WSOP Event #16: Barry Greenstein report

Barry Greenstein and I have fallen into a little routine, in which he calls me at some ungodly hour to report on his day. I don't mind, because, like him, I don't sleep much when I'm at the World Series of Poker. So, here's how Barry ended up in the money and down to the final three tables of the $10,000 PLO event

Barry Greenstein isn't an action junkie. He's just the type of guy that likes to play as many WSOP events as he can. As such, when he goes deep in an event, there's a good chance he'll end up having to play two tournaments the next day...at the same time.

So, when Greenstein went deep and into Day 2 of the $1,000 re-buy event, he had to formulate a strategy on how to stay alive in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event. The plan was to play fast, build a nice stack, and hope his stack could survive on its own when he went over to play in the $1,000 rebuy event.

As it turned out, that plan worked out pretty well. Early in play, Greenstein got involved in a hand with Ted Forrest.

"Unfortunately for Ted Forrest, I flopped top set," Greenstein said. It very well may be that Forrest knew Greenstein would be playing pretty fast, because Forrest paid off Greenstein. The plan was working just fine.

And then came the snag. As the World Cup match started reaching its conclusion, the entire tournament stopped so the players could watch the big TVs around the room. With little time to spare until the $1,000 rebuy re-started, the World Cup was taking away precious time from Greenstein's plan. By and by, Greenstein finally had to stand up, say "seeya later" to his PLO stack and head over to Day 2 of the $1,000 re-buy.

He played in Day 2 of the rebuy for two hours when he finally got AJ all-in against Kathy Liebert's AT. She spiked a ten on the river. It was bittersweet. After all, while getting rivered is never fun, Greenstein had cashed and could now return to his stack in the PLO event.

Back to work, Greenstein played hard and late with the other Omaha players. Finally, at around 3am, the players made the money and the final three tables. Greenstein had worked his way up to around an average chip stack. Most of the players were pleased to hear that they wouldn't have to return until 3pm.

Well, Greenstein is going to have to be back a little earlier than that.

"Of course, I'll be double dipping again," Greenstein said. "I won't get as much sleep as the others."

That's because the monster 2700-player $1,000 no-limit hold'em event started today at noon. Greenstein came back for that and will likely employ the same strategy again. Build a stack and let it wait while he plays in Day 2 of the Omaha event.

Let's hope it works out again.

Addendum: Okay, so it didn't work out as well today. Greenstein was eliminated in the first hour of play. Now, he can return his focus to the PLO event.