Erik Seidel | Poker From The Rail

2011 World Series of Poker: Week 4 Preview

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

It was a very busy week at the Rio with 14 new bracelets awarded, two $10,000 Championship events, a handful of small buyin tournaments, and the biggest one day starting field in history.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier was perhaps the biggest name to capture a bracelet this week when he made it through a tough rock garden field of pros in the $10,000 7-Card Stud Championship for $331,639 and his 1st WSOP bracelet. Five different countries were represented during the bracelet ceremonies with the U.S. continuing to lead the race. The biggest 1st place prize won was taken down by Foster Hays in Event #18 for $735,400. Weekly winners below:

Event #18 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – Foster Hays (U.S.) – $735,400
Event #19 – $2,500 Limit Hold’em 6-handed – Darren Woods (U.K.) – $213,431
Event #20 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Jason Somerville (U.S.) – $493,091
Event #21 – $10,000 7-Card Stud Championship – Bertrand Grospellier (France) – $331,639
Event #22 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha – Eli Payan (France) – $292,825
Event #23 – $2,500 Eight Game Mix – John Monnette (U.S.) – $278,144
Event #24 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout – Mark “xqsays” Radoja (Canada) – $436,568
Event #25 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo – Chris Viox (U.S.) – $200,459
Event #26 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed – Oleksii Kovalchuk (Ukraine) – $689,739
Event #27 – $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship – Daniel Idema (Canada) – $378,642
Event #28 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – Andy Frankenberger (U.S) – $599,153
Event #29 – $2,500 10-Game Mix 6-Handed – Chris Lee (U.S.) – $254,955
Event #30 – $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship – James Hess (U.S.) – $557,435
Event #31 – $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha – Sam Stein (U.S.) – $420,802

Looking at my “Players to Watch” list, it was another week down and another bracelet in the books. I put Andy Frankenberger on the Honorable Mentions list thinking he was worthy keeping an eye on but WPT Player of the Year winners have traditionally not done well during the WSOP. Prior to Event #28 ($1,500 No Limit Hold’em), Frankenberger had yet to cash in a single event. He battled through a field of exactly 2,500 entrants to pickup nearly $600,000 and the bracelet. To date, my list has pulled in over $1,500,000 in prize money along with 3 bracelets and Erik Seidel is in the money of the $10,000 Stud/8 Championship.

Andy Frankenberger – $599,153 (1 final table, 1 bracelet)
John Juanda – $410,067 (1 final table, 1 bracelet)
Phil Hellmuth – $226,907 (1 final table)
Eugene Katchalov – $128,649 (1 final table, 1 bracelet)
Tom Dwan – $67,436
Tim “Tmay420″ West – $51,217
Josh Brikis – $38,421 (1 final table)
Erik Seidel – $20,236
Jonathan Duhamel – $9,738
Allen Cunningham – $8,191
Daniel Negreanu – $4,998

We’ve begun to hit the doldrums in the Rio Convention Center as the days and weeks drag on. The regular players are beginning to show the strains of playing so many events in a short time frame and things are getting testy. Unless something spectacular happens, and that is always possible, these conditions generally last until we are about a week away from the Main Event. Until that time, the grinders will grind, the writers will write, and the chips will continue to fly at an amazing pace.

Your schedule this week includes two $10,000 Championship events in H.O.R.S.E. and Pot Limit Omaha, one Shootout, a handful of low buyin tournaments, and the always fun times with $2,500 Razz. If the players weren’t grumpy enough, Razz should push them off the ledge.

Day 21, June 20th at 12:00 – $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
Day 22, June 21st at 12:00 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 22, June 21st at 17:00 – $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Day 23, June 22nd at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 23, June 22nd at 17:00 – $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
Day 24, June 23rd at 12:00 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
Day 25, June 24th at 12:00 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout
Day 25, June 24th at 17:00 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship
Day 26, June 25th at 12:00 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 26, June 25th at 17:00 – $2,500 Seven Card Razz
Day 27, June 26th at 12:00 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Paul McKinney “smokes” the competition at during the Seniors Championship
(I said it’s been a long summer already)

Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, Josh Brikis, Melanie Weisner, Phil Hellmuth, WSOP

2011 World Series of Poker Day 21: Big Stud, Big Bracelet

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

David Benyamine among the leaders of the $10,000 Stud Hi-Lo Championship

It was bound to happen during one of these smaller buyin tournaments, the field would decimate itself so quickly they would actually make the money on Day 1. Event #34 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em was the first to break that dubious barrier this year. 3,144 players began the day and the 323 remaining players made the money on the very last hand dealt. Simple math tells us (assuming 10 full levels) they were dusting off their stack at an impressive 4.7 players per minute. That rate will increase when play restarts as the shortstacks are happy to now shove in their last few chips for the min-cash or courtesy double up.

