Barry Tanenbaum - Biography
Barry Tanenbaum
Hi. I'm Barry Tanenbaum. I play poker professionally these days, having recently retired (I am 57 as I write this). Here is my story -- the poker part anyway.
Professionally, I started in computers after completing my graduate work, and did various jobs in the industry for 35 years. I did hardware design, writing, quality, education, diagnostics, a little programming and a lot of managing. During this time I also taught bridge for seven years, and played a lot as well. For the last 1o years, I was a course developer, instructor and manager in a computer education organization.
In college, I started playing poker in home and frat games, where I had no idea what I was doing, and probably lost a lot. Well, a lot at quarter-half, anyway. There was one guy who won all the time (Jim Bangel, wherever he is) and I had no idea why. But I knew that there was something he did that worked.
After a few years of not playing, I took it up again in company home games. I did a bit better, but not much. Then, during a slow time in my life, I discovered California cardrooms, and Garden City in particular. I started playing hold’em at $1-$2. It took me a while, but with the help of books, study and lot of thinking about hold’em in particular and poker in general, I worked my bankroll up through $3-$6, $6-$12, $10-$20, $15-$30, $20-$40 to $30-$60, where I play today.
You will rarely find me playing tournaments. A friend says “it is hard enough to beat nine players,” and I agree with that. Presently, I play around 30 hours a week, never more, sometimes less, at the Bellagio. I play hold’em, Omaha/8 stud/8 and seven-card stud. My expertise is limit poker cash games.
I have developed some thoughts about poker, and my friends say I should share them. I hope you will enjoy discussing them with me. Together we can delve into some of the subtleties of the game, and find some useful truths.
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