Barry Greenstein, the nerdy poker pro who says he gives all his tournament winnings to charity, has won his third career World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelet.

Poker’s version of a hat trick came in Event #26 at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas, a $1,500 buy-in, razz tournament that had 453 entries, payouts to the Top 48 finishers and a total prize pool of about $600,000.

Greenstein, 53, a native of Chicago, Illinois, USA, who now lives in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California, USA, is a former employee of a California computer firm.

Like other high-I.Q. workers who were languishing in boring jobs, he quit his job, turned his talents to poker and has proved to be one of the most successful players in the world, earning millions of dollars.

For his latest win, he picks up $157,619, which he vows to donate to charity.

He says he makes his living, and most of his poker earnings, playing in cash games, and that money he happily keeps.

Runnerup in the tourney was Chris Klodnicki of Voorhees, New Jersey, USA, claiming $97,389.

Third was Chris Viox of Glen Carbon, Illinois, USA, collecting $58,743.

Fourth was Mark Tenner of Henderson, Nevada, USA, obtaining $43,284.

Fifth was Brandon Leeds of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, landing $33,081.

Sixth was Joseph Michael of Austin, Texas, USA, making $25,661.

Seventh was Anargyros Karabourniotis of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, taking home $19,478.

Eighth was Mike Wattel, also of Phoenix, winning $16,386.

Ninth was Frank Kassela of Germantown, Tennessee, USA, cashing for $13,294.

Tenth was Phillip Luong of Tustin, California, USA, garnering $13,294.

As for Greenstein, his previous WSOP gold bracelets came in 2004 for winning a 2-7 lowball tournament and 2005 for winning a pot-limit Omaha tourney.

As electrifying as winning the bracelets has been, it’s still not Greenstein’s biggest claim to fame.

He made a cameo appearance as–what else, a poker player–in the recent poker movie “Lucky You.”

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)