When Phil Ivey was just new to the world of poker, his humble nature and insatiable thirst to learn about the game endeared him to several other poker pros. He became fast friends with Barry Greenstein, who then introduced the budding Ivey to the "Big Game" in Las Vegas. Impressed by the lifestyle that Greenstein was living, Ivey wanted to enjoy the same level of success, and went on to build an impressive portfolio in both tournament and cash game play that we see today.
Curious to know what it's like to win millions of dollars playing poker and to be sponsored by the world's largest poker site? You can stop wondering because BankrollMob is now giving you the unique opportunity to ask five members of Team PokerStars Pro (Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel) yourself!
Post your questions below (no more than 3 questions per pro) by no later than Friday, August 24th. We will then select 5 questions for each pro and forward them to PokerStars.
Curious to know what it's like to win millions of dollars playing poker and to be sponsored by the world's largest poker site? You can stop wondering because BankrollMob is now giving you the unique opportunity to ask five members of Team PokerStars Pro (Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel) yourself!
Post your questions below (no more than 3 questions per pro) by no later than Friday, August 15th. We will then select 5 questions for each pro and forward them to PokerStars.
Poker Hall Of Fame member and Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein has been around the poker scene (with huge success) for a very long time and many consider him a living legend thanks to his contributions to the game. Already back in 1991, Barry made so much money playing poker that he was able to retire from his day job to become a full-time poker pro instead.
Day 1A and 1B of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event have been played over the weekend. German player Hendrik Latz will lead the remaining 358 players into Day 2 with 191,600 in chips.
We all know that Barry Greenstein is one of heck of a poker player, both live and online. However, not everyone knows that he is very good at maths and that he used to be extremly good at computer science and golf!
The latter is something the 59-year-old Team PokerStars Pro wrote passionately about in his latest blog "My Golf Career". Barry wrote, for example, that he started playing golf at the age of 12 and that he won the caddy golf championship only 2 years laters. Check out the entire blog below to find out more (psst... there will be some stuff about Phil Ivey!).
In case you missed it: The 2013 European Poker Tour London Main Event kicked off a few days ago and attracted a 604-player field. Now, after 2 days of play, there are about 110 players left and Tudor Purice, from Romania, is the chip leader with 628,200 chips.
Chris Dombrowski Wins Event #30: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Congratulations to Chris Dombrowski, of USA, who battled through a field of 2,108 players over three days to earn his first gold bracelet and $346,332! Dombrowski was ranked third when the final day began and there were 13 players left. After a few hours of play, he was the chip leader and played heads-up against Mathew Moore.
Event #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em ($500 buy-in) 898 players (a larger field than expected) signed up for Event #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em and, after 11 levels and over 14 hours of play, only 55 made it through to Day 2. The chip leader is Michael Trivett with 133,900 chips, putting him about 30k ahead of Sean Small's second-place stack of 103,700. Play will continue at 1 p.m. local time tomorrow in the Amazon Room at the Rio, Las Vegas. The winner will take home $84,915 and a WSOP bracelet!
Event #2: No-Limit Hold'em / Eight Handed ($5,000 buy-in) Day 1 of this event kicked off yesterday and saw a 481 players battle it out for eight levels of play. 232 players remained at the end of the day and the chip leader is Tom Marchese, who bagged up 153,975 chips. Only a few other players accumulated six-figures stacks, including David "Doc" Sands (110,825) and Scott Baumstein (111,100).
In addition to the players already named above, poker stars such as Antonio Esfandiari, Chris Moorman, Vanessa Selbst and Barry Greenstein will bring healthy stacks to Day 2. Here are some big names that, unfortunately, were eliminated during Day 1: Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, Erick Lindgren, Jonathan Duhamel and Marvin Rettenmarier.
The two starting days of the European Poker Tour London Main Event are in the history books. 131 of 236 players made it through Day 1A and 225 of 411 survived Day 1B. The overall chip leader is no one else than Sergio Aido, of Spain, with 215,200 chips - about 50k more than his closest opponents.
Open-Face Chinese poker has become very popular over the past 1-2 years or so. Barry Greenstein is relatively new to the game and recently played it online using a popular App for iPhone/iPad.
