Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin must have plenty of respect for the 30% rakeback deals at UB Poker since he quickly re-signed a two-year deal with them. Baldwin signed with UB back in 2009 shortly after winning a WSOP $1,500 holdem poker tournament along with $521,991. Just a week later, Baldwin took third in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship, which earned him $259,534. In all, Baldwin has over $3.2 million in live poker tournament winnings.
Aside from his obvious success at the poker tables, Baldwin has a pretty unique back story since he was a successful Division III collegiate baseball player at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He started in right field for the UW-Whitewater Warhawks the year that they won the Division III baseball championship. The proud alum eventually made poker news headlines for donating $200,000 to his old baseball team.
Getting back to the UB contract, re-signing Baldwin is the latest move for UB Poker after the departure of Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. Both of these icons had been with the online poker room for over a decade before they decided to move on and pursue other ventures. With the gaping hole in pro talent that’s representing them, UB wasn’t about to let Baldwin get away – especially since he’s remained steady since originally signing in 2009. Baldwin’s latest big cash ($157,280) was in November when he won a $5,000 Bounty Shootout at the NAPT Los Angeles event.
In addition to Baldwin’s re-signing, another recent move by UB Poker was signing Prahlad Friedman to their team. Friedman is mostly a cash games specialist who can be found in the high stakes rooms at UB; however, he’s also had a pretty successful live tournament career after cashing for over $2.3 million. Friedman’s biggest win came at the WPT Legends of Poker event when he cashed for over $1 million.
As of now, UB’s current lineup of players includes Friedman, Baldwin, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Joe Sebok and Brandon Cantu.
