Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel was born November 6, 1959 in New York City and is known as one of the best No Limit players in poker. Eric was born and raised in New York and started out as a professional backgammon player. He spent eight years on the tournament backgammon circuit before moving on to playing the stock market and then to poker.
Erik came in second in his first touranament, the 1988 World Series of Poker Championship Event. The final hand of this tournament was featured in the film "Rounders," starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, with Johnny Chan flopping the nut straight and trapping Seidel, who went all-in on the river.
Seidel made it back to the final table of the Championship Event in 1999, where he finished fourth. His first bracelet came in the Limit Hold'em event of 1992. Eric went on to gather bracelets from 7 more events - Omaha High-Low in 1993, Limit Hold'em in 1994, No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball in 1998, No Limit Hold'em in 2001, Pot Limit Omaha in 2003, No-Limit Hold 'em in 2005. He also made it to four final tables that year. Eric got his 8th bracelet in 2007 in the $5,000 World Championship No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball w/rebuys.
Most of Seidel's successes have been in Bellagio or Las Vegas. He is the only player on the Top 10 All-time money lists for those two locales. He was also a member of the famous Mayfair Club, along with other greats such as Howard Lederer and Dan Harrington. Currently, he is playing high-stakes poker in Las Vegas, as well as tournaments with larger buy-ins. He also plays poker exclusively at Fulltiltpoker.com.
When not playing poker Eric is listening to music or playing tennis.
Fun Facts:
- Part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker.
- Had a brief stint as a child actor when appeared in "To Tell the Truth" at age 12.
- Only World Series of Poker player to win titles in three consecutive years.
- Worked on Wall Street.