World Poker Tour

Barry Greenstein “Robin Hood of Poker“

Birthplace
Chicago, IL

Hometown
Ranchos Palos Verde, CA

Birthday
December 30

Total Winnings
$2,296,284

One-time Symantec software designer and math PhD Barry Greenstein grew up in Chicago, but eventually made his way out west and into the world of poker. His early years, however, consisted of obtaining a computer science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then the PhD in mathematics. He retired from Symantec in 1991 at the age of 36, which was when he took the game that his father taught him at a young age and made it into a lucrative career. Now known for his charity work and nickname "Robin Hood of Poker," Greenstein says people wrongly assumed he cashed out of Symantec a rich man. That was not the case. He made his poker roll playing poker.

Greenstein is one of the world's top tournament and cash game players. While only the IRS knows how much Greenstein makes in the cash games, his tournament winnings (more than $2.3 million on the World Poker Tour alone) are well-documented and add up to nearly $6 million. He has cashed in more than ten WPT events, including earning two first place finishes. In addition, he has cashed in 32 World Series of Poker events, two of which were bracelet wins. Greenstein continues to donate a portion of his net tournament winnings to charity, most of which goes Children Incorporated, an organization that sponsors some 15,000 children in 21 countries.

While Greenstein continues to travel the global tournament circuit and play in some of the biggest cash games in the world, most notably in the Big Game at Bellagio with fellow high-stakes players like Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Eli Elezra, and Daniel Negreanu. He is the celebrated author of Ace on the River, a book about the poker lifestyle that he has made a habit of signing each time a player busts him during a tournament. In his spare time, he attends to his family and just began a business venture with son Joe Sebok to launch the popular PokerRoad website. has also turned him into the celebrated author of Ace on the River.