On the other side of the coin is the $10,000 Stud/8 Championship which has gone through 2 complete days without yet hitting the money. 168 players began, 18 remain, only 16 will make the money. Those returning include 11 time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and 8 time bracelet winner Erik Seidel. There is potential here for another historic final table.

1 – Eric Rodawig – 695,000
2 – David Benyamine – 448,000
3 – Mikhail Savinov – 431,000
4 – Ali Eslami – 415,000
5 – Antony Lellouche – 373,000
6 – Joe Tehan – 372,000
7 – Phil Hellmuth – 332,000
8 – Felipe Ramos – 331,000
9 – John Racener – 321,000
10 – Ted Forrest – 280,000

Other Notables: Phil Laak (193,000), Erik Seidel (126,000), Bill Chen (113,000), Justin “BoostedJ” Smith (86,000), Cyndy Violette (53,000), Jon Turner (44,000)

Only one new event with the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6-handed tournament which should draw a great field of online pros, grizzled veterans, and every Euro-grinder in Las Vegas. Two bracelets are “scheduled” to be awarded in the $10,000 Stud/8 Championship and $1,500 No Limit Hold’em.

Remember to keep an eye out on our @FullTiltPoker twitter and Facebook page for updates during the day. The Fantasy WSOP contest is also up and running for non-US players, get in the game and challenge your favorite pros.

Amarillo Slim plays the 2011 World Series of Poker Seniors Championship sporting a nice hat

Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amarillo Slim, Bloggers on the Rail, David Benyamine, Erik Seidel, WSOP

2011 World Series of Poker Day 3: Grudge Matches On Deck

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

We are inching ever closer to crowning the first WSOP bracelet winner of the summer in the $25,000 Heads Up Championship. 32 players returned yesterday needing to win one more match to make the money and advance closer to a title. Gus Hansen entered the room late, but with a flourish. The Dane cruised into the Amazon Room with his shirt completely unzipped as he sat for his match with Daniel Alaei. If this had been Patrik Antonius we might have seen some of the female railbirds pass out, as it was he just zipped up and took care of Alaei to move on.

Hansen also provided the match of the tournament in the round of 16 when he took on Team Full Tilt member Tom “durrrr” Dwan. While the others moved along quickly, Dwan and Hansen took turns taking huge chunks out of the other until the blinds forced Hansen to shove his severe short stack in the middle several straight times. He pulled off every showdown and eventually eliminated Dwan in the final match of the night.

They will play just one match today and determine the final four. The next round kicks off at 3pm PT in the Amazon Room.

Matt Marafioto vs Gus Hansen
Jake Cody vs Anthony Guetti
David Paredes vs Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Nikolay Evdakov vs Eric Froehlich

Yesterday was also the first day for the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament which was an interesting indicator of the rest of the summer. There was plenty of speculation ahead of the WSOP about field sizes and they blew the doors off yesterday. According the WSOP staff, the 925 entrants in Event #3 made it the biggest LO8 tournament ever run. A fine start to the summer.

Defending champion Michael Chow will not go back-to-back as he was eliminated late on Day 1. 201 players remain with the top 90 getting paid. Below are the top 10 and notable stacks to kick off Day 2 at 2:30pm with blinds at 500/1,000 (1,000/2,000 limits).

