Erik Seidel emerges victorious at WPT Foxwoods

Chalk another one up for the Gentle Giant.

Erik Seidel, who is sometimes remembered more for losing to Johnny Chan at the 1988 WSOP main event than for winning eight WSOP bracelets of his own, has finally secured himself a first-place World Poker Tour finish.

The Full Tilt pro took control of a final table that included Ted Forrest and Adam "AKat11" Kats, among others, to win an impressive $967,390. Seidel entered the final table with the chip lead but played a slow methodical style that eventually paid off. Three-handed play lasted six hours but Seidel was not to be denied.

After eliminating Andrew Barta in third place it took Seidel only one hand to take care of his heads-up competition - Robert Richard. In the final hand Seidel held A♥ J♦ to Richard's 9♣ 7♠ and that spelled the end for one of the longest final tables of WPT history.

Seidel is off to a fantastic start in 2008. He outlasted 778 runners to finish runner-up to Alexander Kostritsyn in the 2008 Aussie Millions. That score earned him a cool $879,028, and he followed it up a month later by going deep at the WPT event in Reno. Seidel finished 16th and earned a decent $28,099 paycheck.

Things didn't go too badly in 2007 for Seidel either as he won his eighth WSOP bracelet at the $5,000 World Championship No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball in the late stages of the World Series. Not bad for a guy the mainstream poker media always seems to forget about.

Team Full Tilt has dominated the 2008 poker season so far. Things got off to a quick start with Howard Lederer taking down the prestigious $100,000 buy-in Aussie Millions event. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson proved to be one of the world's best No-Limit Hold'em heads-up players by taking down the NBC National Heads-Up Championship.

Phil Ivey further solidified his reputation as the world's best poker player by winning the WPT LAPC, while fellow Full Tilt pro Huck Seed finally took down another major poker tournament by winning the Canadian Open Poker Championship.

Full Tilt pros Jennifer Harman and David Pham are also having exceptional seasons, although as of yet neither has won a tournament this year.