Barry Greenstein and Linda
Johnson
Join Poker’s Most
Exclusive Fraternity
Official Induction
Ceremony to be held Tuesday, November 8th at 4:30 pm
Inside Rio’s Penn
& Teller Theater Prior to Conclusion of WSOP® Main Event Final Table
LAS
VEGAS (October
27, 2011) – One is known as
“The Robin Hood of Poker.” The other is “The First Lady of
Poker.” Come November 8, 2011, both can add “Poker Hall of
Fame” to their illustrious resumes.
Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson will become the 41st and
42nd individuals to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
The two newest members were initially nominated by the general public and then voted
in by a 35-person panel made up of existing Poker Hall of Famers and members of
the media.
Johnson becomes just the second female to be bestowed the honor, joining
Barbara Enright who was inducted in 2007.
Both Greenstein and Johnson were among the finalists for the honor in
2010. This year, both players successfully garnered enough votes to
become the game’s newest members.
Greenstein and Johnson will be officially inducted on Tuesday,
November 8 at the Rio All-Suite® Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas just prior to
the start of the final playing session of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main
Event Championship.
The special induction ceremony and celebration will take place at 4:30
PM inside the Penn & Teller Theater and will immediately precede the
three-handed finale.
It is fitting that these two exemplary individuals will be enshrined
together. Both possess impressive tournament and cash game success, over
many years. But it is perhaps their tireless efforts away from the green felt
that have more profoundly impacted the game of poker, fostered the image of the
game, and contributed to its growth and good sportsmanship.
"I am extremely proud and humbled to be voted into the Poker Hall
of Fame,” said Johnson. “I feel lucky to have been involved
in many facets of poker over the past 35 years. Being recognized by the
industry is a tremendous honor.”
"I'm happy to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside my friend
Linda Johnson who has been the most fervent ambassador for poker for as long as
I can remember,” Greenstein said.
The Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council would sincerely like to
congratulate the other 2011 finalists -- all whom remain eligible for future
induction: Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, John Juanda, Marcel Luske,
Jack McClelland, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen and Huck Seed.
Greenstein has amassed more than $7.5 million in worldwide poker
tournament winnings and for nine consecutive years has won at least six figures
on the tournament circuit. Greenstein possesses three World Series of
Poker bracelets, two WPT titles, and also plays in many of the highest stakes
cash games in the world.
The 56-year-old Greenstein was born in Chicago,
Illinois and earned his Bachelor’s
degree in Computer Science from the University
of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. He also studied for his PhD in Mathematics, but never
defended his completed dissertation. He learned poker and other card
games from his parents while growing up in the Scottsdale
neighborhood of Chicago.
Barry went to work for a start-up company named Symantec in the
1980’s in Silicon Valley,
California and was part of the
team that developed its first product called Q&A. The system provided
both a word processer and a database and was cited as a significant step in
making computers more user-friendly and less intimidating. Greenstein is
credited with developing the word processing component of Q&A. He left
Symantec in 1991 at age 36 to play poker full-time.
It was 1992 when Barry entered his first poker tournament, the World
Series of Poker Main Event, where he finished in 22nd place.
Barry is also the author of the widely-acclaimed poker book Ace on the River, and as is his personal trademark,
Greenstein autographs a copy of the book for players in tournaments that
eliminate him.
Greenstein is a father of six, including four stepchildren, and has made
a career of donating to child-focused charities. He has donated more than
$3 million to various charities through his poker winnings, earning him his
nickname “The Robin Hood of Poker”.
He currently resides in Rancho Palos Verdes,
California, and can be found in California and Las
Vegas card rooms and the world’s largest poker
tournaments.
This year’s other inductee – Linda Johnson is a 58-year-old
poker player originally from Long Island, New York, now living in Las Vegas who captured her WSOP gold bracelet
in 1997 in a Seven-Card Razz event. Johnson is one of only 15 females to
capture a WSOP open event championship, and she has seven WSOP final table appearances
on her poker resume.
Nicknamed “The First Lady of Poker” by fellow Poker Hall of
Famer Mike Sexton, Johnson has been a leading force in the poker world for much
of her life. She began playing poker in the 1970s after buying some poker books
and teaching herself how to play.
Linda was immediately enthralled with poker
and had a special ability for the game. She entered the World Series of Poker
Ladies seven-card stud tournament in 1980, deciding in advance that if she
performed well, she would quit her high-level job at the United States Post
Office and move to Las Vegas
to become a professional poker player. As fate would have it, Linda finished
fifth in the tournament and promptly gave her two-week notice. She moved to Las Vegas and played poker
full time from 1980-1993, one of just a handful of women who played the game
professionally during those years.
