Like Father, Like Son
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.
