Eric Baldwin Wins Again, Takes Down Venetian MSPT $1,100 for $81K
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The latest MSPT event held at the Venetian saw a familiar Las Vegas grinder in a familiar place — the winner's circle. Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin defeated a field of 377 entries in the DeepStack Extravaganza III Event #29: $1,100 NLH MSPT $250K GTD to claim another poker trophy and add $80,872 to his career earnings of nearly $6.4 million.
The former baseball player also final tabled this event in 2018 when he finished in eighth place for $8,292. After bagging a healthy stack on Day 1b, Baldwin was able to outdo his performance last year and navigate to live poker victory for the 32nd time in his illustrious career.
$1,100 NLH MSPT Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Baldwin | Las Vegas Nevada | $80,872 |
| 2 | Richard Schneiderman | U.K. | $49,990 |
| 3 | Jason Gooch | Vidor, Texas | $36,390 |
| 4 | Rudy Cadenas | Las Vegas, Nevada | $26,833 |
| 5 | Gerald Cunniff | St. Paul, Minnesota | $20,217 |
| 6 | Fernando Brito | Portugal | $15,438 |
| 7 | Mark Bloomberg | Mound, Minnesota | $12,130 |
| 8 | Smith Collins | Henderson, Nevada | $9,557 |
| 9 | Nikhil Gera | Los Angeles, CA | $6,984 |
Of the 377 runners only 45 would make the money. Some familiar names to hit the payout desk short of the final table included Patrick Steele (44th - $2,022), Bob Shao (39th - $2,022), Katie Lindsay (32nd - $2,205), Jim Agate (18th - $4,043), Stan Jablonski (12th - $5,881) and Michael Ermie (11th - $5,881).
The first to be eliminated at the unofficial final table was two-time bracelet winner Barry Schulman, who couldn't hold with ace-king against Smith Collins' ace-ten, according to the MSPT live updates. Schulman's first MSPT cash was a 10th place worth $5,881.
Final Table, Closing it Out
At the final table, it was poker circuit regular Nikhil Gera who caught a bad run to go out first. He was followed to payouts by Collins, Mark Bloomberg, Fernando Brito and Gerald Cunniff. Down to four, Baldwin became more involved and was responsible for the final three eliminations.
First, he picked off Rudy Cadenas, who shoved with queen-six but couldn't catch up to Baldwin's pocket eights. Another circuit regular and recent online WSOP bracelet winner Jason Gooch also fell to Baldwin, shoving with jack-six of diamonds in the small blind but running into Baldwin's king-queen of the same suit in the big blind. They both made a flush and Baldwin scooped another pot and another elimination.
Despite starting out with a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Richard Schneiderman, the latter battled back and had basebaldy on the ropes at one point. Baldwin, a former baseball player known for his tenacity, battled back to even and it ended with a cooler. All the chips went in with Baldwin dominating with ace-king against Schneiderman's ace-queen. Both players paired their ace on the flop but Baldwin's kicker played to secure him another live win.
It wasn't even Baldwin's first win of the month, as he also took down Event #15: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack in the same series to collect $11,658. A couple of weeks before that, he closed out August with a $19,000 win in a $230 buy-in tournament at The Wynn up the strip.
That's a wrap for Venetian's latest poker series, but you can be sure this is not the last we'll see of the two-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Image and updates courtesy of MSPT/Venetian.
