Poker Player - Barry Greenstein
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Barry Greenstein was born on the 30th of December 1954 in Chicago, Illinois he currently resides in Rancho Palo Verde, California. Greenstein was around poker from an early age with his father being a noted poker player in the army, but Barry never took to cards immediately instead he found that he excelled in maths and computing and when he graduated from Bogan high school he would go on to earn a bachelor degree in computer science. Barry later attended the University of Illinois where he continued his studies and gained a PhD in mathematics. When Barry left University he took a job with the company Symantec, which is the company that has produced the Norton Anti-Virus software and many other security products, he started in 1984 and retired in 1991 at the age of 36. Since retiring Barry has been hitting the poker scene in order to purse his passion for playing, he started making a living from card games when he played in high stake ring games in Northern California, he made a living this way for many years without any recognition for his poker skills.
Barry has a great number of poker accomplishments under his belt including his first WSOP event in 1992 were he finished in 22nd place after playing in the World Series of Poker, No Limit Texas Hold'em event. Since that event Barry has gone from strength to strength, Barry showed his poker worth when he won his first WSOP bracelet at the 2004 $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball event were he won prize money of $296,200 also playing in the event were well known names such as Howard 'The Professor' Lederer, Steve 'Steveie Z' Zolotow and Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson'. As of 2005 Barry has two WSOP bracelets when he also won the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event playing against Phil Hellmuth Jr, Julian 'The kid' Gardner and again Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, scooping the $128,505 prize money.
Not only does Barry have accomplishments in the World Series of Poker he has also taken first place in Larry Flynt's Poker Challenge Cup, Limit Seven Card Stud in 2003 winning one million dollars, in June 2003 the California State Poker Championship, No Limit Hold'em event, in September the United States Poker Championship No Limit Hold'em event and in the First Annual Tropicano Poker Championship Series Limit Seven Card Stud. In January 2004 Barry won the 5th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open-WPT Season 2, No Limit Hold'em event and in April the Five-Star World Poker Classic- WPT Championship Season 2, No Limit Hold'em event. Barry has also seen victory in early 2006 with a first place finish in the World Poker Tour Invitational Season 4, No Limit Hold'em event.
Although Barry may still not be one of the most famous of Poker players among his peers he is a well respected player not only is he respected he is also seen as one of the most generous poker players today with all his tournament winnings going to the charities most of which goes to the charity Children Inc. This charity works to help children in 21 countries including America to provide food, clothing and educational needs in schools, orphanages and welfare centres.
Barry is also known for teaching one of the most well respected female poker players around, Mimi Tran to improve on her game, with Barry also being her student as she is teaching him how to speak Vietnamese. Barry has also made a contribution to Doyle Brunson's book 'Super System's 2'.
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