1 – Guillaume Rivet – 71,200
2 – Andy Seth – 61,700
3 – Gary Bolden – 60,700
4 – Richard Monroe – 59,000
5 – Cary Falk – 59,800
6 – James Dempsey – 59,800
7 – Francesco Barbaro – 58,800
8 – Sorel Mizzi – 56,400
9 – Ted Woolridge – 55,300
10 – Kostas Kalathakis – 50,600

Other Notables: Jimmy Fricke (47,600), Barry Greenstein (46,900), Matt Waxman (39,900), Bryan Micon (38,400), Humberto Brenes (36,100), Jean-Robert Bellande (34,700), John D’Agostino (34,400), TJ Cloutier (34,300), Scott Clements (30,600), Thayer Rasmussen (28,500), Josh Arieh (28,400)

The glamour part of the day involves the made-for-TV Grudge Matches playing out on the fancy new ESPN feature table. They will replay three classic Heads Up matches from previous Main Events in front of the cameras. Matches filmed today will be Chris Moneymaker vs Sammy Farha (2003), Johnny Chan vs Phil Hellmuth (1989) then the Rounders favorite and fan choice of the classic Johnny Chan vs Erik Seidel from the 1988 Main Event final table.

Two other new events also run today with the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em off at noon and the field of rocks in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud at 5pm. Both are showing an early trend at record sizes.

Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Froehlich, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, WSOP

2011 World Series of Poker: Players to Watch

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

The 2011 World Series of Poker is upon us. The first “open” event will begin in a few hours with the $25,000 Heads Up World Championship and we will officially be underway in the Rio. It’s become a custom around these parts to begin the WSOP by putting together a list of players to watch. Some come into the summer riding a heater, others just seem to be due a big series, and the others are just too big to ignore.

There are plenty of names which could be included on the list but no one wants to read a 3,000 word post. I didn’t include (but well worthy) were current Bluff Player of the Year leader Galen Hall, 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, WPT World Championship winner Scott Seiver, or WSOP legend Doyle Brunson.

Below are some of the players I think are worth your attention this summer. The Big Guns, Honorable Mentions, and Sleepers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Eugene Katchalov, John Juanda, Jonathan Duhamel, jungleman12, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Vivek Rajkumar, WSOP

MiniFTOPS XX and Erik Seidel wins again

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Erik Seidel has been nicknamed “Seiborg” by our friends at The Micros. Once again he went into a High Stakes tournament looking to destroy and that’s exactly what he did.

The World Poker Tour was making running it’s final tournament of the season and added a $100,000 buyin Super High Roller tournament at the Bellagio to cap it. 29 players entered and it took 3 days to crown the winner. The final table was stacked as expected with only the final 5 making the money, including Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Danial Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, and Vivek Rajkumar. Not too shabby for a “small field” tournament.

Once Erick Lindgren eliminated Daniel Negreanu in 3rd place we were guaranteed to have a member of Team Full Tilt capture the title. After heads up play was underway, it was decided to take a break to resume at noon the next day. After a battle, Seidel added to his incredible 2011 run with the victory and just over $1,000,000. That brings his total for the first 5 months of the year to $4.3million.

I was suggest taking him in your Fantasy WSOP league.

The lastest run of the MiniFTOPS series came to a close and was a big success after the shock of FTOPS XX. Over 160,000 jumped into the fray creating a prizepool of $7,313,591 which comes in less than $9million short of it’s big brother series at 1/10th of the price. The series also concluded without posting a single overlay including the usual Stud/8 event is usually a lock.

Mother Russia blasting out of the gates picking up 3 of the first 8 titles and dominated throughout throughout the fortnight. Russian players would go on to capture 11 of the 45 silver MiniFTOPS jerseys with the United Kingdom coming in a distant second with 4 victories. The Americas continued their struggles picking up just 3 total for both continenants (2 for Brazil, 1 for Canada).

You can’t miss how the jerseys are now spread around the globe when considering the list of titles per country.

11 – Russia
4 – United Kingdom
3 – Canada
3 – Germany
3 – Netherlands
2 – Australia
2 – Austria
2 – Brazil
2 – Denmark
2 – Italy
2 – Poland
2 – Sweden
1 – Belgium
1 – India
1 – Norway
1 – Portugal
1 – Romania
1 – Serbia
1 – Ukraine

Next up on the menu will be the 2011 World Series of Poker in the desert oasis of Las Vegas. Players will begin their journey to a bracelet in a little over a week and we’ll be there to bring you the updates. Keep an eye out this week for our 2010 World Series of Poker highlights brought to you by some of those who witnessed it.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, MiniFTOPS

