Seidel Wins His First WPT Title

Filed in archive Tournament News on April 11, 2008

The quietest superstar of poker has struck again. Eric Seidel showed his poker chops and can add another bracelet (as shown here at Pokerati, which sadly doesn't include leather chaps and a Harley) to his collection.

Recently Seidel won the World Poker Tour Foxwoods Poker Classic thus adding mere $7K short of one million dollars to his bankroll. He entered the final table as the chips leader, and ended with all of the colored clay disks after beating Robert Richardson who rode his short stack for a second place finish.

In a quick finish, 2nd and 3rd place both were eliminated on consecutive hands leaving Seidel victorious and left with a hard decision about finding space on his mantle for his newest piece of jewelry to go with his eight World Series of Poker bracelets. As with all WPT champions, Seidel also takes home a freeroll into the $25,000 WPT Championship at the Belliago.

From WorldPokerTour.com, here's the call of the final hand where Seidel got Richardson to move in with third pair of nine versus his top pair of Aces:

Hand #229 - Erik Seidel has the button, he raises to 260,000, and Richardson calls. The flop comes AsKh9s, Richardson checks, Seidel bets 300,000, and Richardson thinks for about a minute before he calls.

The turn card is the 8h, Richardson moves all in for 1,275,000, and Seidel calls with AhJd for a pair of aces. Richardson shows 9c7s for a pair of nines, and he'll need a nine or a seven to stay alive and double up.

The river card is the - Kd! Erik Seidel wins the hand - and the tournament - with two pair, aces and kings.

Robert Richardson is eliminated in second place, earning $558,792.

Erik Seidel wins the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, earning $992,890, including a $25,500 entry into the WPT World Championship later this month at Bellagio in Las Vegas.