Nicky Arris

Barry Greenstein has been playing poker since a very young age and he was first introduced to the game by his father. Barry Greenstein earned a bachelors degree in computer science and was also close to earning his Ph.D. in Mathematics although he never ended up finishing everything that needed done. Greenstein is unlike most professional poker players because Barry didn’t start playing poker full-time until he was 36 years old.

Over the years that Greenstein of PokerStars.com has played he has managed to earn himself a total of three WSOP bracelet and 2 WPT Titles. His first World Series of Poker bracelet was won in 2004 when he won the $5K Deuce to Seven Draw Event. He followed his first bracelet up with a second WSOP bracelet in 2005 by winning the $1.5K PLO Event. His third and last bracelet to date was won last year in 2008 when he won the $1.5K Razz Event.

As mentioned earlier Barry has won 2 WPT Titles, but he also won some other events in his career. One of the events he won was the WPT Fathers & Son Tournament along with a win in the WPT Poker by the Book Chapter 2. Both of the above events are special WPT events and are separate from the 2 WPT titles that he has won. Barry has also won the 5th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open and the 2006 WPT Invitational.

Barry is often referred to as the Robin Hood of poker because he often donates his winnings to charities. In the past he would donate a portion of his winnings, but since 2008 Barry has been donating all of his poker winnings to charities which is really incredible. No other poker player has been so generous before and it’s one of the reasons why every poker fan is a fan of Barry Greenstein.

Greenstein has already finished in the money 39 times over his poker career on the WSOP circuit and 19 more times on the WPT which is pretty stellar when looking at how long he has been playing full-time. Barry has almost won $6.5 million from playing in live poker tournaments and a nice chunk of this money has been donated to charities. Last year Barry almost won the Player of the Year award, but finished in second place as Lindgren took down the award.

Barry has appeared on all of the major poker TV shows including Poker Superstars, High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark, and the latest show put out by PokerStars. He also released his own book in 2005 which helps new poker players learn what it takes to be able to consistently place on the live tournament circuit. Barry has a large family which includes 2 children and 4 step children. Greenstein currently lives in California and has been spending time helping one of his stepsons with his poker game. They both also partnered together to create a poker website for players which includes news, poker strategy and entertainment. The website is called PokerRoad.com and it’s worth checking out if you have some spare time.

Even today, when many people think of poker they have a visual scene of a small card room filled with smoke with big burly men seated at the table and playing the game rough and reckless. There are no women at the tables for these individuals since traditionally women were never considered to be poker players. In fact, according to various resources women were considered to be unlucky for poker players and were thus not encouraged to enter the casinos. Fortunately, those days have been left far behind.

Women and Poker

Even today the number of men in poker outnumbers women by almost 8 to 1 at every major event. However, things have still changed quite considerably. Women are not backing down anymore. Women have taken up not just poker but other games like blackjack, craps and roulette and can be seen at casinos today playing these games at the same table as men. The number of women participating in poker tournaments has been slowly increasing over the years.

Being a man or a woman has nothing to do with poker, but there are still some hindrances that both men and women have to face in poker. While women are more patient, men are more aggressive. This could work in a good as well as a bad way for them. Women are very good at reading tells but are also very emotional. Women are capable of staying sober throughout the poker session and can thus make better calls than some men who tend to get trippy by the end of the game.

The Playing Style

Men are quite aggressive in poker and women can be timid and give into their aggression or they can use their own abilities of reading tells and hiding their emotions to beat their opponents. Generally men consider women as weak players at the poker table. They consider women to be incapable of bluffing, consider them to be tight, emotional and weak and women can use this to beat the men at poker.

In the last few years the number of women who have taken up poker professionally has increased tremendously. They are finding the game challenging and exciting and are participating in high profile tournaments. Hopefully, in the near future, more women would be seen at the WSOP final table and would be seen winning the much coveted bracelet. The respect for women players has definitely increased in the recent years but there is still a long way to go if poker has to be made equal for both men and women.

Till then, women should just concentrate on their game and learn to polish their skills. If they manage to beat men at their own game there is no doubt that they would be able to earn the respect they deserve. Women and poker go very well together, just as well as men and poker do. Whether it is a man or a woman, poker is equal for those who are skilled, smart and fast.