Why does Barry Greenstein give out his books...

Is anyone else bothered by Barry Greenstein giving out his books to players who he knocks out or gets knocked out by? I mean what is the point? Shameless self-promotion? I just cant wrap my head around why he does this. Are there any other players that give out tokens?

Personally, if I had been in a tournament with him and I ether knocked him out or was knocked out by him, I think I would politely decline said book.

It's a gift.

I agree with gear and if I was on tilt, I would be tempted to tell him where he could shove his book! LOL.

... and then barry would be like:



and all the other people at and around your table would be thinking: "man that guy with the weird accent sure is quite the douche".

- The End

I just feel that every move in poker means something, and for him to give you his book ans sign it, is odd to say the least with out knowing his reasoning. Who knows maybe the guy is nice as hell and has an overstock of his book and gives em out like stocking stuffers lol

On a side note I actually went to Barry's website and found something interesting on there(other than the music lol). He categorizes and analyzes how Pros he has played or continues to play with. He divides his analysis between aggressiveness, looseness, short handed, and how they play limit, no limit, tournament, side games, stream control, against weak players and against strong players, to which he assigns a numerical value in said categories from 1 to ten. Furthermore Barry also includes a brief description of his thoughts on the player, an amusing anecdote, along with a song that he feels describes the player. ( Phil Hellmuth's song is " Its my party " because he will cry if he wants to lol!!) Barry sure does have a good sense of humor lol

Players of interest on there Stu Ungar, Chip Reese, Patrick Antonius, and Johnny Chan.

I think Barry just recognizes he is one of the people other players look up to, and he wants to give them something they will be able to look at and remember playing with him.

GearsOfWar wrote:

I just feel that every move in poker means something, and for him to give you his book ans sign it, is odd to say the least with out knowing his reasoning. Who knows maybe the guy is nice as hell and has an overstock of his book and gives em out like stocking stuffers lol

So what do you think about Matusow going around and selling his book at tournaments?

If Matusow tried to sell me his book immediately after knocking me out of a tournament, I would knock him out cold!

I understand the probable good intentions of it. I remember watching it one time on TV when he did it, it seemed almost like a slap in the face of "you could really use this book because you are stupid". I am sure it was just the way it appeared on TV, but if I was on tilt, I could easily take it the wrong way! LOL

Ticking timebomb in this thread.

I think Mike Matusow trying to sell a biography at tournaments would be funny. Is that true or this a hypothetical question? lol Does he like walk up to people or does he have some booth? This is news to me.

If he knocked me out of a tournament or I knocked him out and shook my hand and asked me to buy one, I would feel bad for the guy. I would ultimately say no because its demeaning to myself and mostly him.

If he has some sort of promotional booth where he was selling books. I might, considering I am on a mission to own every poker book ever written in English, and he has lead a pretty interesting life.

Barry Greenstein knocking me out or myself knocking him out and then he signs a book and offers it to me, is a different story. Who's to say that I even know who he is, let alone want one of his books. Most people do know him, but for him to assume you look up to him and want a gift from him with his signature is assigning. I would want to be treating like any other player and pay me the same respect I do to him, and he does to any other player. It just seems demeaning to me. I think its a way of him to keep a mental edge against people he knocks out because he does not do that to Tom Dawn or Phil Ivey.

I would however go buy a copy of his book and read it.

Quote:

because he does not do that to Tom Dawn or Phil Ivey.

yes he does.

I have never seen him do it to ether player. It just seems very demeaning the way its depicted on TV.