Longtime PocketFiver and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Eric basebaldyBaldwin (pictured) has made the final nine of the Little One for One Drop, the $1,111 buy-in version of the annual charity event. Baldwin had an emotional roller coaster on Saturday, all-in with sevens against aces early on, but hitting one of his two outs to stay alive.

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Then, according to coverage on WSOP.com, Baldwin went “on a mad rush, winning two big all-in pots against Maurice Hawkins. The first saw both players holding A-K, but Baldwin had Ad-Kd and would hit a diamond flush to double up. A few moments later, the two were at it again, this time Hawkins with Ah-Qh and Baldwin with Jd-Jh. Hawkins would take the lead with an ace on the flop, but there were three diamonds on the flop and Baldwin would once again hit a diamond flush to send a pained Hawkins home in 12th place.”

Jackduyph Duong has the chip lead in the Little One for One Drop with 3.18 million and Baldwin is nipping at his heels with 3.14 million. Up for grabs is a $637,000 top prize. Here’s how the chip stacks look entering Sunday’s restart:

1. Jackduyph Duong – 3,180,000
2. Eric basebaldyBaldwin – 3,140,000
3. Vimy Ha – 2,825,000
4. Shai Zurr – 2,265,000
5. Brandon Eisen – 2,155,000
6. Matthew Lapossie – 1,960,000
7. Theodore Driscoll – 1,100,000
8. Igor Dubinskyy – 770,000
9. Bao Nguyen – 585,000

In case you missed it, the WSOP Main Event began on Saturday with Day 1A, which attracted 771 players, a 20% decrease from last year’s numbers. The tournament played its final five hands just before 1:00am local time to end matters for the day and, at the time of writing, the board showed just over 500 players remaining.

2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem gave the ceremonial “shuffle up and deal” command around 12:15pm inside the Amazon Room following rule reminders from Tournament Director Jack Effel. The feature table began with Main Event champions Ryan Riessand Greg Merson (pictured) in some sort of twist of fate, although the three starting days will not be part of ESPN’s coverage this year.

In other news, PocketFives rode Caesars’ two newest Las Vegas attractions, the High Rollerobservation wheel and Voodoo Zip Line, both of which are amazing if you have time to check them out. The Zip Line is at the Rio and takes you from one hotel tower to the other, 50 stories off the ground. The High Roller is at the end of the new Linq shopping area and ascends to 550 feet above the Las Vegas Strip.

Stay tuned to PocketFives for the latest WSOP news, brought to you by Real Gaming, a regulated online poker site in Nevada.

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