"I was told then by some people that many were playing Open-Face Chinese on an app that's available for iPhones and the iPad. So when I got home I downloaded the app, and I started playing just for fun against some people. You can even play against the app itself," Greenstein wrote on his latest blog.
Last Thursday, The 2013 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship kicked off at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. However, when it was time for the 16 players from the Spades bracket to take their seats - 1 player was missing: Viktor Blom.
The American poker pro Joe Sebok, 35, has almost $2 million in live tournament earnings (no major title) and was well liked for several years when he was known more as Barry Greenstein's stepson than a poker pro.
It has been very quiet from Sebok in the past year or so and the question is if he ever will win a major tournament title - because, according to a recent interview, he spent last year at Vinify, a premium custom crush winery in Santa Rosa, California, where he worked really hard and lost almost 17 pounds during the last 3-month harvest.
On Wednesday, Barry "the Robin Hood of poker" Greenstein posted a blog on traveling to find the best games in poker. Barry wrote that he hasn't been traveling much as of late and as a result of that he has missed out on many good games.
"One of the things that I haven't done recently as much as I should have is travel to play in good games. When I was younger and single, if there was a good poker situation I found out where it was and went there, because I was free to travel. I just hopped on a plane, had some contacts, and got in the game.
A few days ago, Jeanine Deeb, World Poker Tour Development and Casino Relations Manager, Tweeted that the the American poker pro Joe Sebok (Barry Greenstein's stepson) had joined the World Poker Tour team as commentator. But the Tweet was removed shortly after and still World Poker Tour hasn't made any official statements on the matter. One thing's for sure though: the rumor has caused waves as many people don't think Sebok is the man for the job...
Faraz Jaka, who lead the way into 3 day, is once again back in the lead as Day 4 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event has come to an end with 24 remaining players. Faraz turned his 1,22 million stack into a monstrous 4,1 million stack during Day 4 - about 1,4 million more chips than his closest opponent Alex Fritzgerald.
Unfortunately Team PokerStars Pro Berry Greenstein was knocked out in 25th place for $46k. This was far from the first time that "The Robin Hood of Poker" went deep in a major tournament but missed out on the big cash. We can only wish him better luck next time.
The third day of PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) main event in Bahamas is now history. Out of the 184 players who started the day only 64 players were left with chips when the tournament crew called it a day. All of the remaining players are guaranteed to get away with at least $32,500 each. But of course that's peanuts compared to the prize money on the final table.
It's now official which poker players that were picked for Poker Hall of Fame this year. Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson, both from USA, are the new inductees who have received the honorable title that makes sure that they always will be remembered as good poker players that contributed a lot to the poker scene.
Barry Greenstein is not only known for being an extremely good and successful poker player, but also for being one of the poker world's most generous players. In fact, Greenstein has received the nickname '"The Robin Hood of Poker" thanks to all the money he has donated to charity, mainly to charities for children, throughout the years. In total, he has won over $7 million dollars in tournaments and probably even more in cash games, so one can only imagine how much money he has donated.
The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship attracted a field of 240 players. A prize pool of $2,256,000 is now up for grabs and there are 174 remaining players with the chance of taking home the first place prize of $609,130 and the coveted gold bracelet. Leading the field is Ron Ware with 122,300 chips, in 4th place is Daniel Negreanu with 99,900, and in 7th place is Barry Greenstein with 86,900.
There are many big names in the remaining field of players, so we can expect to see some really good and entertaining poker. Day 2 will start at 2:30 p.m. PDT, and the plan is to play it down to a final table of 8 players before calling it a day. Below you can find the top 10 players of the tournament.
It ended up being Daniel Idema, from Canada, who took home one of 2011's most prestigious tournaments: the $10,00 Limit Hold'em Championship. On the final table, Idema had to defeat players like Nick Schulman, who has numerous titles to his credit including a WSOP in 2009 $10k NL Deuce-to-Seven Draw event; PokerStars Pro and three-time bracelet winner Barry Greenstein; runner-up in the 2009 WSOP $40k NLHE tournament, Isaac Haxton; online sensation Justin "Boosted J" Smith. On top of that he was the only non-american on the final table.
