Ask people what they remember about event 21 - $1,500 no-limit hold’em shootout at the 2007 World Series of Poker and they’re probably not going to remember the name Don Baruch. You can’t really blame them, I mean, the guy only won the damn thing.
Of course, the victory was an afterthought in the wake of Daniel Negreanu’s third place elimination. Daniel was half the story, with one of his closest friends in the game, Erick Lindgren, sharing the table with him. Erick is often named as one of the best players in the world without a WSOP bracelet. People wanted to see Daniel stand in his way.
Unfortunately for Lindgren, Daniel never got the chance. Erick went out in eighth place amidst frustrations regarding the sequestered area they played the final table in, Lindgren failed for the sixth time in as many WSOP final tables to claim the bracelet he so desperately wanted. For Negreanu, it could have been the fourth, but that evidently didn’t happen either.
With Baruch holding 75% of the chips in play and the rest split between Negreanu and Jared Davis, Davis moved all-in preflop with 5h-5s. Daniel stopped the action for a minute to consider his options and finally made the call, turning over Ac-8d at the dealer’s beckoning.
The flop came 6c-4h-2c, leaving Daniel behind with two cards to come. The turn was 7d, leaving Daniel aces, eights and the two remaining fives in the deck as outs, but none of them came. The river was 7h, knocking the field down to two. The marquee name was gone, and Davis would follow soon thereafter.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
