Pot-Limit Omaha Loves Erik Seidel

At Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic pot-limit Omaha event in 2003, Erik "Sly" Seidel was in top form. He had made the final table of the limit hold'em event the day before, and now in the pot-limit Omaha event, he had reached the final table with a ton of chips. At this point in time, with Bellagio's $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship event looming large, Erik was the favorite to win – at least in my book. After all, he is a great player and, obviously, was in the groove that week. (In fact, he nearly had the chip lead after day one of the championship event, and eventually finished somewhere in the top 20.)

Erik had won a 2003 World Series of Poker pot-limit Omaha event, and missed the final 2003 WSOP pot-limit Omaha event when he had to play at the no-limit hold'em final table with Daniel Negreanu and me. Amazingly, Seidel played in fewer than six pot-limit Omaha events in 2003 (winning two of them), but still won Player of the Year honors in pot-limit Omaha from Card Player for the year.

Anyway, on day two of Bellagio's pot-limit Omaha event, with eight players left in the tournament and the blinds high, the following hand came up between Jim McManus and Erik Seidel. Erik remembers calling a small raise before the flop with Q-Q-X-X from one of the blinds. The flop came down K Q 4, and Erik checked. Jim bet, and Erik called. The next card off was the 5, and Erik checked, Jim bet, and Erik just called.

The last card was the 4, for a board of K Q 4 5 4, and Erik bet out with his queens full of fours. Jim then moved Erik all in. When Erik bet on the end, he planned to fold if Jim raised him his remaining chips. Now, staring at an $11,000 call all in, with a ton of chips already in the pot, Erik went into the think tank. He was initially convinced that Jim could only have kings full of fours. Then, he asked himself, "Could Jim really have raised me all in with fours full, or merely a flush?"

Although Erik was convinced that Jim had the best hand, he just didn't have enough chips to lay down his queens full. So, he called the raise and Jim said, "I have the nuts." Seidel was standing, ready to exit stage left, but for the mere formality of Jim showing him his four fours or kings full of fours. When Jim flipped up the A 6-X-X, for merely the nut flush, Erik thought, "Holy cow, I actually won this pot." You see, Jim didn't notice that the 4 had paired the board, and thus thought he had the nuts with his ace-high flush.

What a swing; Erik was already resigned to an eighth-place finish, and all of a sudden he was not only still alive, but was the chip leader, as well. Erik now says, "The funny thing about it is that Jim did think he had the nuts, and my read was right! Also, I would like to credit the U.S. Army, because they had captured Saddam Hussein only hours before, and that had left Jim in such a state of euphoria that he wasn't paying close attention to the hand." (Jim himself wrote, in a recent Details magazine article, that the "Saddam capture" distracted his play in this hand.)

In any case, Erik went on to win. What a great 2003 he had overall, but especially in the pot-limit Omaha events. Good job, Sly, see you at the final table soon.

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