David ‘ODB’ Baker Is ‘Fueled By His Legacy’

As the poker world continues to evolve and the games get gradually tougher over time, more players have become specialized in one specific game or format. These specialists might focus on tournaments, others on cash games, some on no-limit hold’em, and others on mixed games.

David ‘ODB’ Baker never bothered to find a niche. The 47-year-old poker pro has found a way to stay at the top of the poker world for most of his 15-year professional career while also establishing himself as one of the most well-rounded poker players on the planet.

Baker plays high-stakes cash games and tournaments, and is proficient in just about any poker game you can think of. Most impressively, he’s been sustaining success and staying on top of strategy changes while other long-time pros have struggled to adapt and have fallen off the map.

“I mean, I was playing when, if it was three-bet or four-bet, it was aces or kings,” Baker explained. “Then I was playing when if it was four-bet or five-bet, it was something like 10-7 offsuit. Now I’m playing when it’s five-bet, and its A-5 suited. I’ve been through all the different stages of this game and I don’t think there’s a lot of people that have been around that have been successful during each stage of poker.”

Baker used a hold’em analogy to express how the game has changed, but he’s clearly more than a hold’em player. At the 2019 World Series of Poker, Baker cashed 14 times in eight different variants, (nine if you count online poker.)

The Texas-native also won his second career bracelet in the $1,500 limit hold’em and just missed out on a two-bracelet summer with a third-place finish in the $10,000 seven card stud championship.

It’s tough to call his 2019 WSOP a breakout summer since he’s been a top-tier pro for so long, but when you combine his summer run with his $1.015 million score from his victory in the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic main event a few months prior, 2019 might be the year that put Baker on the map from a historical perspective.

“It’s really tough to stay in this business and be relevant for 15 years,” he said. “I didn’t really have that signature score that I’m just able to play off of for my whole life. If you look at my results, they’re pretty consistent. Throughout every year I just put points on the board.”

With his strong showing at the 2019 WSOP, and his LAPC title, Baker now has $5.8 million in tournament earnings, all while playing high-stakes cash games in Southern California. He has quietly put together an elite resume, and with a few more accomplishments, Baker thinks he could earn himself a spot in the Poker Hall of Fame.

“Do I belong yet? I don’t think so,” said Baker. “But do I deserve consideration over the next three to five years? Hopefully. A lot of people who had success, they dwindle down, or they only have a few years.”

The fact that Baker himself doesn’t believe he belongs yet is a testament to his work ethic and how much more he feels like he is capable of accomplishing.

He is his own harshest critic. Although Baker was constantly making day 2s and 3s throughout the summer series, that wasn’t enough for him. He felt like he left some money on the table, along with a chance to put himself out in front for the WSOP Player of the Year race.

“I really felt like I had a good chance this year to put my name in the running for Player of the Year and to get multiple bracelets,” said Baker. “I had a really good shot to win the $5,000 no-limit at the very end of the series too. A couple things happened there. One hand, I don’t like the way that I played it, and I got unlucky in a couple other hands. I came in tenth, when really, when we got down to the final couple tables, I probably should’ve never really gotten much worse than fifth or sixth and had a real good chance to win. I really feel like I let that one slip away.”

Letting those chances slip away at the Rio isn’t something that Baker wants to do. He knows that production during the summer is, for better or worse, what people look at when judging a career. Ultimately, a certain level of success at the WSOP is a prerequisite for a Hall of Fame induction.

“I think that’s why I have such a passion for the World Series,” said Baker. “I know that when it’s all said and done, those bracelets, the money won at the World Series, the final tables and which events you win and things of that nature go into deciding who gets into the Hall of Fame and who doesn’t.”

Many pros downplay the legacy aspect of their poker careers and focus on winning as much money as possible. Money is certainly a motivator for Baker, but so is putting together a career that he can be proud of.

“I’d be lying if I said that those things didn’t matter to me,” said Baker. “They kind of fuel me. I think that a lot of my peers and a lot of the recreational players feel very highly about me and about my game. But I don’t think I’ve always had as much respect from the elites as I feel like maybe I deserve. So, it fuels me to get to that elite category.”

But what does he need to be considered elite? What is he missing?

“I do think I have more boxes to check off. I definitely think that I need more major titles,” said Baker. “And it definitely would not hurt putting another bracelet or two on the board.”

He’s going to try and earn those major titles as quickly as possible. After his seven-figure score WPT score, Baker remarked that at one point, he didn’t think he would ever be able to have that type of score in a no-limit hold’em event.

