Images courtesy of World Poker Tour
Over 25 years of a poker career that is the envy of many, David Baker has set the standard for playing in a variety of games very well.
From No Limit Hold’em to Pot Limit Omaha and everything in between, he’s been the H.O.R.S.E. to back for many years.
We caught up with the man they nickname ‘ODB’ or Old David Baker to find out the reasons for his late-career success and which type of player he really wishes wasn’t in the game at all.
A Hot Streak
Over recent weeks, David has cashed for six figures, mostly playing in huge PokerGO Tour events at the end of last season and the start of this. Consistently making the money in these short-field, high-quality MTTs is tough, and our first question to David is how he’s been able to do so well in the events.
I think it’s a combination of getting more confidence and I’ve been playing more no limit cash games, he says. I’ve been thinking about the game a little more than I used to.
Going deep in small field events – even though the competition is much harder – is easier in terms of pure odds. If my last four events [in which David reached the podium on each occasion] had been 1,000-entry Main Events, it would have been a lot harder. Success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success.”
David also starred in last summer’s 2025 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, winning a bracelet in a seniors event and coming third in the 99th and his final event. He credits the series for contributing to his success.
That gave me the confidence to be in positions to succeed. It can snowball, and that’s one thing people miss. When you’re putting yourself in positions to win more often, you’re better suited to managing it.
I’ve been in multiple situations where I’ve been to three tables, and they redraw to two, so how to navigate through that spot and the one-table redraw, having a tough player on my left, having a short stack on my left, etc. The more you get into those situations, the more comfortable you are.
David talks about how to recognise other people’s and his own mistakes, making you better equipped to make the right decisions the next time you’re in that scenario.
My memory bank is full of spots where I’ve seen either me or others do wrong. A lot of what I get is feeling and observation. You can’t do that while practicing or studying.
You can figure out your thoughts and what you want to do, but I take my extra time and put myself in those positions. You never know when you’re going to encounter a situation you’ll be able to take advantage of.
Winning Late at the WSOP
David’s third-place finish in Event #99 of last year’s epic World Series of Poker (WSOP) saw him win $283,554. When you win a bracelet on June 15th – as David did – it’s quite different from cashing for six figures on July 15th instead.
In June, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘OK, this gives me bullets for the next three weeks’. It’s not going in my bank account; it’s just more video game credits I can use. When you win in the last event, I’m thinking, ‘OK, that goes in my bank account, I can buy my wife something!’
If you polled a thousand poker players and asked them for their top five people who love the World Series of Poker the most, David admits he’d be high on a lot of their lists. But early in Event #99, he was walking with a friend and had hit a wall.
I told them, ‘OK, I’ve reached the point. I’m finally done.’ I’d just lost a few tourneys in a row where I was on the right side, and the cards didn’t cooperate. I’d checked out. But I came back to the table, was able to put that feeling to the side, and really focus.
David tells me that he decided not to let it affect his play and noticed others around him who were similarly afflicted.
A lot of people had mentally given up and didn’t know how to flip the switch. I was able to do that. I got super short and found ways to hang around, then things went my way, and I got a couple of doubles. I went from short stack to having the chip lead. I was pretty proud of that one.
Desperate to Win
David’s story of how he ran it up in the final event despite not feeling it reminds us of The Hustler. In the 1960 movie, ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson, a pool player, is told by his manager that he is – like some of those players in Event #99 – giving himself an excuse to lose. I put it to David that this is the lie in some poker operators’ marketing – that all the players at the felt are desperate to win.
That’s very true, and you just don’t know when these opportunities are going to happen, he tells us. You have to treat every event like it’s ‘the one’. You might get one or two a year or not. It’s like watching football; Josh Allen has been saying it every year for eight years. If you keep letting opportunities slip by the wayside, you’ll look back and think it could have gone better.
David points to his past for the lessons he’s learned from himself.
I might not have been as great at three, four, or five-handed when I was younger – you’re often just happy to be there. I didn’t convert as many opportunities as I should have. Now I’m older, I’ve learned how to close. I look back at multiple tournaments when I was younger, and I kind of let them get away.
Respecting the Game
David loves the game of poker. He’s in love with it; it’s clear to see as he beams when he talks about the game. But if there’s a section of poker that David could live without, it’s the players who don’t respect others at the felt… or the game itself.
