Don’t be fooled by Barry Greenstein. He may look as though he’s one nightcap away from 40 winks, but beyond that sleepy exterior lies a sharp poker brain, and one that is always alert and ready to make the best decision possible. With a set of results longer than Mr Tickle’s arm, Greenstein has plenty to brag about, including a WPT title, three WSOP bracelets and over $6.5 million in tournament winnings. What’s more, he has joined an elite group of ‘poker celebrities’, his constant TV exposure on shows like High Stakes Poker and his current role as a Team PokerStars Pro making him one of the most recognisable, and respected faces in the game, albeit a grizzly one. With that in mind, when the opportunity to meet the man they call the ‘Robin Hood of Poker’ emerged, I grasped my notepad and pen and listened intently to what the former programmer had to say.

Snoopy: How did you first get into poker? Has it always been your dream to become a professional poker player?

Barry Greenstein: Well, I’ve been playing poker since I was 12, but never did I establish the idea that I’d be playing professionally, I just knew that I was good at it and that I could make money.

I was actually more focused on golf and was at the point where I was hitting rounds of 60. But college got in the way and that fell by the wayside somewhat. Could I have made a career from it? It’s probably too easy to say I could have been a pro golfer.

Snoopy: Did you start poker with money? How did you build your ‘roll?

BG: What people don’t realise is that I was playing cash game poker way before I became a name on the tournament scene. It wasn’t until I started appearing on TV that I became a recognisable face and that’s when people say that I started playing poker with a big bankroll, but I’d been playing winning poker for years previous.

I was actually relatively well-known within poker circles, but not as a tournament player. My first TV appearance was on a show called Poker Stars, but I was invited as a cash player. Because I wasn’t known as a tournament player, I decided to play tournaments for the six months before the show, and within that time I managed to win a tournament.

Snoopy: Did tournaments become a focus for you at that point, or was your poker living still centred around cash games?

BG: The cash games had actually dried up a bit because tournament poker was becoming so popular. So much money was going into tournaments, that cash games became less lucrative. Many of the weak players would invest in the tournaments instead and try to qualify via satellites. In that sense, the cash games were actually financially better for me before the poker boom.

Snoopy: Considering your background in mathematics, does your game revolve around mathematics or are you more focused on feel and extracting reads?

BG: I’m actually more of a ‘feel’ player, but I do understand the importance of mathematics in terms of the basic fundamentals. For me, it’s much more qualitative than quantative. I’ve always been good at solving problems.

In No Limit, I often go with my instinct and the reads I have on my opponents, otherwise I feel like I can only get worse as a player. If I’m wrong, then it’s more a case that the risk just wasn’t worth the reward.

Snoopy: You have quickly become a celebrity player. Was this ever part of your plan as one of the quieter players, or did it just happen?

Poker has always been my job and my source of income, so earning money is the first and foremost objective. I never really looked at poker as something that could elevate me as an individual, it just wasn’t of any interest to me.

Snoopy: Are there any negatives to being a ‘celebrity’ player?

BG: I have to say that there really aren’t too many drawbacks to being a known player in the game. I just like being nice to nice people and I meet a lot of nice people as a recognisable face. I get to go to a lot of great places and enjoy my life in poker. It’s not as if I’m hounded or anything like a movie star might be. I know some players that aren’t that keen on the spotlight, but I don’t mind it. I used to joke with Phil Ivey when he started signing autographs, but then people started asking me!

Snoopy: Do you think that some of those players who don’t like the spotlight that accept sponsorship, are doing anything wrong by not being a ‘people person’?

BG: Well, I don’t like to answer for any of these players, but I do personally recognise the importance of being friendly and amicable as it is an aspect that should go along with the sponsorship.

I sometimes joke with the PokerStars guys about the interviews, but these things are a part of my job. I speak to so many different people from such a wide range of nationalities that even if the questions are the same, they sound different and are asked differently. It’s also part of my job to make the answers interesting. It’s important to remember that I’m not just talking to the interviewers, but the whole readership as a whole, so I try to make my answers fun.

Snoopy: Did you worry that being a recognisable face in the game would affect your cash game earnings?

I was initially hesitant because I had no real interest in showing everyone that I was a winner. I would often say to people that I was losing. My wife had to handle my approach, but I’d just say, ‘Look, I’m the big winner in the games I play, we have the stats in the records I keep.’ Being recognisable changed things though, because I could no longer hide this fact and it meant that I would no longer get into some of the lucrative private games. I used to sneak my way into some of those games, and even wear a suit when I went to play.

Snoopy: You play a range of games? Which is your strongest and which is your favourite? Do you ever feel like you should focus on one game?

BG: I played Limit for a long period of time, and still do even now, but my strongest game is very much dependent on my opponents rather than my own abilities. I play for money, not for fun. I don’t go into a cardroom and think which game will be the most enjoyable to play, it’s about making a profit. It’s all a question of where can I make the money, so if I do play for fun, it’s more likely to be some of the smaller comps on PokerStars. They have a $165 tournament at six [o’clock], so I sometimes like to play that.

Snoopy: Playing poker for so long though, do you ever get bored or tired of the game?

BG: Losing certainly isn’t fun and when I have money, there’s the potential to lose your motivation somewhat.

Snoopy: Why did you start giving out your book to opponents who eliminate you? Have you ever refused to give a signed book to your assassin because you don’t like them?

