the start. I certainly would say I
seemed to be closer to all three of the kids than their biological
parents were. Even when Joe’s mom and I got divorced, there was pretty
much no question that Joe would live with me, rather than with his
biological parents.”
While there was seldom a deck of cards in the household, there was
always a competitive atmosphere amongst the children that Barry
nurtured. Whether it was weekly math quizzes, football, basketball, or
soccer, Barry was constantly driving his children to succeed. Joe told
us that Barry would often say, “There is no excuse for not being the
best at everything you do.”
“He pushed me; there is no question about that. Sometimes I would
say that I couldn’t do something, and Bear would always counter with
“Nothing is too hard.” If I came home with six As and one A-, Bear
would want to know what was up with the A-.”
A weekly tradition would be to watch football on Sundays and then
go for ice cream. “Sometimes I didn’t want to go out for ice cream,”
recounts Barry. “Or maybe the kids didn’t have a good enough week. If
they behaved well, did well in school, and had a good week, then I
would always gladly take them out. As normal kids, sometimes they would
screw up or not clean their rooms. If that was the case we had a little
competition. They would have to catch three passes in a row. It might
not seem so now, but I used to be a pretty good athlete, and in those
days I could throw the ball pretty long and pretty far.
“I remember one particular time: Joe was about 12 years old. I
would usually throw one 40-yard bomb, one out pattern, and one bullet
pass, which was like a buttonhook. When the kids were young, I would
never give the bullet pass everything I had, but this particular week
Joey
had just been, as he says, a “butt-head,” and I didn’t want to take
them for ice cream. I wouldn’t cheat – and to me cheating would be
throwing a pass that couldn’t be caught – I would never do that. But I
did consciously think that I was just gonna whip this ball at Joe with
everything I had.
I threw that pass as hard as I could and Joey caught it, and I am not
kidding you, he had a mark from the laces tattooed on his chest. That
was Joe’s first tattoo. He caught it, and my word is good, of course –
I took them for ice cream.”
New beginnings
At the ripe old age of 27 and without a job, Joe figured it was time
for a fresh start. Poker was no longer the taboo subject it had been in
his childhood, and it was time to have a look at the game a bit more
seriously. During their college years, Barry’s children had seen that
Mimi Tran had gotten poker lessons from their father and that she was
now making good money; so the obvious question was, can you teach us?
“Money is not what it’s all about!” scolded Barry. “I want you guys
to get involved in something that you will be interested in, so I am
not going to teach you poker.” And that’s the way it stood for
some years. Joe followed this advice; he did graduate from college and
had a career outside of poker, but still the question was there. Could
Bear teach him to become a winning poker player? Barry’s answer?
“Yeah, I think I probably could teach you to become a good poker
player.” Things were not quite so simple, though. Barry was not going
to just spoon-feed his son into becoming a winning player. He advised
Joe to read books, play online for free, and get some tutorial
software. As Barry said, “To get good at anything, you need hands-on
training. You have to want to get good at something.”
Sebok recalls it slightly differently: “At first Bear, was
skeptical. On the outside, he said, ‘Great, go for it.’ But on the
inside, I knew he was thinking, ‘Go for it and fail, which you are
clearly going to do, and then you can do something else.’ But it became
apparent pretty quickly that, while I didn’t have the card sense yet, I
did have the instincts and people-reading ability to help me succeed,
which to this day are my strengths.”
The two World Series final tables seemed to solidify the fact that
Joe certainly had a feel for the game that had supported him and his
family for all these years. “Bear saw that I was serious about the game
and we started to talk a lot more about poker, analyzing hands and
trying to figure out how to improve my game.”
