Dean Baranowski Starts Day 4 Looking for His Breakout Performance

By Matt Clark

Dean Baranowski (pictured) is tired. The WPT veteran slept for only a few hours last night, but it’s all for a good cause. Baranowski is playing for almost $2 million and one of the big stacks in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic when only 90 players remained to start Day 4 from the 812 who entered.

“If you’re not going to get excited over a WPT $10K, then why even play?” Baranowski said. “You fly all the way out here and there’re 90 players left. A one out of 45 chance shot of being a millionaire? That’s worth losing sleep over.”

Baranowski travels to nearly every World Poker Tour stop and has been rewarded for his persistence so far in Season XVI. Baranowski has notched four cashes in the six WPT Main Tour stops in North America and is on the cusp of number five today.

Day 4 is underway and Baranowski is among the big stacks and nearing another payday in what has become a routine exercise for the Texas chiropractor. When we last caught up with Baranowski at WPT Maryland, the 42-year-old was adamant about loving the competition element in WPT events.

He got more than he ever could have bargained for on Day 3, with his starting table including Steffen Sontheimer and then a later table that featured Season XV WPT Player of the Year Ben Zamani along with the notorious Gus Hansen.

The whole day was a thrill ride for Baranowski, who says watching Hansen and Zamani knock heads helped him remain at ease during a tension-filled day.

“It was the coolest thing,” Baranowski told WPT.com. “Zamani is in the worst seat in the house, to the right of the Dane! And I’m in the nine seat, I have this beautiful view. To see the intricacies of the tournament going on between the stoic, calculated Zamani and the wheels-off Gus Hansen sitting next to him, I think it helped me relax, like I was watching it on TV. It’s fun to see two incredible players battling like that.”

Baranowski wound up eliminating Hansen near the end of the night and propelled himself up the leaderboard.

The calm that Baranowski attempts to keep is aided by headphones relaying the relaxing music of Simon & Garfunkel, among other artists, helping Baranowski to stay zen with chaos surrounding him.

The first goal for Baranowski at every WPT stop is to make the money, but after a painful end to his run in WPT Montreal, he is ready to take the next step forward and make his first official WPT final table.

“It looks like goal number one is going to be accomplished here,” Baranowski said. “It feels like it’s time for a deep run. If I keep knocking the door, eventually that door’s gotta open.”

Although Baranowski is loaded with WPT experience, he is comfortable remaining under the radar. His table at the start of Day 4 includes Chance Kornuth and WPT Champions Club member Jared Jaffee, and Baranowski is willing to let his play speak for itself, calling poker a “humbling game.”

The final table is two days away and Baranowski’s motto for Day 4 is to avoid mistakes and have no regrets about his decisions. His fifth cash this season is near and Baranowski is not content to just climb the pay ladder.

“At this stage, I want to get into the money and then play what my read says is right,” Baranowski said. “I’m not going to be looking at pay jumps. I’m here to play and what comes, comes.”

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