Barry Greenstein Wins WPT “Poker by the Book”

It took a little bit of luck, but Barry Greenstein notched his third World Poker Tour crown Friday night, defeating five other poker book authors in the special “Poker by the Book” invitational.  His other two WPT titles are the 2004 Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica and the WPT Invitation and the L.A. Poker Classic in 2006m which was a similar six-player event. 

The other competitors included three World Series of Poker champions, Tom McEvoy, Johnny Chan, and Dan Harrington, and two WPT title holders, Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu.  The tournament was winner-take-all, with a $25,000 entry into the 2008 WPT Championship on the line.  So, it was not the most serious tournament in the world ($25,000 is not much money to this crowd), but the competitive drive was still evident. 

Just over a third of the way through the tournament, Greenstein had amassed a dominant chip stack, thanks to the poker gods showering him with flushes.  First, Chan had him all-in with top pair against Greenstein’s flush draw and the river doubled-up Greenstein.  Shortly thereafter, immediately following consecutive hands in which Chan and Negreanu were eliminated, Esfandiari was all-in pre-flop with pocket Aces against Greenstein’s A-J of clubs.  The flush appeared on the turn, serving up the bad beat of the day. 

Greenstein proceeded to eliminate Harrington with K-Q versus K-3 and went into heads-up with McEvoy with a huge lead.  McEvoy was able to double-up once, but was eventually done in by a poorly timed bluff.  On a board of 7-5-3-3, McEvoy pushed with K-J, but unfortunately for him, Greenstein was waiting with 7-5.  No Jack or King fell on the river and Greenstein was the champ.

Originally published 12:30 AM Friday, May 04, 2007