Barry Greenstein is one of the most famous poker players in the world, and, unlike some of the ones dominating the camera’s spotlight on television, he also happens to be one of the best. On his website, barrygreenstein.com, he provides analysis and ratings of his own play along with that of the world’s other outstanding players. Since age 36, when he left his job at software company Symantec, he has been playing poker full time. Career wise, he estimates winning 75 percent of his no limit hold ‘em sessions, and 58 percent of his limit ones. Mr. Greenstein has donated a large portion of his winnings to Children, Incorporated which is why he is sometimes referred to as “The Robin Hood of Poker.” In this interviewer’s opinion, Mr. Greenstein, along with Ted Forrest, came off as one of the the most likable and honorable of the professionals described in Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time. While being a master of the felt, he is also an author. His picturesque and informative, Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide, got its name from the card which earned him the 2004 World Poker Tour title at Tunica. Doyle Brunson noted that the text was “like candy to a poker player.”

BC: Mr. Greenstein, thank you so much for your time. My first question concerns your status as a celebrity. Television fueled the poker boom, but it did so principally by covering tournaments (High Stakes Poker came later). As someone who is primarily a cash game player, was it ESP that suddenly led you to begin competing in tournaments at just the right time?

Barry Greenstein: I was invited to play in the Poker Superstars tournament on FSN as one of the eight best players in the world. I was chosen because of my cash game results. The producers mentioned that the public didn’t know me well because I hadn’t played in many tournaments. I told the producers I would play in some before the show aired and I would win some.

Then, when I decided to give the tournament winnings to charity, it spurred me on to keep playing in big tournaments.

BC: Along these lines, what do you find most and least appealing about fame? A few years ago you were known only to the elite, but now, due to ESPN and The Travel Channel, you’re probably recognized practically everywhere.

Barry Greenstein: It’s all good, really. People are nice to me wherever I go.

BC: My compliments on your book, Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide. I really enjoyed it. You have a beautiful chapter within called “Gambling and Productive Society,” and I always use your argument that government sponsored lotteries are a far bigger scam than poker or most casino games. For those who haven’t read it, why is this true?

Barry Greenstein: Any time politicians are involved in gambling, their motives are questionable. Gamblers, on the other hand, need to be honorable or they will be ostracized.

BC: Speaking of government, what’s your opinion of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA)? Do you think that, eventually, Americans will be banned from playing online all together?

Barry Greenstein: This law came into effect because the politicians weren’t getting their share of the money. When they do, online poker will become legalized and regulated.

BC: Do you think that the online ban might spell the end of the poker boom? Will it alienate the general public and decrease their level of interest?

Barry Greenstein: It will indirectly. The online sites were the deep pockets that were financing the poker boom. Not because they were putting people in tournaments, but because they were the number one advertisers for poker programming. If that money stops flowing, we will see less poker on television and less interest from the general public.

BC: In the same chapter, you label poker as an “inherently nonproductive profession” which is the reason why you so generously donate your profits from tournament wins to charities. Aren’t you selling poker a bit short here? I mean, most people don’t produce vaccines that save lives or do things preventing the extinction of species. Most of our occupations are rather mundane.

Barry Greenstein: There are many other non-productive professions also. I never said that playing poker was a bad job, it’s just not my idea of making a contribution to society or civilization.

BC: I have to ask you, what’s the attraction of playing in the big game? Many of us on the outside looking in simply can’t understand. Why would a professional want to sit down with other amazingly talented peers each and every night? How much of it is ego driven? Aren’t the swings incredibly frustrating?

Barry Greenstein: I play if I think I’m the favorite. It has nothing to do with ego. I’d rather play against rich bad players, but normally people who play for high stakes are better players than people who play for lower stakes.

BC: I’m not asking you to name names or anything, but how much of the poker instructional literature fails in making readers better players?

Barry Greenstein: I don’t read much of the literature, but I assume most of it is written for beginning and intermediate players, and there are probably some valuable ideas for the readers to think about, but not accept blindly.

BC: Like Bill Chen and Jarrod Ankenman, who just wrote The Mathematics of Poker, you also have a math background. How much of your play is mathematically based? Overall, how essential is math to success?

Barry Greenstein: Math is not the key to success, but logical thinking is, and the two are correlated.

BC: Thanks so much for your time, sir.

Team Full Tilt continues to be one of the true forces on the tournament poker and online poker scenes. Already boasting a contingent of the finest players in the world (including former World Champion Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey and Jennifer Harman, among others), Tuesday brought the announcement of their official thirteenth member in the form of one of the best young players in the world in Allen Cunningham.

Allen has been competing at the professional level for almost a quarter of his twenty nine years. Since starting out seven years ago, Cunningham has won tournaments around the world and competed on both the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker stages. In total, Allen stands among the Top Ten in money earnings over his career with well over $8 million in winnings.