Everybody who plays at the table should be of the same importance in that tournament. The way someone like Martin Kabrhel wastes time, manipulating the staff and everything going on around him so that he gets to be the center of attention, is wrong. He gets to play hands on his own terms, and it’s entirely unfair. I don’t like that aspect of it.
David has shared the felt with Kabrhel and wouldn’t recommend it.
If you play at the table with him its extremely frustrating. He doesn’t want to play hands, constantly wasting as much time as possible. In turn, that makes other players uncomfortable fast because they want to get more hands played, or they go the other way and mimic him playing equally slowly. Poker is a rhythm, and I don’t like it.
David says he understands that the WSOP are trying to get clicks and views, and they think that’s their best path but he doesn’t believe this is true.
In reality, it’s going to create more people like him, which is bad for the game. It’s the baby Kassoufs and baby Kabrhels who are coming down the pipe. The overall atmosphere of players who make the game about themselves is bad.
We need personality. But we need personality with respect. Look at Grinder [Michael Mizrachi]. He has personality at the table, but he does it with respect.
The Dog in the Fight
A controversial situation played out late in 2025 when David questioned the ‘emotional support dog’ belonging to fellow player Jess Vierling. David complained on X that the dog had raised his allergies and generally put other players off during gameplay. A dog lover himself, as I speak with David, he’s literally stroking his dog, but he’s not in a poker room; he’s at home, and the dog is at peace. When David made this point online, social media blew up.
There were a few negative responses, but I’d say 90% were positive, and I’ve had so many people come out since then thanking me. Multiple people come up and thank me in regard to the allergies.
I love dogs; I have one, but dogs in the poker room? If they’re necessary, then very situationally I can see it, but it’s being abused, and that leaves people who really need one lumped in with those who don’t.
David had no intention of the post blowing up online, saying that his main issue was with large animals. He does accept that these are more prevalent than ones like his, who look small and cute enough to fit on a Hallmark card.
I know that smaller ones aren’t often service animals and big ones more often are, but sitting with a 60-pound or 80-pound dog under the table that’s not yours… I just think it’s grossly unfair to the other players at the table, as well as to the owner and the animal. I have a dog, I love my dog, but super-hairy ones are allergic to me; they make my nose run and my eyes water.
Since the furore, people who used to bring their dogs have “cut down a little bit,” in David’s words, and he’s comfortable with that, being in part due to the awareness he brought to the subject.
I’m not anti-anyone with pets, or anyone with disabilities, of course, but bringing your dog for 11 hours, not cleaning up after them, and making people uncomfortable when it’s not necessary isn’t right.
Thinking Differently
Over many years, David has been obsessed with poker and the NFL. Recently, he’s entered the podcast world, co-presenting the Gamble Up! Podcast with Adam Schwartz. After a first year spent learning about the format and “getting reps under our belts”, the podcast has gone from strength to strength.
We’ve gotten better, and we’re going to market it, grow, and bring on sponsors, David reveals. It started as a fun outlet to discuss poker and the NFL; now we’ll be able to help it grow. It’s about giving people what they expect when they turn it on.
That’s what we’re going for. We’ve not tried to monetize; we’ve focused on getting the project on tape. At this point in my life, I’m trying to do things I enjoy in my time left on this Earth. If 10 people find out or 100 do and they like it, I’m happy.
Over his career and in a wider sense, his life, David has looked at situations very differently from others. Rather than boast about this or talk it down, David states it very simply as an unfettered fact, the way he speaks about most situations, plainly and only with learned bias. He does admit that this makes him fairly unique, though.
You can see that in my play, my posts, my actions on and off the felt I don’t necessarily take the most convenient or popular line, whether it’s a hand of poker or an issue, he smiles.
I march to my own beat and always have. I feel justified in my opinions. Everything comes from some truth. The world needs more independent thinkers.
David doesn’t just apply this opinion to himself but to wider society.
We’re seeing what happens in society when a mob thinks in one way. You can split that both ways of the aisle in politics. When we’re all inside the box, we can get into sticky situations. I’m an outside-of-the-box thinker when it comes to anything, and my niches happen to be poker and football!
With that, David is back to the games he loves, obsesses over, and opines about. After so long practicing his craft at the poker table and following his passion away from the felt, ‘Old David Baker’ has passed on plenty of life experience that we’re left learning from in the very real world going on right now.
