I know the world wide web is saturated with stories of who won the WSOP’s main events. But researching and writing about the winners, in order, has provided me with a sense of “awe” as I learn about the history of the game, and the biggest poker tournament ever created. It happened again when I started reading about the 9th winner, Bobby “The Owl” Baldwin.
Bobby Baldwin won his largest tournament prize in 1978 when he won the WSOP Main Event, earning the title and the $210,000 first prize. He defeated a final table that included professional poker players Ken Smith, Jesse Alto, and Buck Buchanan, WSOP bracelet winner Louis Hunsucker, and poker player and businessman Crandall Addington, who Baldwin defeated in the heads-up play.
Baldwin became the youngest player ever to win the World Series Of Poker main event. That record was broken two years later by “The Kid”, Stu Ungar, but before the Kid there was “the Owl”, and Bobby Baldwin quickly established himself as one of the great poker players. He did it with an aggressive style that stunned other players, even super-aggressive player, Doyle Brunson.
Brunson once remarked that he was shocked Bobby Baldwin didn’t sustain an arm injury from his habit of pushing chips into the pot so often. Brunson knew that the young man from the South could play a little poker and after Bobby won his third WSOP title (he snared two bracelets in the 1977 World Series Of Poker), Brunson asked him to write the Omaha 8 or Better chapter for Super System 2.
In spite of his poker ability (or because of it), Bobby stunned the poker world when he took a job with Steve Wynn at the Golden Nugget in Vegas, circa 1982. He revamped the card room, then moved to other projects and was quickly promoted to the position of President of the Golden Nugget in 1984. His poker bankroll probably hasn’t needed to be “propped-up” for a long time, especially after Kirk Kirkorian retained Baldwin, making him CEO of Mirage Resorts along with a signing bonus of over $7,000,000 in 2000.
When he has the time, Bobby can be found in some of the biggest games in town, often at the Bellagio. Bobby Baldwin was elected into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2003, securing his legacy as one of the greatest poker players of all time.
Great Players in Poker History 
Thanks for the interesting history lesson.
The poker world is filled with interesting personalities. Possibly because it takes a really unusual person in order to become a good poker player. Or perhaps it is because only an interesting personality is interesting enough to be talked about. Possibly a bit of both, but not in the case of Baldwin.
His case just goes to prove that it takes an exceptional talent to be really good at poker. Most poker players are actually like that – they simply have great self-discipline, patience, and observational skills. This makes them very good at almost anything they like doing. Which also brings me to the next point – poker is much harder than most people actually believe it to be.
By the way, if I remember correctly, he is also an extremely good billiards player.