His greatest stage has been that at the World Series, however. Cunningham has racked up four bracelet wins, including one each in the past two years of the tournament. His performance at the 2005 World Series (where he won one event, final tabled at three others and cashed in another event) earned him the 2005 World Series of Poker Player of the Year award. His finest moment, though, definitely came this summer, when Allen was able to take another bracelet and also was able to outlast almost the entirety of the Main Event field of 8,773 before succumbing to the onslaught of eventual champion Jamie Gold and finishing fourth.

“Allen Cunningham has simply been the best all-around player at the WSOP over the last two years. Team Full Tilt is honored to welcome such an accomplished player to its ranks,” said Howard Lederer, fellow Team Full Tilt member. With Cunningham now on the roster, the “official” members of Team Full Tilt now total thirteen and another three dozen professionals have a loose association with the online site. Of the fifty men and women on the roles of Full Tilt, 67 WSOP bracelets are represented.

Full Tilt is also one of the online sites that those associated with the team can actually be found playing at. They can be playing in the free rooms, the micro and low limit games and the upper echelons of the cash games and always are around for the tournament action that the site offers. With the addition of Allen Cunningham to their roster, those online tables just got a whole lot more difficult.

An early-morning robbery attempt on a Toronto social-club poker game recently went awry, when police responded to a call-in about the heist in time to locate and chase the robbers’ fleeing van.

About eighteen players where participating in the overnight game at Toronto’s Thornhill Club when two masked, armed robbers burst in at about 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, a third waiting in the getaway van behind the club. The two reportedly ‘roughed up’ the players while relieving the game of its cash and valuables, but someone, likely one of the players, managed to alert police, who responded in time to see the van leaving the area.

Having identified the van, trailing officers signaled it to pull over. The van slowed momentarily, seeming to comply, before speeding away. A high-speed chase ensued and moved onto a local freeway, the 401. Here, one of the van’s passengers rolled down a window and fired on the pursuing offices, who then broke off the chase; neither officers nor vehicles were hit.

However, the police had already identified one or more of the likely robbers, with two of them being arrested shortly thereafter and the third picked up around noon on Wednesday in Toronto’s London suburb. The three robbers, Omar Jermaine Betty, 25, Ryan Shields, 26, and Ezra Lottery, 21, face a total of 130 charges between them, including attempted murder, armed robbery and forcible confinement. The three were denied bail in their initial hearings, and will return to court next week.

Game Show Network (GSN) has 2 early presents for poker players: the Ultimatebet.net Aruba Classic on Friday, December 8 at 10 PM ET and new footage from its popular poker series in the Best of High Stakes Poker Monday, December 11 at 8 PM ET.

December 8 TV: Over 500 poker players paid their $5,000 + $200 buy-in during September to play in the no-limit Texas hold’em tournament at the Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, and for their share of the $2.6 million in prize money. Six players made the final table: Jason Atwood (Tualatin, OR), Jared Brintz (Tampa, FL), Terry Eischens (Shakopee, MN), Cliff Josephy (Syosset, NY), Devon Miller (Los Angeles, CA) and Joe Sebok (San Francisco, CA).

Calling the action from the final table is one of the top tournament players of all-time, Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth will be joined by one of the top female poker players in the world, Annie Duke, as well as the best selling author and poker expert John Vorhaus on the telecast.

December 11 TV: High Stakes Poker has become the favorite show for poker fans with players risking their own cash and huge pots. The first two seasons have featured pots of over $300,000 and over a half million dollars. Unlike tournament poker shows, High Stakes Poker is the only “Cash Game” on television.

The “BEST OF” show on December 11 will feature the most memorable moments and never before seen footage from the first two seasons. It will also include interviews with the players as they talk about their play on the show and the plays of their opponents. AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan reprise their regular roles for this special.

Q. Where can I play online poker from the US?

A. We recommend 6 poker rooms that will not ban U.S citizens after the Port Security Bill, that may affect online gaming, is signed: Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Poker.com, Absolute Poker, MANSION Poker and Bodog. Please take the time to read the reviews.

PokerStars
Poker Stars is the largest poker room on the net and is still accepting players from the US. PokerStars is home to the World Championship of Online Poker and is a great alternative to Party Poker.

Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is still actively marketing to U.S players. FullTilt poker is in the top 3 sites in the US and is home to many of the U.S. poker pros you see on the circuit.

Poker.com
Poker.com is an independent poker room that is run out of Australia. Poker.com are still taking U.S players.

Absolute Poker
Absolute Poker is another site that will accept U.S players.

Bodog
Bodog is well known to U.S citizens and they are still taking U.S players. Bodog is one of the largest sportsbetting and poker sites on the net, and U.S Citizens are still welcome.

MANSION Poker
MANSION Poker is another independent poker room and is run from Gibraltar.