After final-tabling the H.O.R.S.E. two years in a row, Barry Greenstein offered his take on the event…
Was the field stronger or weaker this year?
GREENSTEIN: The field gets stronger each year. The first year [2006] it was the weakest, because outside of the people I normally play with – Doyle [Brunson], Chip [Reese] and Phil [Ivey] – the field was very weak in the Stud games. In the second year they’d practised more and were better, and this year they were better still.
PP: What did you think of the young online players who entered the event?
BG: They didn’t do that well, but I think a lot of the good young no-limit Hold’em and pot-limit Omaha players decided to invest the $50k partly as an education. I think a lot of them could afford it and they were trying to evaluate whether it’s worth practising these games for next year. I don’t know what they’re going to decide; some of them are making millions of dollars playing the games they’re comfortable in, but there are some who want to be students of the game and learn other forms of poker… We’ll see more of them next year.
PP: At the final table which players did you see as your biggest threats?
BG: I felt like the senior player because of my experience in all the games, so I never really felt threatened by anyone as far as the play goes, but sometimes you just have to pick up the best hand – there really is no substitute for that, especially in limit poker. As it turned out, I just never had the best hand.
PP: Was there anything you thought you could have done differently at the final table?
BG: There was one hand I overplayed in Razz against Michael [DeMichele] that cost me an extra 200,000, but apart from that I didn’t have any good situations come up. I stole three or four pots and I won only one pot on the value of my hand. I don’t remember ever having a hand where I caught a card better than my opponent until the final hand [in Stud Hi-Lo] where I started with 2-3-5. I caught an Ace, giving myself four to the wheel, and then I caught another Ace giving me Aces and the wheel draw; I was up against Scotty’s two Sevens and a Seven-high draw. Going to the river I had Aces and a wheel draw and he had Sevens and a Seven draw; I made Aces up, which was going to get me back in contention, but he caught a third Seven.
PP: After your exit what did you think of the final table?
BG: With this tournament we want to see top players making the final table and winning, because it continues the legacy of the event and makes it more prestigious. Erick [Lindgren] was probably the most prestigious of the final three – he’s a big name in poker and won a bracelet this year. And then there’s Scotty. This will cement his legacy as a Main Event winner who has also won the $50k H.O.R.S.E. – the only player to have done that.
PP: And what about the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy? Was there more of an incentive to win because of that?
BG: Not as much as everyone was making out, but had I won then I’m sure I would have had some things to say about it because Chip was such a good friend of mine.
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