World Series of Poker Heads Up Rematches

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

by Jason “Spaceman” Kirk

I just got a press release announcing a special made-for-TV event that the WSOP is putting together. The show will consist of three rematches from famous heads-up duels in the WSOP Main Event, played out on June 2nd and air on July 26th on ESPN. Two of the rematches – 2003’s Chris Moneymaker v. Sam Farha and 1989’s Johnny Chan v. Phil Hellmuth – have been chosen by the WSOP, but the third is going to be chosen by the fans. I can understand the rationale behind both of the WSOP’s picks. Moneymaker’s win was the shot heard ‘round the world that ignited the poker boom, while the 1989 match saw Chan denied a third straight world championship and gave rise to the most monumental ego in the history of poker in the form of Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth. Fair enough. However, it seems pretty obvious to me that the WSOP missed out on a fantastic opportunity to give one of its greatest players a chance to shake an unfair mantle foisted upon him by Hollywood.

Erik Seidel’s first-ever WSOP cash was second place in the Main Event, which under normal circumstances would garner him a nice second-place check and the honor of having the details of his performance lost to all but his own memory. Thanks to screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien and their little 1999 movie Rounders, though, he’s known worldwide as the guy who moved all-in against Johnny Chan’s nut straight, even by people who don’t know anything more about poker other than to fold when the Russian guy gives his Oreo tell. Sure, Seidel has acquitted himself pretty well since then, especially so far this year. Sure, he now tops the all-time money list in tournament poker and is highly respected by his peers. But in popular culture, the Rounders moment lingers – and to me, as somebody who appreciates both Seidel’s achievements and the history of the game, that’s seriously not cool.

Luckily, the rematch could still happen. One of the four choices poker fans have before them is the Seidel-Chan. None of the other three – 2004’s Greg Raymer v. David Williams, 2006’s Jamie Gold v Paul Wasicka, and 2010’s Jonathan Duhamel v. John Racener – hold any of the same historical significance as Seidel-Chan. One of them goes a step further by raising the frightening spectre of allowing Jamie Gold to return to television. (Isn’t there a law somewhere banning that? If not, there should be.) The oldest matchup of the four available is by far the best choice, so consider this my request to the poker community at large to do a great poker player justice by voting Seidel-Chan today at WSOP Facebook page.

Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, Guest Posts, Jason "Spaceman" Kirk, Johnny Chan, WSOP

Full Tilt Poker announces the Onyx Cup Series

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Full Tilt Poker is always looking at ways to expand the poker experience and yesterday announced a new set of events designed to bring together some of the best poker players in the world. The Onyx Cup Series is six high roller tournaments around the world with buy-ins ranging from $100k to $300k, creating fields where world renowned players can battle against each other for an estimated prizepool of $30,000,000.

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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Onyx Cup Series, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan

Take 5 with Julius Goat – March 7th

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

This week was a super-exciting one in the world of poker, but never mind all that. Exciting is for other people, not for the likes of me. Here’s my nonsense:

5. Gold Coast Closes. Yes, sadly but truly, the Coast has announced that their poker room is officially “closed”, which means “replaced by a few banks of slot machines.” With poker rooms now restricted to only the Rio, the Orleans, the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, Bill’s, The Excalibur, New York, New York, The Bellagio, The Stratosphere, The Imperial Palace, Circus Circus, Harrah’s, The MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, The Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Aria, The Mirage, Bally’s, Monte Carlo, O’Shea’s, The Sahara, Treasure Island, Flamingo, The Encore and the Wynn, could this be a sign that the “poker boom” is finally over?

4. Bluff Magazine Announces Their Power 20 – The powerful poker magazine has given a powerful list of powerful poker people, which means the people who hold the most influence in the poker world, as it turns out. I was disappointed to discover that this was not a ranking based on odor, but the newsstand guy wouldn’t let me return it. You’ve been warned.

3. Carlos Mortensen Wins A Major Prize – I think we all know that el Matador is one of the most skilled poker players in the history of cards. The former WSOP champ was chasing his fourth WPT championship, the guy was stacked over five million, giving him the chip lead. But I don’t want to talk about that; I want to talk about how he got that stack. Mortensen got all in with QQ vs. KK vs. AA and turned a flush to crack them both. For that reason, we’re going to award him with the first monthly Darvin Award. Named for 2009 November Niner Darvin Moon, this prestigious prize awarded to the player who gets in way behind but gets rewarded anyway. Congratulations, Carlos, and best of luck!

