| Henry Orenstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henryk Orenstein c. 1923 (age 92-93) Hrubieszów, Poland |
| World Series of Poker | |
| Bracelet(s) | 1 |
| Money finish(es) | 4 |
| Highest ITM Main Event finish |
8th, 1995 |
Henry Orenstein (born c. 1923) is a poker player and entrepreneur who resides in Verona, New Jersey.
Henryk (Henry) Orenstein was born c. 1923 in Hrubieszów, Poland. Raised in the Jewish faith, he spent much of the end of World War II in various concentration camps. After the war, he emigated to the United States.
He became a toymaker who convinced Hasbro to start producing Transformers. He holds over 100 other patents, and aside from Transformers, the best-known of these inventions is U.S. Patent 5,451,054 which gave Orenstein the exclusive right in the United States to detect and display hole cards in poker games.
Orenstein is the creator and an executive producer of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament on FSN. He also produces the popular TV Show High Stakes Poker, which can be seen in the United States on GSN.
As of 2009, Orensein's live poker tournament winnings exceed $200,000. He was a 2008 inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame. Orenstein was also inducted to the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.
He won the $5,000 Seven-card stud tournament at the 1996 World Series of Poker (WSOP), earning $130,000 by defeating fourth-place T. J. Cloutier, third-place Cyndy Violette and runner-up Humberto Brenes. Orenstein twice had finished in the money in the $10,000 WSOP no limit Texas hold 'em main event: 12th in 1993 and eighth in 1995.
He came in seventh in the $2,500 Seven Card Stud event at the 2005 United States Poker Championship, and despite being the oldest competitor (at age 80), won his first round of NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship against one of the best cash-game players in the world, Chip Reese. Orenstein lost in the second round to John Hennigan.
Orenstein is a noted philanthropist. In 1984, the American government built an eleven-story building for low income families, known as the Lejb and Golda Orenstein Building, in honor of Orenstein's parents, who were murdered by the Nazis. Orenstein helped pay for the apartments. There is also a Lejb and Golda Orenstein Building in Kiryat Ono, Israel which consists of housing units and recreational facilities. Orenstein contributed most of the money towards this project. Orenstein has his own chapter at Metropolitan Council for the Jewish Poor in New York. Over the past thirty years, Orenstein has assisted thousands of poor New Yorkers to pay their rent and medical bills.