Monday, June 22, 2009
WSOP event 34: Baldwin hitshome run in latest $1500 NLHE event

2009 World Series of Poker Event 34: $1500 No Limit Hold’em (2095 entries; 216 players paid; USD $2,859,675 prize pool)



Another $1500 No Limit Hold’em event, another 2000-plus field and another Vegas native claims the jewelry – this time, 26-year-old poker pro Eric Baldwin.

Like event 33 winner Greg Mueller, Baldwin was once an elite sportsman. Baldwin was a member of the UW-Whitewater college baseball team that won the Division 3 National Championship in 2005.

Prior to winning his WSOP title, Baldwin had enjoyed success in several tournaments. Most notable were wins at the Venetian (Deep Stack Series) for $198,000 and the Bellagio (WPT preliminary) for $147,000. But his cash of $521,991 in this event is by far his biggest collect.

“I’m head over heels. It’s far above anything else that I have ever done.  I can’t event talk about it accurately right now, because it hasn’t sunken in yet,” Baldwin said.

“One of my friends told me that if I ever cash for more than a quarter-million I have to buy an old junk used car and then throw $10,000 rims on it. I hope he does not make me do it.  But if he does, I am probably going to go out and buy an old Cutless (Oldsmobile) or something like that, and put some rims on it.”

The runner up was Jonas Klausen, from Odense, Denmark. This was his fourth cash at the WSOP and second final table appearance. Klausen collected $322,371 in prize money for second place. The runner-up’s hometown is the same as the reigning world champion Peter Eastgate.

Baldwin came into the final table ranked second out of nine players. He seized the chip lead when play became heads-up in what was a seven-hour finale.

The decisive hand of the tournament took place when Klausen was dealt Q-10 and flopped top two pair. But Baldwin had 4-4 and flopped a set of fours. The board was a nightmare for Klausen, which showed Q-10-4.  Baldwin’s set of fours held up, which did massive damage to Klausen’s stack.

Baldwin later described the course of events as a “cooler hand.” His comment reflected the notion that neither player could have gotten away from the hand, thus it was somewhat fortunate for Baldwin that he was on the favourable side of the break.

The final hand of the tournament came when Baldwin had about an 8:1 chip advantage. Baldwin’s 10-10 raced against Klausen’s A-Q. With the large crowd shouting for aces, queens, and tens – neither player improved his hand. That mean the pocket 10s dragged the final pot of the night, giving Baldwin his victory.

The fifth-place finisher was Roland de Wolfe. Four days ago, he won his first WSOP gold bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha High-Low Split world championship. De Wolfe had a shot at becoming the third double-winner at this year’s WSOP.

Past bracelet finishers who cashed in this event were de Wolfe, Phil Hellmuth, Quinn Do, Gary Gibbs, James Mackey, Allen Cunningham, Steven Hohn, Paul Darden, Roland De Wolfe, Patrick Poels, Matthew Keikoan, Alexander Kravchenko, Thor Hansen, Chris Ferguson and Dan Schmiech.

Phil Hellmuth’s cash gives him 71 for his WSOP career – which ranks first on the all-time list. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson’s cash gives him 58 for his WSOP career – which ranks third on the all-time list.

Results: Event 34 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em

1 Eric Baldwin (Henderson, NV) $521,991
2 Jonas Klausen (Odense, Denmark) $322,371
3 James Taylor (Cumming, GA) $213,045
4 Benjamin Scholl (Philadelphia, PA) $150,132
5 Roland De Wolfe (London, UK) $112,957
6 Andrew Youngblood (Dearborn Heights, MI) $89,221
7 Steven Bradbury (Yorkshire, UK) $74,351
8 Martin Jacobson (Lidingo, Sweden) $65,486
9 Eric DeFontes (Las Vegas, NV) $60,339

• Report by Nolan Dalla, additional reporting by Sean Callander, pic: IMPDI for the 2009 WSOP