Billy Baxter

With over 10 career titles and $2 million under his belt, William E. Baxter Junior (better known as Billy Baxter) is an unforgettable entity on the World Poker Tour circuit. Born in 1940 in the small town of Augusta, Georgia, Baxter was a local personality by the age of fourteen, hanging around pool halls and honing his skills in the art of hustling. By 16, Billy Baxter had amassed a small fortune of $2,000 and upped his game, frequenting local poker clubs nightly. He promptly invested his winnings in the Paisley Club, a small, local casino in Augusta. Baxter assumed full ownership of the club following a high stakes poker tournament in his late teens, cementing the foundations for what would become a famously lucrative career.

After a series of clashes with local law enforcers, Baxter closed down the Paisley in the late 1960's, turning his attentions to the increasingly lucrative industry of sports book and race book betting. For a time, he operated both casino and sports initiatives from an out of town farm, however was subsequently caught and prosecuted by State police. Following a brief stint in prison, Baxter met and married his wife Julie, during the honeymoon of which they took a detour to Las Vegas. Camped out in the Dunes Hotel for nearly a year, Billy made a profitable living playing poker, going on to win the World Series of Poker Deuce-to-Seven in 1980 and meeting his protége Stu Ungar thereafter.

Billy Baxter went on to score seven World Series of Poker bracelets, the most notable of which occurred in 2002 during which he claimed victory for a “razz”. From 1990, Baxter backed Stu Ungar in a number of World Series events and was hotly tipped to do so again in 1997, however, their partnership ended earlier that year when the rising star allegedly took his own life. Despite several well-documented spats with the IRS over tax liability, Billy Baxter continues to be an WSOP icon. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006 and as of 2009, had amassed a fortune in excess of $2.1 million.