Just days after winning the $10k HORSE tournament… *Err, wait a minute, it’s the other one, oh ok.* Let’s start this over: David “ODB” Baker (the other one) picked up his first World Series of Poker bracelet on Friday night after a monumental comeback in the $2,500 8-Game Mix tournament at the 2012 WSOP. Baker, who is one of two David Bakers that are professional tournament players, overcame a 2.6 million to 955k chip-disadvantage at the start of heads-up play against two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg “FTB” Mueller.

Baker was off and running from the start of the heads-up match, with the crucial hand coming when the two fired every street during a hand of Razz, with Baker’s 8-5-4-2-A bettering Mueller’s 8-7-5-4-A when he paired his Ace on the river. At that point the chip-lead had virtually flip-flopped from the start of the day with Baker holding a 3 million to 600k advantage.

Just a few minutes later the match was over and David “ODB” Baker (not to be confused with two-time bracelet winner David “Bakes” Baker) claimed his first WSOP bracelet along with the $271k that was set aside for the winner of the tournament. Mueller pocketed over $167k for his efforts, but fell just short of bracelet #3 for his career.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

1. David Baker — $271,312

2. Greg Mueller — $167,637

3. Kevin Calenzo — $106,564

4. Joe Couden — $76,841

5. Donnacha O’Dea — $56,277

6. Konstantin Puchkov — $41,844

7. Christopher McHugh — $31,578

8. Chris Viox — $24,188

One of the more interesting stories at the final table was Donnacha O’Dea, father of 2011 November Niner Eoghan O’Dea and a WSOIP bracelet winner in his own right. The elder O’Dea was one of the many Irish poker players that stormed the WSOP back in the 1990’s and is considered one of the best Irish players of all-time –it was nice to see Donnacha making a good run, doing the elder statesmen of poker proud.

The 8-Game Mix tournament is one of the newer WSOP events, with its first incarnation coming in 2008 when it featured a $10,000 buy-in. Since then the tournament has featured a $2,500 buy-in and has attracted over 400 players every year. This year was the second largest 8-Game Mix in WSOP history narrowly missing the mark set last year when 489 players registered –this year 477 players entered the tournament. Past winners have included John Monnette (who is tearing up the 2012 WSOP), Sigurd Eskeland, and Jerrod Ankenman.

Tags: 600k, Bakes, David Baker, Dea, Elder Statesmen, Ftb, Greg Mueller, Irish Players, Konstantin, Mchugh, Niner, Odb, Poker Game, poker players, Professional Tournament, Razz, Running From The Start, Viox, World Series of Poker, WSOP

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 at 6:27 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.