Erik Seidel Wins 2015 EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller

Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel has done it again.

The 55-year-old American poker pro overcame a record field of 59 entries in the 2015 European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em super high roller. Seidel defeated 19-year-old Polish rising star Dzmitry Urbanovich heads-up to capture his 28th career tournament title and the €2,015,000 ($2,250,999 USD) first-place prize.

With this latest win Seidel increased his career live tournament earnings to $24,063,722 and in the process passed Phil Ivey to move into third place on the all-time money list. Now only Antonio Esfandiari ($26.1 million) and Daniel Negreanu ($29.8 million) have cashed for more in live poker tournaments than the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner.

Seidel didn’t just add to his legend and his earnings with this win. He was also awarded 600 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second title of 2015, having won a $25,000 high roller at Aria in February. He has made a total of five final tables this year, including big six-figure cashes in the Aussie Millions $100,000 and $250,000 super high roller events. As a result of all of all of the winning Seidel has moved into 17th place in the overall POY rankings with 1,670 points and year-to-date earnings of $3,250,266.

Seidel came into the eight-handed final table in 5th chip position, with a number of tough opponents to deal with including chip leader Dario Sammartino and high roller dominators like Scott Seiver, Igor Kurganov and Max Altergott. Seidel survived to heads-up play with Dzmitry Urbanovich, which lasted 94 hands.

By the time the final hand came down Seidel had built up a chip advantage of more than 2-to-1. Urbanovich limped from the button for 300,000 with the K9 and Seidel made it 900,000 total with the 1010. Urbanovich moved all in for just over 5 million and Seidel quickly called. The board ran out Q8237 to secure the pot and the title for Seidel.

For his runner-up finish Urbanovich earned 500 POY points. This was his eighth final table finish of the year, with four titles won including the €25,500 high roller at EPT Malta. This second place score of $1,616,027 is the largest score of his career. It moved him into 5th place in the overall POY standings with 2,278 points and $2,455,639 in year-to-date earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Photo courtesy of PokerStars / Neil Stoddart.

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