Friday, 29th March 2024 10:50
Home / Uncategorized / It’s not about the money: Greenstein wins second Sunday Billion

It’s often said by the best players that it’s not about the money, and in many cases they’re right. It’s the competition that is most important to them, succeeding in the toughest of poker arenas, and the vindication that comes with it. That’s the real prize (particularly if you’ve won a fair amount already).

But such talk is difficult to prove, and can often sound disingenuous. There is then only one place you really can prove that it’s not about the money, the world of play money poker. And if one player has proven this point it’s Barry Greenstein, who last week won his second Sunday Billion tournament in the space of five weeks.

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You might think that a play money tournament, even one with a million chip entry fee, would be a walkover for someone of Greenstein’s caliber – what with three bracelets, more than $8 million in tournament earnings, and decades in the game. But it’s worth remembering how difficult such competitions really are.

For one thing play money is almost a different game. With nothing to lose, save the inconvenience of losing part of your play money bankroll, the action is of a volatile nature, and the field must be approached with caution. Then there is the field size itself, which last week amounted to 938. In any circumstances that sort of crowd makes winning more difficult.

And then of course to win the Sunday Billion these days you also have to beat Greenstein himself. But even if you can’t manage that the experience is always memorable.

“People continually thank me for playing with them when I play in play money games,” said Greenstein after his first win. “They are serious recreational players and wouldn’t ever have a chance to play with a professional player if some of us didn’t take some time to play in events like these.”

But even to a player of Greenstein’s stature, a win is a win, and in this case, as he said last month, it’s not about the money.

“It’s always fun to win when you’ve conditioned yourself to be a successful poker player,” he said. “Of course I realize it’s not real money but you can sometimes just view online play, whether for cash or for fun, as playing to get bigger numbers on the screen than your opponents, which is kind of like playing a video game.”

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The unstoppable Barry Greenstein


For the records, Greenstein won 143,780,000 play money chips this time round. If you’ve got a million play money chips spare for the buy-in you can join in this Sunday. Find out how to play the biggest play money tournament in poker on the Sunday Billion homepage.


Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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