David "Bakes" Baker Wins Third WSOP Title in Event #34: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

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Oct 20, 2021 4 min read

David “Bakes” Baker beat Peter Lynn of Tacoma, Washington heads-up to win his third gold bracelet in Event #34: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw at the 2021 World Series of Poker. The lowball variant attracted 284 runners and generated a prize pool of $380,475, and Baker will take home $87,837 for the victory.

Baker beats out a tough field of mixed game specialists to win his third WSOP gold bracelet and his first in nine years. Other bracelet winners that finished in the money include Brian Yoon (40th), John Esposito (26th), Cory Zeidman (25th), Frankie O’Dell (20th), Ian Johns (19th), and Matt Grapenthien (17th).

Final Table Payouts

Winner’s Reaction

Baker has finished in the top ten of a WSOP event 15 times since his last gold bracelet, and he walked away as the runner-up three times. The win marks the break in a nine-year drought for the new three-time champ.

“It feels amazing. I wanted it real bad," Baker said in a post-win interview with PokerNews. “I don’t know what I was doing heads-up those last few times.”

Baker had to fight off some old feelings when runner-up Peter Lynn was catching cards to stay alive in smaller all-in pots.

“Once you lose a couple of all-ins like that you aren't feeling great and you’re wondering what could happen. The last time I was heads-up, I won a massive pot and had a 3-to-1 chip lead and then he ground me all the way back. There were some visions of that. There’s just so much tension from the situation that it’s hard to keep your head screwed on.”

His two previous WSOP victories come the 2010 $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw and the 2012 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E., and it’s no secret that Baker finds the most tournament success in mixed games. He has also finished as a runner-up in the same events that he has won. A fixed limit game like triple draw presented a unique set of challenges for the 35-year-old poker pro.

“I like triple draw a lot. It has a mechanical component to it that fits my skill set. I’ve always been more on the logic and math side of things as opposed to being a great reader of people. This is a game that’s very technical and it fits my skill set well.”

The WSOP offers the rare opportunity for mixed games specialists to compete in a tournament setting against the best in the world, and Baker doesn’t take that for granted.

“The thing about these games is that it’s hard to get a straight triple draw game anywhere. It’s hard to get a straight H.O.R.S.E. game anywhere. Some of these mixes and variants aren’t played a lot outside of the WSOP and certainly not in a tournament format. So this is unique for everyone.”

The champ is eager to celebrate, but the WSOP only comes once a year and the time for rest and reflection will have to wait.

“I came out here and initially I was only going to do ten days. But when you come out and win you just want to keep playing. So I’ll be here through the Main Event. $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. is tomorrow. That’s my tournament. I will celebrate tonight and I’ll get right back in it and celebrate this after the Main Event.”

Final Table Action

The final six players came into Day 3 after fighting their way through the 76 players that qualified for Day 2. It took more than 90 minutes for Mark Fraser to be the first of the final table to hit the rail when he made a pair of threes to lose to Stephen Deutsch’s nine-perfect.

Marc Booth followed soon after in fifth place when he made a pair of sixes on the third draw to fall to Baker’s eight-seven. This was Booth’s first career cash at the WSOP.

After more than two hours of four-handed play that saw everyone take their turn at the top of the leaderboard, Kristijonas Andrulis finished in fourth place when he clashed with Deutsch and was left with crumbs. Runner-up Peter Lynn finished the job soon after with a ten-seven that narrowly beat the ten-eight of Andrulis.

Baker took control in three-handed play and fought to extend his lead over Deutsch and Lynn. Deutsch was a tough out and found several timely doubles when forced to commit his last bets to the pot. His last moments came when Baker stood pat with an eight-seven.Deutsch drew a nine to ruin his eight-five and finish in third place. It was a career-best finish for Deutsch, who previously finished 33rd in the 2019 $1,000 Double Stack.

Lynn came into the day looking for his second career cash at the WSOP after taking 120th in the 2019 $600 Deepstack. He had entered the day with a narrow chip lead, but Lynn found himself with a six-to-one disadvantage at the beginning of heads-up play. Lynn fought hard and found small doubles as he got close to the felt, but Baker’s big lead turned out to be impossible to overcome. Baker’s big moment came with he turned over eight-six to find that Lynn was drawing dead with an eight-seven.

Check out our 2021 WSOP Hub here!

Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL

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