Event #27: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship attracted a field of 152 players. Now, after 16 levels of play, there are only 24 players left. Isaac Haxton is the chip leader with a 380,000 stack. In second place is Steve Landfish with 328k chips, and Brock Parker with 280,000 in third place. Apart from Haxton, notables players like Barry Greenstein & Nick Sculman still have chips left. Unfortunately Daniel Negreanu, who was leading the tournament for some time, was knocked out in 26th place.
18 of the remaining players will receive a share from the total prize pool of $1,428,800. The winner will get not less than $378,642, and the runner-up spot pays $233,944. Now, let's hope that some big names reach the final table, which will be played tomorrow.
The WPT Festa Al Lago Main Event attracted a quite big starting field and lots of big names in the poker world when it kicked off on Friday last week. Not less than 335 players paid the buy-in of $10,300 and created a big prize pool. Now three days have passed we're down to 41 players. All of them are already in the money but of course everyone is aiming for the WPT title and the first prize of $831,500.
Players who have a good chance of making it to the final table and all the way to the tile, as it seems right now, are Steve O´Dwyer (844,500), Jeff Madsen (814,000) and Randal Flowers (795,000). All of them have played very well so far and they have the experience to take down a big tournament. There are a few other big names left in the tournament as well, but further down in the field of remaining players. Just to mention 3 of them, Annette Obrestad (395,000), Barry Greenstein (210,000) and Gavin Smith (75,000).
He's one of the richest and most successful poker players in the world, he masters all the major poker games, he's as good at playing tournaments as cash games - both live and online. Phil Ivey is the ultimate poker player and probably also the most famous one in the world right now.
So what are the downsides of being rich and famous in the poker world? Well, it doesn't seem to be a walk in the park at all times. At the 2010 WSOP for example, Phil Ivey had to hire a bodyguard because people didn't let him be alone for 1 single minute.
Even though 2-7 Draw Lowball might not be the most common and popular poker game today, it still attracted 101 players who were willing to pay $10,000 and enter Event 19 at 2010 WSOP. Among these 101 players were lots to notables - John Juanda, Erik Sagström, Christer Björin, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu etc.
Anyhow, 101 players became 72 players after the first day, and 72 players became 21 players after the second day. Among the remaining players we find huge names such as Daniel Negreanu (picture), Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, John Juanda etc. It will be a very interesting closure of the tournament with so many notables involved.
In the month of September, Thuy Doan went public with a very sad message in her blog - she had been diagnosis with cancer. Since Thuy Doan was diagnosed with cancer, she has been a break from the poker scene, but still she has continued writing in her blog about her fight against the cancer.
Now, a few months later, 16 of the world's best poker players (Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Barry Greenstein, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Bertrand "ElkY", and Grospellier - just to mention a few) shaved their heads in soldiery for her. This really shows that even after all the success these players have had, they still have huge hearts and care for other people.
There is probably nothing bigger for a poker player than getting inducted to The Poker Hall of Fame. Its a proof that one has been a really successful player that have stood the test of time and contributed to the game of poker. The nominated players this year are the following.
Daniel Negreanu keeps on losing big money in the popular TV show High Stakes Poker. In the last episode of high stakes poker he lost everything he had on the table so he had to re-buy for another $200,000 to stay in the high stakes game with blinds of $400/$800.
Curious to know what it's like to win millions of dollars playing poker and to be sponsored by the world's largest poker site? You can stop wondering because BankrollMob is now giving you the unique opportunity to ask five members of Team PokerStars Pro (Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel) yourself!
Poker Hall Of Fame member and Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein has been around the poker scene (with huge success) for a very long time and many consider him a living legend thanks to his contributions to the game. Already back in 1991, Barry made so much money playing poker that he was able to retire from his day job to become a full-time poker pro instead.
Day 1A and 1B of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event have been played over the weekend. German player Hendrik Latz will lead the remaining 358 players into Day 2 with 191,600 in chips.
Last Thursday, The 2013 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship kicked off at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. However, when it was time for the 16 players from the Spades bracket to take their seats - 1 player was missing: Viktor Blom.
The American poker pro Joe Sebok, 35, has almost $2 million in live tournament earnings (no major title) and was well liked for several years when he was known more as Barry Greenstein's stepson than a poker pro.
