2010 WSOP: David Bakers Wins Deuce-To-Seven Draw Lowball Championship

Deuce-to-Seven Lowball made its tournament debut at the 1973 World Series of Poker. The game is rarely played anywhere except at the very highest levels, and is rarely played public card rooms -- either as cash games or tournaments. In fact, the World Series of Poker is one of the few places where this poker game is offered. The game was tacked onto the 20WSOP schedule because it was the preferred game of many high-stakes cash game players.

Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball means the worst, or lowest-ranked, hand wins the pot. The very best possible 2-7 lowball hand is 2-3-4-5-7 of mixed suits. An ace counts as a high card. Flushes and straights count against the player. While a wheel (A-2-3-4-5) is the perfect hand in standard lowball, in Deuce-to-Seven it is usually a losing hand since the ace counts as a high card against the player. So, K-2-3-4-5 is better than A-2-3-4-5.

In the “Triple-Draw” variant of this game, players may draw up to three times to make their hand. Event #19 of the World Series of Poker employed a “Single-Draw” format.

In this particular tournament of the 2010 World Series of Poker, a $10,000 buy-in 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship of Poker, it was 23 year old poker pro David Baker who bested 101 players to win his first WSOP bracelet and $294,321 for the first place cash prize. David Baker now has one win, five final table appearances, and 21 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP.

Winning the event was even made harder with the presence of four WSOP bracelet holders in the final table, and some of the biggest names in professional poker.

Some of them included former Boston Bruins player and semi poker pro Eric Cloutier, who placed second to win $181,886.

The third-place finisher was George Danzer, from Munich, Germany, who earned $115,295.

The fourth-place finisher was four-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda, who earned $78,088. With his fourth-place finish in this tournament, John Juanda became the second player at this year’s WSOP to make it to three final tables. He now has one 5th and two 4th-place finishes. The other player to accomplish this was Vladimir Shchemelev, from St. Petersburg, Russia.

The fifth-place finisher was Doug Booth, who won $55,482, marking his seventh occasion to cash at the WSOP.

The sixth-place finisher was Erik Seidel, an eight-time WSOP bracelet winner. He received $41,270 in prize money, and now made his 59th career cash in the WSOP.

The seventh-place finisher was former WSOP bracelet winner Eric Kesselman, who won $32,080, and has now cashed five consecutive years at the WSOP.

WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu finished at eighth place to earn $26,004, and now has 44 career cashes at the WSOP.

“Now, when I say I’m a professional poker player, it has real meaning. The WSOP gold bracelet gives real meaning to claiming you are a poker pro,” explained David Baker about his win.