The Scoop -- Barry Shulman

Barry Shulman, Card Player Media CEO, recently won the World Series of Poker Europe main event. He topped a field of 334 players to win nearly $1.3 million and his second gold bracelet. This accomplishment was especially historic because his son Jeff made the final table of the World Series of Poker main event.

Adam Schoenfeld: Were you in consultation with your famous son, Jeff Shulman, during the tournament?

Barry Shulman: No. You mean for strategy reasons?

AS: Yes.

BS: No.

AS: So, you might have communicated with him for business reasons, but you were not consulting with him about poker.

BS: I communicated with him about them having a baby. I got a grandchild while I was gone! You know, there are priorities, although, I still went to London [laughing]. Technology is great, though; I saw the pictures.

Diego Cordovez: On that note, obviously, doing well in tournaments is playing well and having good luck, but was Jeff making the final table in the main event a factor in any way, in being either more focused or inspired?

BS: Oh, yes. I told him [Jeff] when I left town, “I’m going there to make the final table. I think it’s good for us. It’ll be fun.” As you may or may not know, I was in fourth place and average in chips going to the final table, exactly where he is.

AS: I don’t know if you know this, Barry, but you received slightly more money for the championship WSOPE than Jeff has already gotten or been guaranteed. Now you’ve put the pressure on him, because if he happens to go out ninth, you will have made more money in the World Series of Poker than he made.

BS: Well, actually, now that you mention that, I did communicate with him, and I said, “I’m ahead of you for the year now.” On the other hand, if he does well in the main event, it’ll be hard for me to get ahead of him for the year, since I don’t play too many tournaments. And he’s not going out ninth. You heard it here first. He’s not going out ninth.

DC: Well, if he does really well, it’ll be hard to ever catch up, even in a lifetime.

BS: Yeah, maybe. He put pressure on me, but not in the negative sense. I went in to play my best game because of that, and if anything, I think it will help him be motivated — not that he needs any motivation to play better. But when I told him I was ahead of him in money, he said, “I don’t care. Who cares?”

DC: Now that you’ve won this event, does this mean you’re going to play more events or play more poker? People don’t realize, and this applies to all of us, that after a while of experiencing the grind of traveling around to tournaments, the excitement starts to fade. You start to be motivated only by big tournaments or tournaments that are nearby. Now that you’ve won this one, does this mean you’ll play more or just stick to World Series tournaments?

BS: Well, I don’t like traveling for poker. I love traveling, as you know; I’m on cruises five months out of the year.

AS: I was going to say, you interrupted your latest eight-month-long cruise to win a championship.

BS: I’m still doing a world cruise in January, and I’m doing a one-month cruise next summer, but I do have a few big Bellagio tournaments between now and then. I’m going to play in the main events. Shulmans don’t play a lot of poker, people might not know that. Jeff and I don’t play a lot. Instead of one or two World Series events next year, I’ll probably play in about 10 and pick up a third bracelet, just because.