In November, ESPN: The Magazine published a cover story on poker whiz Phil Ivey. “4 Days, 3 Nights, $1 Million” chronicled the high-dollar exploits of the Full Tilt Poker pro, taking readers on a jet-setting journey from Foxwoods to Montreal to Amsterdam.
Enter bracelet winner and UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, an online and live tournament grinder whose picture in ESPN: The Magazine was taken at a taxi line in Las Vegas. Entitled “24/7 Card Stud,” Tim Struby’s article profiles the life and times of a hardcore tournament grinder, a stark contrast to Ivey’s life of luxury: “Private jets, comped suites, showgirls – wait, that’s someone else’s life. Poker grinders like Eric Baldwin just want to hang in: day after day, hour after hour, hand after hand after hand after hand.”
Struby described Baldwin’s Henderson, Nevada home as “way more Pottery Barn than Playboy Mansion” and noted that tournament grinders constantly have to be on their toes. Fellow UB.com pro and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth told ESPN: The Magazine, “You can’t flake for 10 minutes. The pressure is intense.” His grinding has paid off, as he proudly displays trophies in his room from both baseball and poker, including last year’s CardPlayer Player of the Year honors.
Grinding for Baldwin involved playing every evening during college and on Sundays. He’d fire up four to eight tournaments at a time and play for six to 12 hours on end. He told Struby and ESPN: The Magazine readers, “After playing a couple of 12-hour days straight, your head feels a little numb, but I don’t mind. It’s my job.” He added, “Online play is much faster, so you make more decisions in less time. I’d be zombified by the end.”
At the 2006 Canadian Poker Championships, Baldwin met fellow online poker pro Shannon Shorr. The pair finished second and third, respectively, in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event and became good friends. Shorr, Baldwin, and three other players rented a house during the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. They have been incredibly successful in the annual WSOP, as Shorr has racked up $607,000 in earnings, while Baldwin has amassed $1.1 million.
Struby noted that Baldwin forked over $750,000 in tournament buy-ins last year. To manifest the grind, the author detailed, “Since 2008, Baldwin estimates, he’s logged 4,000 hours on 90,000 hands in almost 500 live tournaments.” Struby highlights 2010 WSOP November Nine member Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and T.J. Cloutier as “cautionary tales” on money management. The former was unable to pay back taxes to the IRS, while the latter pawned one of his six WSOP bracelets.
Whereas Ivey’s tale involved nosebleed-stakes craps in Foxwoods’ private room, personal jets, and $1,000 tips, Baldwin’s life seems to be much more mellow: “Nights aren’t for clubbing or lap dances. Eating Sushi off the Strip with the girlfriend is as wild as it gets. Downtime is spent watching sports in his three flat screen man cave or grilling with fellow grinder Justin Young and his wife.”
Struby cautioned that tournament payouts can be deceiving: “Take that $1.5 million in winnings. The IRS pockets more than a third and Baldwin has to cover his own travel and living expenses while shelling out anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 for a spot at the table.”
Baldwin joined the PocketFives.com online poker community in 2005 and recorded his first live cash one year later. He’s been a non-stop poker machine for five years and explained that striking a balance was extremely important: “I need to do un-poker things. Not that I’m quitting anytime soon. It’s not the same rush as hitting a baseball 100% square, but I still enjoy myself most every time I play.”
Also briefly mentioned in the ESPN: The Magazine article were Kenny “SuperTuan” Nguyen and PokerStars pro Jason Mercier.
