The tournament ballroom at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood was packed wall-to-wall Friday with Day 1A of the World Poker Tour $3,500 SHR Poker Showdown Championship. Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin has $8.5 million in career earnings, 18 WPT cashes and is looking to best his runner-up finish from 15 years ago.
Baldwin looked unusually rested and ready for a traveling pro with kids. “I’m feeling good, I love it down here,” he said. “The tournaments are run well, the fields are always great and it’s always nice to be in Florida to enjoy the weather and sunshine.”
Baldwin has regularly been collecting five-figure cashes the last few years, with an occasional six-figure score sprinkled in. “I’ve done a lot of winning at the lower and mid-stakes and keep knocking on the door of some bigger stuff,” he said. “So, I’m looking for that bigger score, I wouldn’t call it a break-through score, but I’m definitely looking to knock off a big chunk in one of these.”
If Baldwin is more passionate about one thing other than poker, it’s baseball. He played collegiately and was a member of the 2005 Division III National Championship team at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
We’re used to seeing Baldwin in an Arizona Diamondbacks cap, but today we spotted him with Las Vegas’ next big thing – an A’s hat.
“I certainly haven’t always been an A’s fan but when they announced they were coming to Vegas, it was too tempting to not jump on board to have a Major League Baseball team down the street,” he said.
Baldwin already has season tickets to the Las Vegas Aviators – the A’s Triple A affiliate. “I’m enjoying watching some of the prospects, hopefully they’ll have some momentum coming into Vegas and some money to spend when they get there.”
While hoping the A’s spend money on payroll might a fruitless endeavor, Baldwin has high hopes for the future ballpark. “If they do it right and make the surrounding area a fun atmosphere for before and after the games, what an awesome thing to have right on the Strip,” he said through a toothy smile. “Hopefully, the transportation won’t be too bad getting in and out of there. I’m just excited about it.”
We asked him to imagine a Vegas twist on the rules, similar to the Savannah Banana’s fan-friendly rules.
His face instantly changed. “I’m kind of the old, crusty purist in baseball that waves my fist in the air,” he said. “I still don’t like the designated hitter in the National League.”
“I was against the pitch clock at first, but I’ll admit I was wrong on that one,” Baldwin said. “It’s pretty sweet how few three-hour games there were the last couple years. They made a really good change there but I’m kind of crusty on Banana ball.”
Images courtesy of WPT.