2. Chris Christie Hates New Jersey, Poker, You – So New Jersey tried to officially legalize intrastate online poker for their state, and governor Chris Christie vetoed it. Because he believes in small government, one imagines. Anyway, New Jersey citizens can sleep well tonight, knowing that their wives and kids and grandmothers won’t get violently and brutally two-outed in their beds tonight.

1. Erik Seidel Wins Everything – Erik Seidel has won around four million dollars. Not in his career, no; just in the first two months (and 6 days) of 2011. Your body is 90% water. Erik Seidel’s is 90% run-good. He has Adonis card cappers. He has tiger blood running through unicorn veins. He intimidated Donald Trump. You can’t hope to stop him, you can only hope to contain him, except that you can’t hope to contain him. There are not four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, there are five, and all of them are Erik Seidel.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Carlos Mortensen, Erik Seidel, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat

2011 National Heads-Up Poker Championship – Day 3 Live Blog

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

It’s the final day of the 2011 National Heads-Up Championship, sometime this evening we will have our 7th champion in this event picking up a nice trophy along with $750,000. Most of the eyes will be on Erik Seidel who is having a great start to 2011, all he’s been doing is winning every high roller event he enters, the 2011 PCA High Roller, the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, and the 2011 Los Angeles Poker Classic High Roller. There are no soft spots remaining in the Elite 8 which includes 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, 2010 WSOP Champion Jonathan Duhamel, WSOP bracelet winner David Benyamine, WSOP bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst, cash game specialist David Oppenheim, and heads up monster Olivier Busquet. Worthy of note, both David Oppenheim and Andrew Robl were not scheduled to play and only entered the field as replacements.

Seidel is trying to make the final match for the second year in a row but will have to get through the tough Vanessa Selbst and the winnner of the Benyamine/Robl match. First up today will be Olivier Busquet versus Jonathan Duhamel on the feature table and Chris Moneymaker versus David Oppenheim on the secondary. Cards should be in the air around 11am, check back for updates.

11:00 – Enjoying the fun part of poker as entertainment as the players wait during several run throughs with Leeann Tweeden teleprompting. After the requisite group photos and interviews, the cards are in the air. Two WSOP Main Event Champions, the Heads Up specialist, and the cash game monster. Players are starting with 200,000 in chips with blinds at 1,000/2,000.

Winner of this match is guaranteed $125,000 while the loser must settle for $75,000.

11:30 – It didn’t take long to determine our first semi-finalist. Chris Moneymaker and David Oppenheim were trading some pretty big punches back and forth throughout their match, with Moneymaker getting the best of it. They both put the chips in the middle on the turn with Oppenheim holding two pair but Moneymaker with a lot of outs including the flush draw which got there on the river.

Olivier Busquet has been working over the reigning WSOP Champion building up a sizable chip lead with the blinds climbing. Duhamel recently doubles up with A8 versus KT but is still facing a deficit.

Behind the scenes:

12:15 – The match between Jonathan Duhamel and Olivier Busquet took so long the blinds forced a shove or fold situation. With just 40 big blinds combined between both stacks, Duhamel called the all-in of Olivier Busquest. The 2010 WSOP Champion was behind in the hand but ahead in the match, then turned a Jack with his KJ versus Busquet’s AQ.

This means we have two WSOP Main Event champions in the Final Four.

Next up is Erik Seidel versus Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Robl versus David Benyamine.

13:00 – Not surprising the proceedings are running a little behind. The busiest people in the room are the PA’s and seat-fillers making sure we have a packed house. We finally have all the players in the room and ready to go in the last set of Quarterfinals. 8-time WSOP bracelet winner will be looking to continue his hot 2011 run against Vanessa Selbst. The other match will pit David Benyamine against Andrew Robl, the last player to enter the field.

Introductions and photos are completes and cards are in the air.

14:00 – Very little action over the last hour with all players having the chip lead at some point during their match. Vanessa Selbst was down a significant amount but took a big chunk from Seidel and that match is very close. David Benyamine was down most of the match against Andrew Robl but has recently taken the lead. Only one time in the history of this event has a member of Team Full Tilt not made the Final 4 and that year saw Red Pros Paul Wasicka and Gavin Smith move through.

