About Erik Seidel

Name	Erik Seidel
Current Residence	Las Vegas Nev.Las Vegas Nevada
Born	Nov. 6, 1959
Birth Place	New York N.Y.

No matter how many poker tournaments Erik Seidel has won - and he's won plenty - he just can't seem to shake that 1988 World Series of Poker Main Event loss to Johnny Chan.

Even though Seidel says he has all but blocked the game from his memory, the moment will live forever in footage used for the poker film Rounders and, nearly two decades and eight gold bracelets later, people are still bringing it up.

But if anyone deserves to be cut some slack, it's Seidel. It was his first year playing in the WSOP and, coming up from going bust nine times in the series prior to the Main Event, the relatively novice poker player must have fared pretty well to get to heads-up play against one of the world's best pros.

Now, after earning his poker stripes from years of tournament and cash-game play, Seidel can personally lay claim to seven WSOP titles of his own.

Life, however, started out simply enough for Seidel, who was born November 6, 1959, in New York City. As a young child he loved games and was a gifted competitor. Seidel even made an appearance on the now-canceled television game show "To Tell the Truth" when he was 12 years old.

His inherent gaming skills didn't start to pay off, though, until he took up backgammon while attending Brooklyn College. It was the 1970s and Seidel saw opportunity in the game, so he dropped out of school and started hitting the board professionally.

He hung out at the Mayfair Club, a legendary New York card room where backgammon and bridge players could always find a game. He did this for nearly eight years in between traveling to tournaments around the U.S. Over time, however, more and more people began turning up at the Mayfair for poker games.

Seidel had played some Hold'em in his sojourns in Las Vegas and started getting in on the games casually. Eventually though, his days as a professional gambler began to wear on him and Seidel sought out a nine-to-five job with a steady paycheck. In 1985 he began working as a stockbroker, supplementing his salary with winnings from evening poker games at the Mayfair.

But Seidel wasn't meant for a day job; the stock market crashed in 1987 and he was out of work. He turned back to the Mayfair. By that time, some of today's poker greats, including Dan Harrington and Howard Lederer, were wearing grooves into the seats around the club's tables; eventually Seidel joined in the action.

His poker game improved rapidly and by 1988 Seidel was feeling confident enough to ask friends to invest in him in his first World Series of Poker. He signed up for 10 tournaments, but went bust in nine of them prior to the Main Event.

Then, at the final table, the relative novice found himself going heads-up against Chan, the defending champion.

In what would be the final hand of the game, Seidel found himself in the big blind with the short stack. He picked up a Q-7 to pair with a Q-10-8 flop. But what he didn't know was that, with a J-9, his opponent held the nut straight.

Chan slow-played with a series of calls and when the turn and the river both showed blanks, Seidel pushed all-in and it was all over. Looking back, Seidel now says the game was a surreal experience for which he was completely unequipped.

Needless to say, he bounced back. He returned to New York to work on Wall Street and continued to play high-stakes poker and pop up at tournament tables. At the 1991 WSOP, he once again placed second in the $5,000 Limit Hold'em event, but saw WSOP gold in subsequent years when he finished first in the 1992 $2,500 Limit Hold'em event and first in the 1993 $2,500 Omaha Eight-or-Better.

In 1994, he confirmed Hold'em was his game when he competed in the $5,000 Limit event - this time winning the gold bracelet for his efforts. It was enough to convince him it was time to turn pro and, in 1995, Seidel and his wife moved to Las Vegas.

He didn't see another WSOP win until 1998 when he nailed down the $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw. The following year found him in familiar WSOP territory: the Main Event final table. This time Seidel wouldn't make it to heads-up play, busting out in fourth place and cashing for nearly $280,000.

There was bigger money to be had, however, and in the 2001 WSOP $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event, Seidel bagged a bracelet and $411,000. The Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, Miss., also proved lucrative for Seidel; though he placed second, his bankroll spiked by $258,020.

At the 2003 WSOP, Seidel competed in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha and $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em events and placed first and third, respectively. The same year in the United States Poker Championship $9,800 No-Limit Hold'em event, Seidel placed an all-too familiar second.

Festa Al Lago II and III were both kind to Seidel in 2004, when the poker pro landed a win in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em and $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Final Day events. He also took fourth in the Doyle Brunson No-Limit Hold'em Poker Championship that year. In 2005, Seidel celebrated his seventh gold bracelet win in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event, which earned him $611,795.

His eighth victory came at the end of an almost-disappointing 2007 WSOP, where Seidel won the last tournament before the Main Event: the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Lowball with re-buys, for which Seidel raked $538,835.

With such success has come great rewards, including sponsorship with Full Tilt Poker, for whom he appeared in a series of television advertisements.

Seidel is married with children and in his spare time plays tennis, watches independent films and is a music fanatic. His personal Web site includes a music tab with hundreds of personally recommended albums that are downloaded onto his iPod.

There's no doubt, however, that Seidel's true passion is poker. Coupled with his now-undeniable skill, you have to wonder how differently that 1988 championship game might play out today.

Trivia

• Only World Series of Poker player to win titles in three consecutive years
• Featured in the poker movie Rounders in footage of the 1988 WSOP Main Event
• Worked on Wall Street
• Former professional backgammon player