Erik Seidel is just the fifth player in tournament poker history to have captured ten or more World Series of Poker gold bracelets. The 64-year-old took down the 2023 WSOP Paradise $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event on Saturday, Dec. 9 to enter a four-way tie for second on the all-time WSOP titles leaderboard with fellow legends of the game Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, and the late Doyle Brunson. Only 17-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth has won more bracelets.
“It really is nice to get to double digits," Seidel told PokerNews live reporters after coming out on top. "Any time you win a bracelet is just an incredibly special thing. To get to ten, I don’t know, it’s a beautiful feeling. It’s just so nice when things go well like this.”
The Las Vegas resident defeated a field of 137 entries in the high-stakes affair held at the Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas, earning $1,704,400 for the win. This was the fourth-largest score yet for the longtime poker pro, whose very first live tournament cash was his runner-up finish in the 1988 WSOP main event that was immortalized in the cult classic poker movie Rounders.
The Poker Hall of Fame member now has more than $46.7 million in lifetime tournament earnings, good for ninth place on the all-time money list. More than $9.3 million of those scores have come in bracelet events.
The first of Seidel’s ten bracelets was won back in 1992 in the $2,500 limit hold’em event at the 23rd annual WSOP. He won the $2,500 Omaha eight-or-better event the following year and the $5,000 limit hold’em event the year after that. He recorded his fourth and final bracelet win of the 1990s by taking down the $5,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single-draw lowball event, long considered one of the toughest tournaments on the schedule.
Seidel won another four bracelets in the 2000s, starting by taking down the $3,000 no-limit hold’em event in 2001. Just a few weeks prior to Chris Moneymaker winning the main event, Seidel came out on top in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha re-buy event with his sixth career bracelet. Two years later, he emerged victorious in a $2,000 no-limit hold’em event with what was then a career-high payday of $611,795. His eighth bracelet came in the $5,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single-draw lowball re-buy event at the 2007 series.
While he had plenty of success on the live felt during the 2010s, Seidel was unable to add to his bracelet total during that entire decade. More than 14 years after his last victory, Seidel finally came away with bracelet no. 9 by winning a $10,000 high roller no-limit event during the 2021 WSOP Online festival.
In addition to the money and the coveted hardware, Seidel was also awarded plenty of rankings points for his most recent win at the series. The 924 Card Player Player of the Year points he secured for his 11th final-table finish of the year were enough to move him into 76th place in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He also secured 750 PokerGO Tour points as the champion, sufficient to place him 11th on that high-stakes-focused leaderboard.
This latest win came in an event that ran over the course of two days. The field of 137 entries produced a prize pool of $6,850,000 that was paid out among the top 21 finishers. The money bubble burst late on day 1, leaving just 17 contenders heading into day 2. Seth Gottlieb held the chip lead at the start of the day, with Seidel hot on his heels.
Plenty of superstars fell on the way to the final table, including two-time bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress (17th), bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna (14th), and Chris Brewer (13th), bracelet winner Ivan Luca (12th), two-time bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo (11th), and Michael Watson (10th), who is a World Poker Tour champion and two-time European Poker Tour main event winner.
Huge congrats to
Erik_Seidel</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/WSOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">WSOP Bracelet #10, beating out this insane final table. What a legend!!
: @PokerNews pic.twitter.com/PvPlB4iBlx— Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova) December 9, 2023
Seidel had overtaken the lead by the time the field combined onto one table. Bracelet winner Timothy Adams (9th – $162,800) was the next to depart, with his A-7 unable to come from behind against the A-Q of Koichi Chiba. Gottlieb moved in front during eight-handed play, then extended his lead when his K-Q won a race against the pocket sixes of four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (8th – $205,000).
Seidel closed the gap a bit when his A
5 beat out the KQ
of WPT champion Jonathan Jaffe (7th – $261,400). Seidel flopped the nut flush to leave Jaffe in need of running cards for a straight flush, which never came.
Bracelet winner and WPT champion Alex Foxen was the next to fall. He lost all but a couple of big blinds in a preflop flip against bracelet winner Orpen Kisacikoglu but was ultimately sent to the rail by Seidel after a battle of the blinds. Neither player had much to speak of preflop, but Seidel made jacks and tens to win the pot and eliminate Foxen in sixth place ($337,300).
Chiba’s run came to an end when his K-Q ran into the pocket kings of a surging Kisacikoglu. The Japanese newcomer to the live high-stakes scene earned $440,500 for his efforts.
Bracelet winner and ten-time Triton Poker title earner Jason Koon was the next player to square off against Kisacikoglu in a preflop all-in. He three-bet shoved from the small blind with Q
10 over Kisacikoglu’s cutoff open. Kisacikoglu called with 88 and made quads by the turn to leave Koon drawing dead. Koon earned $582,100 as the fourth-place finisher. His $52.8 million in recorded cashes is good for fourth place on poker’s earnings leaderboard.
Seidel began to pull away during three-handed play. Gottlieb was the short stack for a bit but managed a double-up through Kisacikoglu to swap spots in the chip counts. Kisacikoglu eventually got all-in with K
9 trailing the K10 of Seidel. Neither player connected with an ace-high runout and Kisacikoglu was eliminated in third place ($778,300). The Turkish player now has nearly $17.1 million in lifetime earnings after this latest deep run.
With that, Seidel took roughly a 5:3 chip lead into heads-up play against Gottlieb. He was pulling away in the early going, and was one card away from closing out the win after his Q-10 suited had outflopped Gottlieb’s A-J. A rivered wheel for Gottlieb in that hand saw him close the gap considerably, but Seidel was still ahead when the final hand of the tournament was dealt.
With blinds of 200,000-400,000 and a big blind ante of 400,000, Seidel limped in from the button with 97 and Gottlieb checked with K6. The flop came down KQ6 to give Gottlieb kings up and he checked. Seidel checked behind with his air and picked up a gutshot straight draw on the 5 turn. Gottlieb bet 700,000 and Seidel called. The 8 completed Seidel’s straight and Gottlieb bet 2,800,000. Seidel raised to 9,500,000. Gottlieb moved all-in with his two pair and Seidel quickly called to earn the pot and the title.
Gottlieb was awarded $1,052,800 as the runner-up, the largest tournament score yet for the startup founder from New Jersey.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Erik Seidel | $1,704,400 | 924 | 750 |
| 2 | Seth Gottlieb | $1,052,800 | 770 | 700 |
| 3 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | $778,300 | 616 | 467 |
| 4 | Jason Koon | $582,100 | 462 | 349 |
| 5 | Koichi Chiba | $440,500 | 385 | 264 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | $337,300 | 308 | 202 |
| 7 | Jonathan Jaffe | $261,400 | 231 | 157 |
| 8 | Adrian Mateos | $205,000 | 154 | 123 |
| 9 | Timothy Adams | $162,800 | 77 | 98 |
Winner photo credit: WSOP / Matthew Berglund.
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