Erik Seidel

A legendary player that began his career playing backgammon, then switched to stock trading and finally decided to play poker. As it seems now, with $4.5 Million only from WSOP cashes Seidel has made the right decision. It seems that he has had it all figured out from the very start. In 1988 he made it to the final table of the Main Event, but lost to Johnny Chan. He won $280,000 and this was his very first money finish in WSOP. The next three in 1991, 1992 and 1993 were also spectacular as they all ended with 1st and 2nd place finishes. Let's meet poker legend Erik Seidel.

Story of Erik Seidel

Seidel aka 'Sly' and 'Seiborg' has been running fantastic. He already has 8 WSOP bracelets won since his first major tournament in 1988 when he finished second in WSOP Main Event. But before that he spent 8 years as a pro backgammon player. Being a New Yorker due to a better money prospects Seidel moved to Wall Street ans started trading. The market crashed in 1987 so after losing his job as a stock broker, Seidel found his true calling – poker.

Erik Seidel in poker

Erik Seidel is probably the most consistent poker player in the world. Since 1991, in WSOP he has finished in the money every year. That's 21 year in a row resulting in total 73 money finishes including 8 gold bracelets. So far, it has been estimated that via tournaments alone Seidel has collected over $17 million. To honour such performance and his overall addition to poker community in 2010 Erik Seidel along with poker writer Dan Harrington were introduced as 39th and 40th members of Poker Hall of Fame.

Erik Seidel's WSOP Gold bracelets:

• 1992, $2,500 Limit Hold'em
• 1993, $2,500 Omaha 8 or better
• 1994, $5,000 Limit Hold'em
• 1998, $5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw
• 2001, $3,000 No Limit Hold'em
• 2003, $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
• 2005, $2,000 No Limit Hold'em
• 2007, $5,000 World Championship No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball

Other big tournament wins Seidel has reached in World Poker Tour final tables 4 times and won a Main Event once in 2008 WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic taking home almost $1 million. He has also finished 4th in PCA 2011 High Roller, while in the same year a win against Chris Moneymaker at National Heads-Up Poker Championship brought him over $750.000. Overall, 2011 was the most rewarding year for Erik Seidel as he had collected almost a third ($6.2 million) of his lifetime poker winnings in just one year.

Interesting facts:

• Only a year into playing poker, in 1988 Seidel entered his first major tournament, WSOP $10.000 Main Event. He finished second only to loose to the champion Johnny Chan who managed to flop a straight on the flop.
• In the classic poker movie with Rounders with Edward Norton and Matt Damon, the final hand has the same flop that Seidel's and Chan's final hand in 1988 was.
• In 2010 Erik Seidel was introduced into the Poker Hall of Fame. The same year the nominees he had to beat included Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen and Linda Johnson.
• Currently he is No. 2 in Top Money Winners (No. 1 is Antonio Esfandiari)