Baldwin Wins Event 34 for His First Bracelet and Over $500,000

Posted by pokerguru on June 19, 2009

No, this is not the Alec Baldwin that seems to have everything go his way, but another Baldwin that is making a huge impact on the poker world. Eric Baldwin is no stranger to cashing at WSOP and Circuit Tour events, but he is a stranger to the big money. His lifetime earnings to this point for 6 cashes is just over $100,000. That number went up a little in early hours of Friday morning and his life will never be the same because of it. The money, the bracelet and surely online fame await the youngster.

This was one of the rare times that we have seen two legitimate hands decide a No Limit tourney late in the night. Baldwin had raised to make it 165,000 from the button. Klausen immediately threw his chips in the middle and Baldwin took little time to make the all in call. Baldwin turned over 1010, but Klausen was only 40-60 underdog with AhQh. A flop of 6JK gave Klausen two more outs as he could now hit a straight, but the turn showed another 6 and he was back to only 6 outs as a 10 would now give Baldwin the boat. A 5s fell harmlessly and it was time to celebrate for Baldwin. Klausen will take home $322,371 for second place.

In other tournaments…

Event 35 continues its road to a final table and now has 11 players left. It seemed like every time someone went all in, they were behind and cracked the larger hand. Sorel Mizzi leads the way with 969,000 and the bulk of the chips are sitting in the top 3 positions. It will be interesting to see if the cards change or the survival rate continues and frustrates the big stacks once play resumes.

Event 36 started with 1695 and ended the day with only 213 players remaining. Your chip leader is Corwin Cole with 185,700 in chips. As you look down the remaining field, you are hard pressed to find any names of significance. No Bonus points for you fantasy poker players in this tournament. It looks like another first timer will get a bracelet and over $500,000 to start off their new career in poker.

If you want to know where all the big names are, all you have to do is look over at the World Championship 7 Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or better tournament. The pattern this year seems to be that the pros are letting the smaller no limit poker events go and sticking to the higher buy ins and the other poker versions because of the much smaller fields. Why should they go through a 2,000 person land mine infested field when they can fight it out against only 200 players in these other games.

This field was no different as only 164 put up the $10,000 for Event 37 and we once again see Jeff Lisandro at the top of the leader board after the first day. He is not the overall leader, but he has a very healthy 110,000 in his stack. There were only 54 eliminations in the first day, but the blinds are up and there are plenty of small stacks that will see early action in day 2.