WSOP Day 15 recap: David Baker continues torrid WSOP run

The 2010 WSOP has witnessed a number of Poker Pros getting hot at the right time, Mike Mizrachi, Vladimir Schmelev, and now you can add David Baker and John Juanda to that list as both players made their 3^rd final table of the 2010 WSOP -Baker’s culminating in a win.

Event #18: $2,000 Limit Holdem

In what is becoming a theme at the 2010 World Series of Poker the chip-leader heading into the last day of play has once again captured the title. This time around it was 2009 WSOP Main Event 4^th place finisher Eric Buchman doing the honors. Buchman fended off a tough final table that included Matt Matros who won the $1,500 Limit Holdem eventless than a week ago.

The win is Buchman’s first WSOP bracelet to go along with over $3 million in career WSOP earnings; $203k of that coming from his win.

Event #19: $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship

In one of the toughest final tables of all time, poker pro David Baker was able to hold off some of the legends of the game to win his first WSOP bracelet. With 9 players remaining Baker was confronted with four former bracelet winners -Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, and Eric Kesselman–  along with the man many consider the best player without a bracelet, Andy Bloch.

Both Baker and Juanda made their third final table of the 2010 WSOP: Baker finished 3^rd in Event #13 a $1,000 NLHE tournament and 6^th in $50,000 Players Championship. Juanda now has a 4^th place finish in this event  to go along with his 4^th place finish in the $50,000 Players Championship and a 5^th place finish in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud hi/lo Championship.

The $300k+ in prize-money also pushed Baker over the $1 million mark in career WSOP earnings.

Event #20: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha

A strong group of nine poker players will be returning to the Rio today to crown a champion in the PLO event, and they are all looking up at poker pro, and WSOP bracelet winner, Nenad Medic’s chip stack. Medic has nearly triple the chips of his nearest competitor Tex Barch, best known for his final table appearance in the 2005 WSOP Main Event.

Also among the final nine players is poker pro Blair Rodman who co-authored the enormously successful Kill Phil book on tournament poker.

Event #21: $1,500 Seven Card Stud

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament also features a stacked field of nine players, headed by High Stakes poker pro Sorel Mizzi. Chasing Mizzi are Richard “Quiet Lion” Ashby, Dan Heimiller, Pat Pezzin and Jon Turner.

Heimiller is having a phenomenal 2010 WSOP, with a 9^th place finish in the 7-Stud World Championship, and a runner-up finish in the $1,500 Omaha 8 tournament -where he narrowly missed winning his 2^nd WSOP bracelet.

Event #22: $1,000 Ladies No Limit Holdem

A total of 1,054 players turned out for the Ladies NLHE tournament -I say players because a silly trend that is developing is men entering ladies events-generating a prize-pool just shy of $1,000,000.

At the end of play 117 hopefuls remained, including many well known female Poker Pros: Linda Johnson (5^th place), Liv Boeree (7^th place) and Evelyn Ng (9^th place).

A conspicuous no-show was Annette Obrestad, who recently blasted female poker players in an ESPN interview, who had stated her intention to play in the event.

One notable male player who entered the event was Shaun Deeb, dressed in full drag down to lipstick and slip. Word was Deeb was playing like a maniac, so it begs the question, did he lose a bet?

Event #23: $2,500 Six-Handed Limit Holdem

Also getting underway yesterday was the 6-Handed Limit Holdem tournament, which attracted 384 entrants. Making a splash on day 1 were Justin Bonomo, JJ Liu, David Baker, Phil Gordon, Shawn Buchanan, and JC Tran, all of whom are in the top 25 chip counts.