Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein was born in Chicago in 1954. He has been given the nickname ‘the Robin Hood of poker’ for the fact that he often donates his profit from his tournament winnings to charities. He graduated from high school and then attended the University of Illinois where he studied computer science and earned a bachelor degree.
Barry Greenstein
He learned to play cards from his parents at a young age and he particularly excelled at poker. By the time he was twelve years of age he was actually making money from the game. He continued to play poker while at school and at university but when he married his wife he was advised that it would be better to get a normal job – i.e. not playing poker if he wanted to be able to adopt her three children.
However when medical problems affected his family with his wife developing multiple sclerosis and their daughter developing liver problems, Barry knew it was time to give up the day job and concentrate on playing poker full time. The hours were better for him as well as the money.
And it was a good thing he did as he picked up three World Series of Poker bracelets the first one coming in 2004 in the $5000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Limit event. In 2005 he won his second WSOP bracelet in the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha and in 2008 he picked up his third bracelet in the $1500 Razz event.
He has cashed in 44 World Series of Poker events and this puts him in 16th position on the all time WSOP cashes list. These cashes amount to over two and a quarter million dollars and his all time tournament winnings are over $7 million.
He continues to play poker at the major tournaments to this day and is still considered to be one of the best professional poker players around.
