Barry Greenstein Life Story & Biography

Barry Greenstein is an incredible poker player, having won
three World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour
titles over the duration of his professional career. He has
accumulated over 7.5 million dollars from tournaments alone.

Greenstein, often referred to as “The Robin Hood of Poker,”
is always looking for new foundations to donate a portion of his
winnings to. Actually, 100% of his online tournament winnings go
directly to charity already, and sometimes he even donates his
winnings from other poker events too.

Early Life

Barry Greenstein was born December 30th, 1964 in Chicago, IL.
He was introduced to poker at a very young age when he learned
to play the game by watching his father.

After high school, Greenstein enrolled at the University of
Illinois where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer
Science. He continued going to school to earn his PhD, but was
never able to finish his dissertation. He accepted a job as a
programmer for Symantec in the 1980s, but after nearly a decade
of working there, he retired to play poker full time.

Poker Achievements

Greenstein’s first World Series of Poker victory occurred in
2004 when he took first place in the No Limit Deuce to Seven
Draw event for $296,200. He went on to win two more WSOP gold
bracelets and you can refer to the chart below if you’d like
more information on those events.

World Series of Poker Bracelets

In 2008, Greenstein cashed in at six different events at the
WSOP for a combined total of $768,461. He also finished second
in the 2008 WSOP Player of the Year standings, falling close
behind Erick Lindgren. A few years later, at the 2011 World
Series of Poker, Greenstein took third place in the $10,000
Limit Hold’em Championship, winning another $170,000.

Greenstein also successfully earned two World Poker Tour
titles for winning the Fifth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open
for the grand prize of over $1.2 million dollars and the 2006
WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino for the $100,000 cash
prize.

In addition to those, he has also won the World Poker Tour
Fathers & Son Tournament and the WPT Poker by the Book Chapter
2. Both of these events are considered special WPT events and
are separate from the other two main WPT titles that he has won.

Greenstein was recruited to be a part of Team PokerStars,
where you can often find him playing online under the
screen-name, “barryg1.” As part of the team, Greenstein loved
competiting on televised poker competitions, having appeared in
the first three season of NBC’s Poker After Dark, all seven
seasons of GSN’s High Stakes Poker, and the first three seasons
of Pokerstars Invitational Tournament.

Along with tournaments, Greenstein often plays $4000/8000 Pot
Limit and No Limit Texas Hold’em cash games, where he’s known to
win and lose millions of dollars within a single session of the
game.

Personal Life

Greenstein currently resides in Rancho Palos Verdes,
California with his wife; they have two children together and he
adopted her four children from a previous marriage. His
step-son, Joe Sebok, is also a professional poker player and
together they developed a website called, PokerRoad, which is
packed-full of great advice on various poker strategies.

No one is more generous than Greenstein, that’s for sure.
After winning $770,000 at Larry Flynt’s $1 million Seven-Card
Stud event in 2003, he donated $440,000 to Children
Incorporated, so that each of their 440 employees would receive
a $1,000 bonus. He often chooses to donate to this foundation
because it helps ensure that impoverished children still get the
education that they need. He has also pledged to give all net
winnings from his online tournaments to this charity.