Is Erik Seidel the Greatest Ever?

Erik Seidel could fairly be described as the quiet man of poker. He doesn’t evoke media obsession like Phil Ivey or have the opinionated personality of Daniel Negreanu. But what he does have after his victory in the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship in the U.S. in March is the highest poker tournament earnings of all time – $14.7 million.
The eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner ousted Negreanu from atop the all-time money list with his victory over 2003 world champion Chris Moneymaker in the 64-player invitational event, bringing his 2011 earnings to almost $4.5 million – he’s won three events and made six final tables since the turn of the year.
Seidel’s win in the heads-up event is all the more remarkable given he was runner-up in the event last year.
Seidel has been around for a long time as his appearance with Jonny Chan in the 1998 movie Rounders attests to and his induction into the Poker Hall of Fame last year along with Dan Harrington was a welcome expression of the regard with which he is held by his peers.
He may not be the most visible or vocal player in the upper echelons of the game, but Seidel is a class act that usually lets his poker do the talking for him. A true champion for the ages.
Check out Seidel’s achievements in forensic details at Card Player’s new website TheBestPokerPlayer.com which allows browsers to access hundreds of thousands of results, photos, and statistics from the world of poker dating back to 1995.

Business Blues – Down, Down, Down
A cursory glance at the headlines of this month’s Industry News makes for rather depressing reading, featuring as they do a half dozen alternative phrases to describe falling poker revenue at some of Europe’s most well-known sites.
Last year proved grim for many online poker sites as what went up during the boom came down with a bump during the recession. But how much of the performance of online poker sites is attributable to their business models and how much to the global downturn? Who knows? but what is clear is that competition between sites for players has become cut throat. Behind the scenes, sites are crying out, “Where are the new players?” Has the pool dried up? Certainly the low hanging fruit of the boom years has already signed up and played at most sites of interest to them.
Networks like Ongame and Entraction are trying to attract more recreational players but how successful they’ll be in the long run will remain to be seen. Certainly keeping players in action longer is likely to boost recreational play and Bodog recently outlawed tracking sites used by canny players to glean information on opponents. This looks like a good step if they can retain their serious regulars while making it more difficult for them to bust unsuspecting casual players more frequently. Overall there needs to be a focus in the industry on retaining current players rather than spending increasingly ridiculous sums on acquiring new players from an increasingly shallow pool.
It’s been a common cause championed by this column — sites must treat their current crop of customers with more care and attention — and one which will need to be heeded this year if the outlook is not to get even more dreadful for our favourite places to play poker online. ♠