Barry Shulman
Barry Shulman is the renowned publisher of the Card Player Magazine which was instrumental in the normalization of professional poker and is read avidly by millions of people. He used to be a successful real estate developer but his fascination of poker made him acquire the magazine.
Barry was born on 8th May 1946 in Seattle Washington and had started playing poker in 1956 and continued even while in college. He used to play poker in the 1960s though not seriously as he had limited time as a result of real estate work. He later moved to Las Vegas in the early 90s, after 25 years in real estate. He caught the poker bug when he moved to Las Vegas. He bought the Card Player Magazine using his retirement benefits in 1999 and became its CEO, a position he holds until today. Barry used to read the magazine religiously in order to get more information about the game, some of the players and strategies of the game.
He finished first in the money in the World Series of Poker event in 1997 pot limit Hold’em event and He has won the World Series of Poker Bracelet at the 2001 WSOP series in the seven card stud hi/lo split 8 and better event. He has also made the final table of World Poker Tour (WPT) in October 2008 and Professional Poker Tour (PPT) in 2005 and became second. His biggest accomplishment came in 2009 when he won the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main event after beating Daniel Negreanu. He also finished fourth in a game that would be won by Erick Lindgren. Barry has proved himself a consistent player with a total of 11 first place finishes at World Series Poker cashes and has been pro-ranked in first position 69 times. He has also finished third place at the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) bagging $1.3 million.
The magazine, under the tutelage of Shulman, grew from a hand-out in casino poker rooms to a fully fledged magazine which hit the stands in 2003 and has gotten a considerable following. The magazine can also be found on line at Cardplayer.com. Where it has a wide selection of information of insights on different tournaments, events and strategy. The magazine features columns and articles from the best professional poker players around the world including Barry himself. Though he does not play poker as much as he wanted, he still remains a true enthusiast as he also loves doing business and has a lot of fun in running the publication. The card player Media is the umbrella company for the Card Player Magazine and also publishes Card Player College and Card Player Europe. He is proud to be the owner of the number one media in poker. And hopes it would eventually make the other mainstream publishers be interested in coming out with a poker magazine.
Though he is known mostly because of the Card Player Magazine than his participation in actual tournaments, Barry remains an authority in matters concerning professional poker. He is has attributed the popularity of poker to televised broadcasts of World Poker Tour and on line poker popularity to the anonymity it comes with. Though he plays between 50 and 100 tournaments a year, Barry does not consider himself a professional poker player but sees himself as a businessman who plays poker and has a total winning of about $4,200,333.
In his personal life, Barry has been married for 32 years and has two children both boys and two step-children from his second marriage. His son Jeff is a respected poker player who has made final table at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main event and manages the Card Player Magazine on a daily basis as his father’s deals with the Card Player Magazine Website.
He is dedicated to change the face of poker in casinos from the old traditional poker where people were afraid to act or say something in a way that was considered inappropriate when they get into the casino poker room. He wants to create an anti-smoking and anti-grump picture of poker. He would also like to eradicate abuse and increase integrity in the poker business. His ambition is to win the World Series. He is pleased with the development in the world of poker as most new players are young and technology-savvy people who are more used to playing over the Internet.
Other facts about Barry Shulman: His hobbies include business, poker and travel. His favorite movies are The Great Escape and favorite music is reggae. Paris is his favorite place and Leonardo de Medici his best celebrity. He respects poker players who are winners in life and considers Omaha 8B as his favorite poker game. He is usually a force to reckon with when it comes to playing poker.
Posted by Joel
on May 9 2010. Filed under Player Profiles.
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