Poker Hall of Famer Billy Baxter, a seven-time bracelet winner, has returned to the main stages at the 2023 World Series of Poker during the ongoing Event #48: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Just a week after 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan made an unexpected charge toward an 11th bracelet, finishing in 14th place in the debut Big O tourney at the WSOP, Baxter remains alive in the Seniors and has reached the event's final table.
It's been 21 years since Baxter last won a bracelet, when he captured Razz gold in 2002. That wouldn't be a record for the longest span between bracelet wins, as Jim Bechtel holds that mark at 26 years. However, pending verification, a win by Baxter in the Seniors would set an all-time record for the time between a player's first and latest wins. Baxter took down his first WSOP title in 1975, in that year's $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, which was 48 years ago.
Few modern players realize how dominant Baxter has been at no-limit lowball draw, where he won six bracelets between 1975 and 1993 despite the format being offered only two or three times in a given series. Baxter is, of course, skilled in many poker formats, but he earned his fame and his Hall of Fame honors in no-limit deuce. Still, all of that might not be his greatest contribution to the game.
Baxter fought the IRS and won
In 1986, Baxter took the US's Internal Revenue Service to court over the IRS's declaration that Baxter's poker profits were a form of passive income, meaning the result of luck, not professional skill. The matter had to do with the difference in applicable tax rates, which back then amounted to about $180,000 in extra tax payments that the IRS demanded.
Baxter paid the assessment and then sued, winning his case at both the district and appellate levels, as the battle dragged on for years. The IRS threatened to take the matter to the US Supreme Court but eventually dropped the matter. The Nevada judge who first heard the case and ruled in Baxter's favor famously told the IRS's lawyers, "I find the government's argument to be ludicrous. I just wish you had some money and could sit down with Mr. Baxter and play some poker."
Baxter's willingness to fight changed how professional poker players could report their earnings, and for nearly 40 years, thousands of pro players have enjoyed lessened taxes due largely to Baxter's efforts.
Holding court at the Seniors tables
That was then, of course, and this is now. Baxter has had his tablemates in awe throughout the Seniors event. His typical opponent is old enough to know who he is and of his important role in the game, but most of them had never played with the Hall of Famer before this event. He’s been prompted endlessly for old-time poker tales, and he noted, “I do have a few of those.”
Baxter's been among the leaders in the Seniors event since Day 2, and he began today's Day 3 in sixth place out of 22 remaining players. He took a couple of early hits, however, dropping to at or near the bottom of the stacks with 15 remaining, but has since rebounded and climbed all the way back to third.
Another well-known, veteran pro, Dan Heimiller, has moved into the Seniors lead with more than three times the chips Baxter holds, with Canada's Lonnie Hallett the only player near Heimiller in chips. Yet Baxter remains in the hunt.
82-year-old Baxter seldom plays tourneys
Seeing Baxter at the WSOP is a rare treat in itself, since he admits the multi-day grind of major events wears him down. “It’s hard to do when you’re my age. I don’t play [tourneys] really any more, because of the length and the time now. It’s just so hard. Like a day or two you can handle but three, four, five, when it gets back to back to back, you just kind of wear out.
“You’ve just got to go home, get into bed. I’m an early riser anyway so six or seven hours and I’m good. There’s not a whole lot you can do at 82. Me, I play a whole lot of poker, but I don’t play tournaments. I can’t do the hours. It’s a big disadvantage. That’s why nobody that old wins, because it’s just too much to ask, physically. I can still play; it’s just the hours.
Yet Baxter does sneak in a select few tournaments. In 2021, he not only played the Main Event, he cashed, finishing in 733rd place for $17,500. The cash was notable because it made Baxter one of just three players, along with Perry Green and Mickey Appleman, who have cashed in a WSOP bracelet event in all six calendar decades the WSOP has existed. Five other players could still join that elite list.
2023's Main Event will likely include Baxter as well. "I play it every few years," he told PokerOrg. "I’m probably going to play this year."
Indeed, the 2023 WSOP may see more of Baxter at the tables than any other recent year. Baxter also plans on playing the upcoming $10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven event. He may also slide into the Super Seniors, if he gets knocked out of the Seniors before tomorrow’s finale. But that hasn't happened yet.
