Joe Sebok tells us of his ride to the top of the poker world and his wacky prop bets
I only started playing poker two years ago, when I was 28. Everyone assumes that because my dad is Barry Greenstein I was taught the game at an early age, but it was actually the opposite. He kept me away from it completely. We never played cards. My dad knew how tough it was. He’d seen the dirtier side of poker, people owing money and getting hurt. I think he made the right decision to keep me away from it.
So I ended up going to college and moving into tech work in San Francisco. I got laid off in late 2004, so I went travelling. I ended up hanging out with my dad at some point and asked him if he thought I could ever play poker. He said: ‘Absolutely, there’s no question,’ which lit a spark underneath me.
In the beginning, Barry told me to just go play. I played for nine or ten hours every day at Lucky Chances Casino in San Francisco, trying to learn the game. Once I started playing big tournaments we’d discuss it a lot more. It’s funny, I wasn’t even into gambling back then. My life has taken such an unbelievable turn.
I then went to Vegas to play cash games at the Golden Nugget. When I got up to $10/$20 limit, my dad said: ‘You’ve got to play a couple of WSOP events. If you end up making a final table, it’s a huge deal.’ I really didn’t want to, because I didn’t want to blow my bankroll. I’d only been playing for five months and was still trying to figure out what I was doing.
LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS
I finally realised what he was saying and I did it. Unbelievably, I made two final tables. I have no idea how I even got to those. I’m pretty sure Barry paid someone along the way! At that point I played really tight; I didn’t know how else to play, so I obviously caught cards at the right time.
I can’t imagine there could have been any more pressure on me than there was then. My dad had his reputation and suddenly I was on ESPN. It was horrifying. Every time I played a hand my heart rate was off the chart. I felt like I was on a different planet.
People often reference the hand where I checked with the nut flush on the end. I knew I had two Aces, but I’d convinced myself I didn’t have the nuts. When you’re first starting in poker, you’re very concerned that you look like you know what you’re doing. At that point, I cared more about not looking stupid, so I didn’t check my cards. I couldn’t care less now.
I’d do anything to play those two final tables again. It would be unbelievable. I’d probably have two bracelets. I cashed five times at the WSOP this year but I’m not even close to being pleased. As far as I’m concerned it was a failure. I bubbled for the final table in three events, which was pretty sick as all of them were bad beats. It comes with the territory, so you’ve got to keep going. You won’t last long in this game if you are not tough enough to handle and accept the beats when they come along.
FUNNY GUY
A lot of people know me from the Prop Bets show I do with fellow pro Gavin Smith on RawVegas.tv. I was in a bar in Australia during the Aussie Millions and these guys were looking at me and I thought they were going to kick my ass. Eventually one of them came up to me asking where my superhero costume was. It’s crazy – I was on a different continent and they knew who I was because I lost a bet and had to dress up as a bunch of superheroes at the WSOP main event.
I don’t think the costumes affect my play. When I dressed as a diaper-wearing bear at the 2006 WSOP main event, we agreed I wouldn’t have paws because I wouldn’t be able to look at the cards. I did really well in that tournament, turning 10,000 into 30,000 on day one. I was really hot though and was sweating the whole time. I took the costume off during the dinner break and had to lie down from exhaustion.
People ask us how far we’ll go. We had one bet where the loser had to get the other guy’s initials tattooed on his butt. Gavin lost the tattoo bet, but we did have a $7,000 buy-out clause. Gavin’s really funny with these bets though. He’s either super hard and moral: ‘I lost, I’m going to do it, no matter what’ – or he’s a total bitch about it and he’ll try anything to get out of it. You never know which Gavin you’re going to get.
To be honest, I didn’t even want to do the tattoo bet – I thought it was way too big, but he insisted. I was always really confident though. When it comes to ‘who’ll last longer in a tournament’ bets with Gavin, I’m going to get very rich because he plays totally psychotically – even worse than I used to.
The latest bet got way out of hand, because we did it on RawVegas.tv. Doing that means the public are involved as well – it’s no longer just between Gavin and myself. We wanted to do another superheroes-type costume bet, and we made a three-way bet with Jeff Madsen. The winner was whoever had the most pre-main event wins, and the two losers had to dress up like court jesters, carrying the winner – which was me – into the Amazon Room on a throne.
Like a jackass, Gavin decided to go golfing in Tahoe, so he screwed the bet up in the first place. Then on the morning he was supposed to dress up, he came in offering me a wad of cash. I hadn’t slept the night before and had a bunch of stuff I was taking care of. At first I said no, but Gavin really didn’t want to do it – and I wasn’t sure he’d do it even if I turned him down. So we negotiated and I made a bad decision and agreed to the buy-out.
PUBLIC OUTCRY
Then all hell broke loose and everyone went crazy – and rightfully so. Buy-outs are normal in everyday bets, but because we’d made this huge public spectacle it changed the rules, even though we didn’t do anything wrong by the letter of the law. We may have to do an apology prop bet to make up for it. I feel like we cheated everybody, because we talked about this bet for three months with zero payoff.
Jeff was obviously very upset, because he still dressed up the day before and hated it. I felt bad about that but he did pretty well on his first day, getting up to 80,000, so maybe Gavin should have worn the costume!
JOKING ASIDE
I don’t worry that I’ll be known more for the bets than playing poker, because I’ve had a lot of results. I had my first big win last year at the Mirage Poker Showdown. It felt really gratifying and exciting, and a week later I won another one. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to win; it’s so much fun. You also get a ton of money. Now I feel like I’ve got to take the next step and win a $10,000 buy-in tournament. But winning that first one was amazing.
This year more than anything has taught me to calm down. I’m famous for being psychotic at the table, which I’ve definitely lived up to at times. It’s part of my personality; I always want action. But I’ve learnt you can play slower, be more cerebral about your game and still get good results. I’ve done that by relaxing a little bit. I got tired of busting out holding Q-4 when I was chip leader. You can only do that so many times before you change, or you’ll continue to be an idiot.
There have been points in my career when all I’ve done is stupid stuff. I probably wouldn’t have entered into any of the crazy stuff if I didn’t have results, because you’ll inevitably become known as a knucklehead if all you’re doing is dressing up as a bear. At the moment I want to get back to playing good poker, especially because I think I’ve been playing so well recently. I think I’m only one hand away from great things.
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