The combination of how tough players have become in the game and the fact that Baker doesn’t travel often to play tournaments made him think that type of win was never going to happen. After the last few scores, and re-evaluating what he needs to put his name in the Hall of Fame discussion, Baker is going to hit the road in the upcoming months.

Baker is heading to Barcelona for the final European Poker Tour stop of the year and is trying to make it to Russia before that.

“Obviously, it’s a huge long shot, but I have a chance to be the first person that I know about ever to complete the Triple Crown in one calendar year.”

With the addition of high-stakes mixed game events at WSOP Europe, Baker feels that the series overall is worth the trip and will head to Rozvadov this fall to try and secure a third bracelet, and possibly the 2019 WSOP POY title.

“I’m a long shot to win Player of the Year,” said Baker. “I probably need another bracelet just to get in contention, but who knows? I’ve been an underdog my whole career to be where I’m at.”

Along with being an underdog, Baker feels he is someone that can blend in with his surroundings. He is still thriving in a modern poker world with old school tactics and thought processes.

“I try to be a chameleon,” he said. “I’m very good at figuring out what other people think of me and I like to just play off that. And you can ask ten different people ‘How do you think he plays?’ You’ll get a broad spectrum of answers from ‘He’s very loose’ to ‘He’s very tight.’ The one asset that I have is I’m really able to play all types of styles. When I need to be the loose aggro, crazy guy, I could be it, and when I need to be the fold guy, I could be it.”

Baker is not running sims or studying what is game theory optimal. He just tries to think critically about hands away from the tables and objectively figure out whether a play is good or bad based on its merits, as opposed to what a calculator spits out.

“I’ve always been a free thinker and I spend most of my time on the felt,” said Baker. “I like to watch other players and think about what they’re doing and try to decide if what they’re doing is good and why it is good. Or what if what they’re doing is bad and what is it bad. I don’t study as much as a lot of other players do away from the felt.”

The Arizona resident thinks about more than about his own success on the felt, however. Earlier in his poker career, Baker sacrificed some of his working bankroll to make sure family and friends in his life were taken care of.

“I’ve had money at different points in my career, but my life has been such where I’ve never had the bankroll that I probably should have with the success I’ve had,” said Baker. “And that’s mainly due to family obligations and choices I’ve made family wise and living wise.”

As a result of those obligations, Baker has spent his time living in both Texas and Arizona. Both of those places are far from the Commerce Casino’s high-stakes cash game area, where Baker spends a good chunk of his weekends playing poker.

“Mainly, I just spent my time going back and forth between L.A. and home, whether it was in Houston or Arizona over the last 15 years, just trying to put food on the table and keep my family happy,” said Baker.

When his bankroll was plentiful, Baker said he took shots in an effort to run it up, eventually getting him to where he is today. But he was never reckless with it. Never in danger of going broke.

Even beyond his family, Baker is one of the more vocal voices in the poker community, speaking out on what changes he thinks would be best for the players. He is opinionated about structure changes he would like to see and has a vision for the community.

“Let’s find things to celebrate as a community,” said Baker. “And people who don’t want to celebrate WSOP Player of the Year or WPT Player of the Year because they’re arbitrary scoring systems, or this or that. It’s… anything that can celebrate the players, I think brings value to the community as a whole.”

When Daniel Negreanu’s $25,000 Fantasy league became popular, Baker’s negative opinion of some picks led to one of the most popular forms of side action for fans and non-high rollers. What was intended to be just a handful of prop bets ended up in what the poker world knows as the $500 ‘ODB Fantasy’ league.

“I was listening to the results of the $25K draft on a stream and looking at the results and thinking how bad some of these picks and drafts were,” said Baker. “I was like ‘I could put together a better team, but I don’t have $25,000.’ So, I just put out a quick message on Twitter and said ‘Hey, anybody want to bet and make your own team using these prices? And I’ll bet my team versus your team?’”

Baker was hoping just to make a few separate head-to-head bets, but he ended up with more than 30 people messaging him looking to participate. Then, it clicked. Model a poker fantasy league the same way other sports model their daily fantasy leagues.

The league has grown exponentially over the last few years, and during the 2019 WSOP, there were 478 teams participating with a first-place prize of $43,000.

He didn’t intend for it to become as big as it did, but he’s grateful for its popularity because he knows that it will help perk the interest of casual fans in the tournament results.

“If you’re not a member of a big staking team or anything like that, or have the money to bet on the $25K, how do you really get sweats in the $10K stud or the $500 Colossus or the $10K no-limit 2-7?” said Baker. “It’s like you just always have a sweat whether it’s for or against somebody.” ♠