Who is Barry Greenstein

Barry earned his nickname, "The Robin Hood of Poker," through his tireless gift giving. His adventure in philanthropy began as a lesson to his kids. He wanted to instill in them the same compassion for others that his parents gave him. He researched different charities, and quickly became overwhelmed by the tremendous need everywhere he looked. Not satisfied by just writing a check, he decided to get personally involved in lives of people who needed help. Ultimately, what started out as an exercise in character building, became the work that he's proud to say defines his life.

Barry's success in tournament poker has earned him two WSOP bracelets, two WPT victories, more than $5 million, and most importantly, the thanks of thousands of people around the world.

arry gives terse, no nonsense accounts of his travels and the various tournaments - in audio form - on pokerroad.com. How terse? His initial welcoming entry is just 34 seconds long. He's speaking into a small digital recorder - sometimes only moments having getting busted. This is a timely way of conveying the events but the quality can be poor. I think he's getting the hang of it.

In terms of travel, he's racking up some big air miles points. Barry's entries already go from Baden (EPT), to Barcelona (WPT), to Washington D.C., to Niagara Falls (WPT), to Foxwoods, to Macau.

In terms of poker, he takes us through some of the key hands in each event. He gives you enough background to get a feel for the other players, and how that impacts his strategy. He also has some good observations about online-trained players adjusting to the live tournaments.

Other than poker, observations about the locations visited are pretty limited. Barry's there to play and when he's knocked out, he's moving on.

Barry Greenstein was exposed to poker at a young age by his father. After graduating from Bogan High School, he earned a bachelor degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also studied for a PhD in mathematics, but left before completing his dissertation. He worked for Symantec until retiring in 1991 at age 36 when he began to play poker full time. Greenstein has two children and four stepchildren, and resides in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. His stepson, Joe Sebok, is also a professional poker player.

In 2005, Greenstein wrote a book titled Ace on the River. Tuan Le, a WPT Season 3 champion, claims that book showed him how to succeed on the poker circuit. Greenstein is known for giving away a free copy of his book to the player who eliminates him in a tournament, including his autograph and details of the hand. Greenstein taught former girlfriend Mimi Tran how to play poker in exchange for her teaching him how to speak Vietnamese. He also plays online at PokerStars, under the alias "barryg1" and is a member of the cardroom's Team PokerStars.

He was also bet $10,000 by the 2+2 Poker Forums to say "lol donkaments" on an episode of High Stakes Poker, which he did after winning a hand against Erick Lindgren. After the initial $10,000, he also received a further $27,000 in donations from other charitable poker players who were amused by the bet.

Greenstein has appeared in each of the first three series of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and all four seasons of the GSN series High Stakes Poker.

Greenstein has three World Series of Poker bracelets.

He has also won two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles:

Fifth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open ($1,278,370)

2006 WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino ($100,000)

At one time, Greenstein donated all of his tournament winnings to charities, primarily children-inc.org, and he is sometimes called the Robin Hood of poker.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $6,400,000.