Eric Baldwin burst onto the live tournament scene in 2009, making 17 final tables en route to a World Series of Poker bracelet and the Card Player Player of the Year award. He followed up that campaign with the largest score of his career, earning seven figures for finishing runner-up to David Williams in the 2010 World Poker Tour Championship.

In the years since, Baldwin has remained remarkably consistent despite cutting back on his travel schedule, notching a six-figure score nearly every year of his career. In 2017, Baldwin won both the Wynn Classic and Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza main event. To date, he has racked up nearly $5.5 million in live tournament earnings.

Highlights from this interview include nicknames for 12-year-olds, majoring in baseball, winning a collegiate national title, having paralysis by analysis, multi-tabling to win POY, playing cash for the kids, staying motivated for the second million, running bad at swaps, calculating the beer EV of a craps game, haggling for a good deal on a six-figure car, poker commentary from T.J. Cloutier, scooping cream cheese in a truck, and a love for Paul Goldschmidt.