Erik Seidel - Poker Legend

Like many poker players, Seidel was a backgammon player before he caught the poker buzz. From a young age, growing up in the Big Apple, Seidel and his brother use to frequent Chess City and it was here that he picked up the skills needed to beat his high school opponents when he started playing in the 10th grade.

Seidel concentrated on backgammon into his twenties, winning a large tournament when he was 18 years old. At the time the Mayfair was the hub of professional backgammon and when on a tournament in Vegas, Seidel played a couple of $1 dollar poker games, caught poker fever and headed back to the Mayfair to get some tips from the few poker players who were there at the time. They started playing no-limit hold’em heads-up matches with backgammon chips and very quickly, it grew into a real game. It’s no surprise that since his Mayfair days Seidel has become great friends with Howard Lederer, who also played in the Mayfair at the same time.

Seidel’s calm, cool, and collected style might not woo the television cameras but his long-term results and wins are nothing short of brilliant. Ranked 10th on the all-time WSOP money list, Seidel has earned over $5 million in tournament poker winnings over his 17-year poker career.

He has just added his 7th WSOP championship bracelet, has netted $752,235 and has made it to four final tables at the 2005 World Series of Poker proving that 2005 is one of the most successful years in his career.

Highly respected by his peers and with an amazing ability to adapt his game play, Seidel has cashed in on more than 20 major events in the last two years alone. He still remains true to his solid and successful formula and plays low-limit poker for at least 10 hours a week at FullTiltPoker as one of the site’s torchbearers.

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