BG: Just before the book was released, I had a few pre-printed copies on me that weren’t quite good enough for sale, whether that was because the binding wasn’t quite correct or whatever. Jokingly, one guy asked if he could have one of those books, and then added, ‘Can I have one if I knock you out, like a bounty or something?’ He then went on to knock me out and, of course, I gave him the book. The next time, someone else would say, ‘Hey, you gave this guy a book when he knocked you out, can I have one?’

I don’t think I’ve ever given a book to someone I didn’t like. It’s not personal, I always write the same thing in the book, so it’s not as if I’d say, ‘How could you call, you moron?’ To be honest, there aren’t many people in poker that I don’t like. You learn to coexist with a range of different people, and if there’s someone that I don’t like, the way I fight them is through poker hands and beating them at the table. I probably don’t like anyone when I get knocked out.

Snoopy: If you could steal one skill from an opponent, who would that player be and what skill would you steal?

BG: There really is no one player that I would like to steal a skill from as such. I’m much more about emulating people and mimicking skills that I feel need development. I’m prefer to remain focused on my game rather than other people’s.

The most continual battle I have with myself is when, in tournaments, I should be gambling to accumulate chips and when I should remain patient. I’ve found that the European players are more aggressive, but in other places, like the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, there are a lot of online pros and people play much tighter. The reason I didn’t start attacking though in that tournament is because I thought the field was so large that there would be a good number of weaker players and that I could take advantage.

In the first WPT that I succeeded in, I pretty much stayed out of trouble for the whole tournament. I actually had 15 situations where one of us had overcards and the other the pair, and I won every single one of them. The second WPT was an invitational, I played a looser game and gambled more.

Snoopy: Is High Stakes Poker a good representation of a high stakes game? Do people play the same off camera?

BG: When we’re not on High Stakes Poker, we actually play a number of games that work on a rotational basis, so in that sense, it’s not very realistic at all. The games we normally play also have a cap, say $75,000, and we don’t even play much No Limit.

I think some of the players do play up to the cameras, but they are encouraged to do so. Sammy and Eli for example like to have fun on there.

Snoopy: As someone who plays for a living, why do you play High Stakes Poker when the opposition is so tough?

BG: I actually play High Stakes Poker because I believe there to be some weak players on the show. If you look at all the sessions I played in the first few series, I actually ended up playing the good players and tended to miss out on the weak players. The producers also said that there would be more weak players than there actually were, but several businessmen who would have brought a lot of value to the table cancelled at the last minute. If they ask me if I want to play it, then I say sure, but only if I can make some money from my opposition.

Snoopy: How far out of their bankrolls were people playing in the big $500,000 High Stakes Poker game?

BG: The only guy who could afford to play that game was Guy. Patrik had a refill in him, but only because he’d been doing so well online. Everyone else just had the one bullet though. Poker players really don’t have as much cash as people think, as we tend to invest in a lot of things rather than just keep the money.

Again, we were promised some weak players in this game, but it didn’t quite work out like that. Jamie Gold seems to get way too much criticism on High Stakes Poker, but you know, he enjoys playing and there’s nothing wrong with that. He has a background in show business, so likes to entertain. Even Guy’s capable. He may not be a pro, but he didn’t earn all that money by being stupid.

Snoopy: How did you break your son into the game? Any specific tips, advice or words of warning?

BG: In our family we tend to share money, but I advised Joe to make sure that he keeps some money separate to what he spends on poker and then use his winnings to finance his game. I just didn’t want him to become lazy.

Snoopy: As someone who has donated great amounts, do you think poker does enough to help various charities? What do you recommend is done to change this?

BG: I never really wanted the focus to be on me as an individual, I always intended it to be something that the poker community as a whole became involved in. I hoped it would be a muti-pronged attack.

There is a lot of money in poker, but this doesn’t mean the player should be expected to aid charities. They are still trying to earn a living, and the circuit as a whole can be very expensive. It’s a tough way to make a living, so a lot more should come from the corporate side of the industry. My philosophy is that the people who should help are the people who can afford it.

Snoopy: What is the one thing in poker that annoys you the most and what would you like to change about the modern game?

BG: I really don’t like jerks at the table who are rude to the other players. I also wish the players didn’t have to foot the bill for so much. Poker can be an expensive game with the fees going up so frequently. It would be nice if things like transport and accommodation were paid for somehow. I’m lucky, because as a sponsored pro I get all those things paid for me. There isn’t much of a share in wealth in poker. I don’t mind it being a business, but just wish more could be given back to the players.

Snoopy: Do you think there are too many tournaments or that the buy-ins are too high?

BG: Well, no, because it’s a supply and demand thing. If players are turning up to the events, then there’s not really a problem, that’s just how it works. I’ve probably spent over three million just in tournament entries, but you don’t have to play them all, and there are plenty of satellites available for those who can’t afford to buy in directly.

Snoopy: After winning so much, do you still get pumped up for poker?

BG: Definitely, I’m not independently wealthy like most people think, so the money’s great. I’m also a very competitive person and even if it were a small buy-in comp, I’d be vying for first place. If I didn’t compete, I wouldn’t play. Even when Joe [Sebok] was young I’d play basketball with him and I’d be out of breath because I’d try to win so much. If you and I went outside and played tennis, you’d get my very best.