theres nothing wrong with making consistant money and having a long term career clearly he doesnt feel he made a mistake he probably wanted something more fullfilling and not have to worry about grinding,,, there are countless pros from his era you ve never heard of that went busto or died due to their lifestyle(stu unger) also we have no idea what Bobbies level of happiness was at the time remeber during his period poker was very much considered sleezy,,, he had a chance to continue to be a legend at poker as well as run some prominent casinos, be around the same level of action without the stress and he can come play anytime,,, and im not sure how you think baldwin continuing to play poker in the 2000s would have affected the way ivey,dneg thought about or played the game i didnt see doyle have any affect,,, im sure by that point the game would have passed him by similar to the way it passed his peers by, he chose a 401k over getting back for daily mtts like a particualr player who was considered as good as himself

He was obv joking with tragic mistake comment u twits.

i agree! mr baldwin. one of my fav all-time poker people.

Seems like since the first one-drop a couple years ago, more of the newer players who came along post-moneymaker era finally have noticed bobby baldwin's place in poker lore/history.

,,,,

lEDERER MDE THE TRGIC MISTAKE OF RIPPING OFF ONLINE GUYS. hAD HE STAYED CLEAN HE MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN AN EXEC JOB.

meht is a hell of a d rug

Becoming CEO/President of some of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world is a mistake?

I think we all been leveled by OP. If thread is serious then...might possibly be the dumbest thing I've read in awhile.

great post, thanks for the info. Always liked Baldwin, this post just confirms those feelings.

So tragic for him that he got away with 8 figures without any charges

As others have pointed out, he got the best of both worlds. Being CEO of a casino gave him an 'in' to many games that he might not have otherwise been able to play or even known about. Maybe he didn't win as many bracelets as he would have otherwise but who cares?

lol so he makes a bajillion dollars but should have stuck to purely poker?

they are already grooming someone for an exec job with mgm.

after baldwin fleeced/hustled ben lamb for every penny he had at golf, he turned right around and backed him. Baldwin backs Lamb to this day.

Anyone who hangs out at aria enough can see this evidenced by how hard lamb dick rides baldwin any chance lamb gets.

Have you ever heard Baldwin dissect a NLHE hand? its pretty LOL

edit: cue privateworld

Wasn't Baldwin one of the guys that ran the cheating ring around Vegas where chip n Doyle didn't wanna get involved to start with but eventually had to in order to survive.

Not sure bout Doyle but chip def.

The biggest games in the 70s were super shady and unbeatable if u weren't "in" with the group of hustlers. Eventually after nearly going broke chip joined them.

The group included Baldwin I dunno if he was the leader but he was def involved?

Didn't know about that1 but if true i am sure the ANT got it all in the end.
Then maybe bobby had to take the job with steve for protection against the ANT.

I remember reading about it in a link to the old rgp/poker or whatever it was rtp/poker maybe - the old message board thing before 2p2's time

I like OPs thread as I assume he is lampooning the grinders who seem to think playing a card game in front of PC/in a casino for 40+ hours a week for anything over average wage {with horrible swings} is somehow glorious and makes them "free men". WP OP if true

At one time or another Russ Georgiev (RIP) accused just about every pro poker player of being a cheat.

I'd normally add the usual "take his statements with a grain of salt" advice here, but since I think he was an emotionally disturbed person with an axe to grind, I won't.

I remember reading his small book on poker / auto-biography, many years ago.

I think he was dealing poker in underground games in Oklahoma

He wound up broke and was looking for spare change in his couch to get money to buy a pizza.

Then he took a trip to Vegas and hit a hot dice table and won I think around $ 40,000

Going from looking for change in a couch to CEO of major corporations and making millions in salary and playing in nose bleed cash games......only in America.

NVG is usually pretty bad, but wow the threads lately surely have to be up for there for worst of all time.

I have read both Tales Out of Tulsa and Bobby Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets. Therefore, I know more about Bobby Baldwin the poker player than most of you guys that just think of him as a CEO.

The last sentence of Winning Poker Secrets is "If you want security then get a job."

Somehow I think he was in conflict (between poker and corporate) when he was writing that book. Obviously, the security part won out.

Here are some things that I learned from the book:

Baldwin first got involved in gambling as an underage gambler in his late teens. Joining a junket to Vegas, he brought with him a few hundred bucks and parlayed it into $200,000 in the old Aladdin Casino (now Planet Hollyweird). His Dad told him that he would never have to work for the rest of his life. He gave his winnings to his Dad to invest only to have all of it be lost.

Early 20's. Baldwin works as a craps dealer somewhere near Oklahoma. He likes it. One of the funniest episodes in his life was when he lost a $40,000 bankroll betting sports. He made something like 20 bets in a row (mainly 1 on 1 bets no parlays) and lost every single penny. He just couldn't win. He slept in his car.

In his first year in Nevada, he got in trouble driving a car that was not owned by the friend he borrowed it from.

As a no limit holdem cash game player, he had a stop loss of 15% of bankroll. Yes, Baldwin believed in stop losses and always followed them.

He was co-author of Super/System. They didn't have much discipline in writing the book because poker playing was always a constant diversion. So Doyle rents a boat and they write many chapters of it in a boat in the middle of the lake. Like Tahoe I believe.

Baldwin was poker room consultant before jumping straight to President of Golden Nugget. He has an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.

Baldwin used to be called "the Owl".

So you see, I, the OP, know more about Baldwin than all of you who have criticized me in this thread.

Baldwin definitely had a Hamlet like inner struggle between his "gambling side" and his "security side" and the latter won. Tragic.

Good stuff, kinda wanna read that book he seems really interesting.

I've read (and recommend) Bobby Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets as well.

Here's what the last paragraph of the book says: "Make sure you're emotionally capable of handling a lifestyle with vast fluctuations in day-to-day fortune. If it's security you're seeking, get a job."

Now perhaps Baldwin eventually came to the realization that he was not capable of handling that sort of lifestyle. Maybe he didn't see the need when there were other options. He did write that "There's pain associated with getting broke. I've felt it enough times."

Anyway, I think only he can say whether the "security part" won out. Perhaps security had little to do with it, and he was presented with a unique opportunity that he thought would be more challenging and rewarding, mentally and financially, than playing poker for a living. It wasn't like he joined the accounts payable department of a textiles firm or something.

you read them books quick

Such mistaki much regret

lol @ going corporate being a tragic mistake. Heaven forbid he have a stable income as opposed to being broke/in debt most of the time just like 99% of the poker players are these days who consider themselves "pros"