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Poker with Barry Greenstein

Barry Greenstein, "The Robin Hood of Poker," has been one of the world's top high-stakes cash-game players for years. Known for his grace under big-money pressure and being able to stay focused during long, grueling sessions at the table, Greenstein has also gained notoriety for donating his tournament winnings to charity. Those tournament wins include the 2006 WPT Invitational, the Five-Star World Poker Classic (WPT season 2) and the 2004 World Poker Open. He owns bracelets in pot-limit Omaha and deuce-to-seven lowball. Here are some tips from the man himself:

Question: Is there a special strategy for the world series?

Answer: The way it usually goes in a long tournament is you are altering your strategy day by day. Sometimes you decide that you were in there gambling too much, or you bluffed your chips off, so the next tournament you might say, "Ok, I better tighten up a little the first two rounds." Normally I try to play relatively tight in the no-limit tournaments until the antes come in, but sometimes my gambling gets the best of me and I end up pushing people around. As I always say: In poker most of what you do is adapting to the players at your table and their style. So, if people are going to let me rob them, then I'm going to do it. If people are in there pushing their chips around, then I am going to try to pick them off. If you are a good player you don't really have a set strategy because you have to alter it according to people at the table.

Question: How do you stay sharp on the tournament circuit?

Answer: Well, I'm often not sharp. People often see me on TV and they say, "Boy, he looks pretty tired,' and a lot of times they say I don't look that good and what is often the case is I played poker all night the night before because I play in the side games. So for myself that's probably my biggest, I don't want to say "fault," but the biggest difference between myself and a lot of the other tournament players. I'm doing other things. I'm not just playing tournaments. A lot of these people are talking about the grind of the World Series, but all they are doing is playing tournaments and then resting up. I'm playing side games, doing interviews, I have a lot of media responsibilities, I just signed on with PokerStars, they want me to do things, people want me to do book signings, things like that.

When I come home at night I answer 50 e-mails before I go to bed, so to just play tournaments, I can't believe some of these wimps talking about what a grind it is playing 45 days of the World Series and they are getting tired out and having to skip events. I'm playing throughout the day till I go home, but I'm used to it. I've been doing it for years, so I guess it's easier for me than some of these other players just because of the experience I have, so I don't have to expend as much brain energy as some of the other people when I play.

Question: What would be the most important strategy for someone to learn to take his game to the next level?

Answer: In tournaments, it's to learn when to be aggressive. Passive players don't win tournaments, aggressive players do. You see a lot of players who look like total maniacs, but the fact that they are aggressive means that they are going to hit sometime. Doing well in tournaments isn't about lasting seven hours and being short on chips and barely making it into the money. It's winning sometimes, making the final table. You have to take chances, you have to rise up when you think your opponents are weak and can't call a raise. You have to play back at them sometimes. It's learning when to play back and learning when to play your opponent's hand more than your own.