These days, Linda enjoys teaching WPT Boot
Camp and regularly hosts poker seminars and tournaments at many cardrooms
around the country. She is a partner in Card Player Cruises and has hosted more
than 90 poker cruises to destinations around the world.
But Johnson really made her mark and blazed a trail for other poker
players by parlaying her poker acumen into ventures off the felt.
In 1993, Linda purchased Card Player
magazine. Over the next eight years, the magazine grew from a 68-page, black
and white newsprint publication into a 132-page, full-color, glossy magazine.
As publisher, Linda became an ambassador for the poker world, traveling to more
than 200 cardrooms around the world, always personifying class and
professionalism and consistently setting new standards of excellence.
She has co-written three poker books and
was instrumental in helping to establish many influential poker projects -- including
the World Poker Industry Conference, the World Poker Players Conference, and
the Tournament Directors Association. Her next project was helping to establish
the World Poker Tour for which she had the role of studio announcer during its
first six seasons. Her involvement in promoting poker led to being chosen as
the original chairperson for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), a leading
lobbying group in Washington,
DC.
Linda is currently on the Board of
Directors for the PPA and the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS). Already a member of the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame (inducted in
2008), Johnson co-founded PokerGives.org
as a way to assist poker players to donate to worthwhile charitable causes
using the game of poker as the platform.
The Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council is
delighted with these two fine choices and congratulates both Barry Greenstein
and Linda Johnson on their well-deserved selection and induction.
The Poker Hall of Fame, established in 1979, was
acquired by Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars) along with the World
Series of Poker, in 2004. Though the Hall of Fame is virtual in nature,
its membership includes poker's most influential players and other important
contributors to the game. There are now 20 living members.
The main criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame are as follows:
- A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
- Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination [to be known as the “Chip Reese” rule, adopted in 2011, 20 years after Reese’s induction at age 40]
- Played for high stakes
- Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
- Stood the test of time
- Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.
The entire list of 42 Poker Hall of Fame members includes (alphabetical
with year of induction in parenthesis):
o
Tom Abdo (1982)
o
Crandell Addington
(2005)
o
Bobby Baldwin (2003)
o
Billy Baxter (2006)
o
Lyle Berman (2002)
o
Joe Bernstein (1983)
o
Benny Binion (1990)
o
Jack Binion (2005)
o
Bill Boyd (1981)
o
Doyle Brunson (1988)
o
Johnny Chan (2002)
o
T.J. Cloutier (2006)
o
Nick Dandolos (1979)
o
Barbara Enright
(2007)
o
Fred
“Sarge” Ferris (1989)
o
T
“Blondie” Forbes (1980)
o
Henry Green (1986)
o
Barry Greenstein
(2011)
o
Dan Harrington
(2010)
o
Murph Harrold (1984)
o
Phil Hellmuth (2007)
o
James Butler
“Wild Bill” Hickok (1979)
o
Red Hodges (1985)
o
Edmond Hoyle (1979)
o
Linda Johnson (2011)
o
Berry Johnston
(2004)
o
Jack Keller (1993)
o
Felton McCorquodale
(1979)
o
Roger Moore (1997)
o
Johnny Moss (1979)
o
Henry Orenstein
(2008)
o
Walter Clyde
“Puggy” Pearson (1987)
o
Julius Oral Popwell
(1996)
o
Thomas Austin
“Amarillo Slim” Preston
(1992)
o
David
“Chip” Reese (1991)
o
Erik Seidel (2010)
o
Mike Sexton (2009)
o
Jack
“Treetop” Straus (1988)
o
Duane
“Dewey” Tomko (2008)
o
Stu “The
Kid” Ungar (2001)
o
Red Winn (1979)
o
Sid Wyman (1979)
For more
information on the Poker Hall of Fame, visit www.WSOP.com
The Poker Hall of Fame, established in 1979, was acquired by Harrah’s Entertainment along with the World Series of Poker in 2004. Though the Hall of Fame is virtual in nature, its membership includes poker's most influential players and other important contributors to the game. There are now 20 living members, and 42 members have been bestowed the honor of Poker Hall of Famer. The Poker Hall of Fame traditionally elects one or two members annually. The enshrinement ceremony is now held in concert with the final table of the Main Event of the WSOP, held each November in Las Vegas.
