A stack that’s approaching the half-million mark makes for a natural media target; put a pretty blonde girl behind that mountain of chips with a movie star next to her and you have great TV.
At first, the ESPN cameras descended on the table because Tobey Maguire was in seat 7. But, it didn’t take long before they were giving most of their attention to the surging stack in seat 8--Amanda Baker was stacking off another player.
“I started playing about four years ago. A friend was watching the World Poker Tour, and I liked it so we started playing.” Amanda—Mandy to her friends—hasn’t looked back since watching that first episode on TV. “I had always, even as a kid, wanted to play poker. I would see the ‘guy’s nights’ on TV where they had their chips and smoking cigars and it just looked like fun to me."
Before moving to Las Vegas, Mandy lived in Boulder, CO where she met Paul Wasicka in a home game. That was just before the WSOP last year, and it was only a few months later when she was cheering him on at the final table of the main event. It was there she met and became friends with another Boulder poker pro, Thomas Fuller.
“Mandy plays a solid game—she’s a cool cucumber.” Thomas continued, “I’ve never seen her bent out of shape about anything.” Mandy’s slow and steady approach is tailor made for the main event where the stacks are big and the days are long. You’ll never see her celebrate after winning a hand, and you definitely won’t see her tilt off her chips after taking a beat.
She’s learned that kind of discipline by playing countless hands on Full Tilt Poker. “After my friends taught me how to play, I found the website to play on and have pretty much been playing for a living ever since.” Mandy plays three tables of full-ring $5-$10 No-Limit online, with an occasional foray in $10-$20 when a table fills up.
When she’s not playing cash games, she’s busy winning seats to the event of her choice. Her screen name could easily be “satellite_queen” because we’ve seen her all over the globe after qualifying online. From Vegas to Foxwoods to the Aussie Millions, she’s been there. Her online multi-table tournament game isn’t too bad either. In February she won the same rebuy tournament three days in a row, for $11,000+ each time.
Even though she might not be given to emotional displays at the table, Mandy couldn’t hide the faintest trace of a smile as she dragged in one of the biggest pots of the night. Play was coming to a close when she looked up from her heap of chips and saw an ESPN camera a few inches away. One of the producers made a laughable attempt at getting her to chat it up for the cameras (in his defense, I think he mistook her for a random amateur):
Producer: “So, Amanda, how has your day been going?”
Mandy: Blank stare.
Producer: “Have you had fun at the World Series?”
Mandy: “Uhh…yeah…there’s still a long way to go though.”
Producer: Cheesy grin.
Mandy just politely nodded her head, smiled, and went back to stacking her chips with Tobey looking on barely suppressing a grin at the awkward moment. “It took me awhile to realize the cameras were at the table for me, not him,” she explained. “Honestly, I didn’t even know it was him. Someone told me Tobey Maguire was sitting next to me, but I just assumed they didn’t know what they were talking about because he was way too fat.” It’s tough to be star-struck when you’re trying to figure out if the guy to your left is really a movie star when, in actuality, he’s sitting to your right.
It’s this cool professionalism that has brought her to this point in the tournament, and it will be that same ability that carries her forward.
Hopefully, Paul Wasicka can return the favor in a few days by cheering for a friend at the final table.
A few nights ago I mentioned that it was a good night to be a friend of Paul Wasicka’s. Unfortunately, Paul’s run at another final table was ended prematurely today. Paul was never quite able to get off the ground as he entered play with under 25k. Sharing Paul’s fate was Doug Kim who was busted about halfway through the day.