Many folks remember one of Joe’s World Series final tables, after which
before the mikes had been removed Barry had already began his analysis
of what Joe had done wrong. Joe had called pre-flop with A-J and, upon
missing the flop, still called a bet. The turn brought an ace and the
players got all the money in; however Sebok’s A-J was no good against
his opponent’s A-K. Greenstein was heard telling Joe that it was a
pretty brain-damaged play. Those who don’t understand Barry and Joe’s
relationship might see this as a little harsh, but after spending some
time
with the father-son duo, you get to realize it’s pretty typical of the banter between the two.
The tables turn
Although the learning process never ends in poker, it’s evident the
tables have turned a bit between these two. The strong father and son
bond has been fortified through poker. It’s not just about Joe
asking Barry questions any more. There is a lot more back and forth,
and it’s clear that Barry now considers his son a peer as well as a
student. “It’s funny because Bear and I talk after every day of
tournament play now. He is in Barcelona and I’m not even playing, and
he calls me to chat about hands and to get my take on how he played.”
Poker may be a ruthlessly individualistic sport, but Barry and Joe
are a team; unless, of course, they are at the same table. There is a
small inner circle, one that includes Mimi Tran, in which the group
shares information on their competitors. “There is no doubt that most
of the information
comes from Bear,” says Joe. “He is by far the superior player, but
occasionally I will jump in there and give out a little nugget of
information that may help him throughout the tournament. That’s the
difference, though; it’s usually just a nugget, while he drops boulders
on us.”
Poker is like the wild: The strong outlast the weak and, because
both Barry and Joe are such great competitors, it is just natural that,
deep into tournaments, the two sometimes find themselves at the same
table.
“I don’t want to be at his tables,” Barry states, “because I don’t
want to beat him, and he doesn’t want to beat me. You always want weak
players at your table; players you know you can get chips from, so I
defi nitely don’t want strong players like Joe at my table.”
When Joe first starting playing, it was a good thing for them to be
at the same table, because it gave Barry a first hand look at what his
pupil was doing right and what he was doing wrong. Now the two of them
use playing together as a mutual learning tool. Occasionally, the
student will even attempt to criticize the master, and Barry will
calmly explain that, while on the outside it may have looked like a
mistake, Joe sometimes just needs to take a more in-depth look into his
thought process, something that can take a lifetime to develop.
The road undiscovered
With all that Barry and Joe do in poker, it’s hard to believe they have
time for business off the felt. Joe, in fact, has always made a place
for working in the poker industry when he’s not playing. Whether it’s
on his successful poker radio show, with Gavin Smith and Scott Huff, or
writing for
the likes of BLUFF in his spare time, or his show on rawvegas.tv, in
which he pits himself against Gavin in a series of ridiculous prop
bets. When the radio show was recently cancelled, Bear let him know
that in order to do something the right way, you might as well do it
yourself. So the two paired up again, this time on the other end of the
felt. PokerRoad.com launched on October 21st – a website that immerses
its viewers in all things poker. From pro-blogs, which include an audio
blog from Barry, to the ever-popular radio show that Joe has been a
part of, The Poker Road has it all.
“The funny thing with Poker Road is that the tables have now
turned, because Joe is the head guy,” says Barry. “I work for Joe. I
think he enjoys telling me that something sucks when he can. The main
thing I want to show him, since he has been on the other side for so
long, is that I can take the criticism. I enjoy his being better at
something than I am.”
Heads up
While it hasn’t happened yet, the fact is that there is a great chance these two may square off at a fi nal table one day in the future. When presented with the situation at the head of this article, perhaps unsurprisingly, each of them would want the other to win. That is how close this relationship
is. “I would never want to play him heads up, and I would never want to beat him. I would want Joe to win instead of myself. I defi nitely want to see Joe win more than myself. It doesn’t matter if it were the World Series of Poker Main Event. I would never want to try to beat my son heads up.”
Sebok feels the same way: “It would solidify Bear’s legacy if he were to win and that is why I would want him to win it over me. I know poker will never be my legacy and I will never be as good as Bear, so I would defi nitely want him to take the title.”
One thing they did agree on, though, is that it would be a pretty good problem to have.
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