14:20 – The blinds finally caught up to the stacks and we filled out the Final Four in consecutive hands.

Erik Seidel was facing a 3 to 1 chip deficit against Vanessa Selbst after a few big hands. He woke up to Aces to get a lot of chips back, flopped top pair 6′s to get a massive lead, and then Selbst shoved into his AJ the very next hand. He will be making his second straight Final Four and looking to improve on his second place finish of last year.

While that hand was being filmed, Andrew Robl and David Benyamine were patiently waiting for their turn on camera. Robl had a slight chip lead and a big lead in the hand with ATh versus A6. No luck for the Frenchman and the Andrew Robl will move on.

There is a one hour break while they change the set, back around 16:00 with the Semi-finals.

Erik Seidel versus Andrew Robl
Jonathan Duhamel versus Chris Moneymaker

15:30 – Fans and spectators are filing into Caesar’s poker room for the final matches of the tournament. Friends and family have first option at the best seats making for a big line to get in. It already looks to be a rowdier crowd than the previous two rounds. We are getting ready to see a battle between the former and reigning WSOP Champions along with the High Roller master and the young gun.

Play will be underway shortly.

17:00 – Two long drawn out battles were the tale of the semi-finals. Chris Moneymaker battled Jonathan Duhamel through several stalemates but it ended in a battle of the kickers. On a Q-J-T-6-5 board, all the chips went in the middle. Unfortunately for the reigning WSOP Champion, his Q9 was fatally outkicked by Moneymaker’s KQ. There were rumblings as to why Moneymaker was invited to this event and he seems to have quieted them for the time being. No matter the outcome, he will be back for the next few years.

The last battle was veteran against young gun. Erik Seidel was down early in his match with Andrew Robl but continued his great 2011 run by knocking out the online grinder. On a 2-2-3-T-T three-heart board, Seidel put Robl all-in and sent him into the tank. Minutes passed, he checked his cards, riffled his chips, watch, rinse, repeat. He eventually called and we’ll never know what he had until the broadcast as he just mucked when Seidel tabled 33 for the full house and another trip to the final match.

30 minute break and we’re back with the best of 3 final match.

17:30 – While the staff is setting up the money and trophy, a few numbers to keep you company. Here are Erik Seidel’s numbers for 2011 along:

3rd place in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-max at the 2011 PCA for $46,560
4th place in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller at the 2011 PCA for $295,960
3rd place in the $100,000 High Roller Event at the 2011 Aussie Millions for $618,139
1st place in the $250,000 Super High Roller at the 2011 Aussie Millions for $2,472,555
5th place in the $5,000 Heads Up Championship at the 2011 L.A.P.C. for $14,500
1st place in the $25,000 High Roller Event at the 2011 L.A.P.C. for $144,570

Chris Moneymaker on the other hand is guaranteed to make his second biggest tournament cash, his biggest being the $2,500,000 for winning the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.

They are about to begin.

18:45 – The first match in the best of three final is complete and was never really close once things were rolling. Erik Seidel took an early lead and never looked back, steamrolling over the 2003 WSOP Champ while only taking one minor hit. Even after losing with A2 to T9, he was still sporting a 3-to-1 chip lead and pressed forwards.

Moneymaker finally put his chips in the middle again with a flopped open end straight draw versus top pair for Seidel, running bricks ended the first match and he will now have to win two straight to overcome Seidel.

20:00 – The second match was a much longer ordeal but finished with the same result.

Erik Seidel is the now the 2011 National Heads-Up Champion after outplaying and outlasting a very game Chris Moneymaker. At one point during this match he was holding a huge chiplead but would give it back over a series of hands that spelled his doom. Near the end Moneymaker took a stab at a big pot holding nothing but Jack high on an Ace high board, Seidel tanked for a while before finally calling with his weak Ace. After picking off that bluff, the chips continued to move in Seidel’s direction. The hand saw Seidel check-raise a 5-5-0 flop only to have Moneymaker push over the top all-in. Unfortunate timing as Seidel had flopped trip 5′s and Moneymaker was holding King high looking for a runner runner perfect miracle which never appeared.

This continues Seidel’s amazing run to start the year with no end in sight.