Background
Seidel was born in New York City.
Seidel was born in New York City.
In 2010, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. He eventually started playing the stock market, and then moved on to poker. He was one of the group of now famous players from the Mayfair Club, including Stu Ungar, Jay Heimowitz, Mickey Appleman, Howard Lederer, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Paul Magriel and Dan Harrington.
In his first major tournament, Seidel was runner-up in the 1988 World Series of Poker main event to Johnny Chan.
This final hand was featured in the movie Rounders. In January 2007, Seidel finished in second place in the Aussie Millions $100k event and took home $550,000(AUD), beaten by Erick Lindgren in Heads-Up play when he moved all-in with KJ of hearts on a two-heart flop and Lindgren called with a pair of aces and his 7 kicker became an eventual straight.
In March 2010, Seidel finished in second place in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and collected $250,000 after a 1-2 loss to Annie Duke in the final. In January 2011, Seidel finished 4th in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller Event for $295,960, then went on later that month to take 3rd in a A$100,000 buy-in Aussie Millions tournament for $618,139.
In April 2011, Seidel came just short of winning his second WPT title at the Hollywood Open.
He came 2nd winning $155,103. He defeated fellow Team Full Tilt member Erick Lindgren heads up for the title. In August 2011, Seidel took second to David Rheem in the $20,000 buy-in 6-Max Number Limit Hold"em tournament at the inaugural Epic Poker League for $604,330.
This brought his earnings for 2011 to over $6.2 million.
His 92 WSOP cashes rank him second all-time. In August 2015, Seidel was ranked #25 on the Global Poker Index.
(He was #1 for a total of 15 weeks in 2011). World Series of Poker bracelets.
Seidel made the WSOP main event final table again in 1999, finishing in 4th place in the event won by Noel Furlong. He won his first WSOP bracelet in 1992 and won his eighth and most recent bracelet in 2007. Seidel has won bracelets in five different games, including Hold"em, Omaha, and Deuce to Seven Draw. Only five players in the history of the WSOP, including world champions Philosophy Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Johnny Moss, and Philosophy Ivey have won more bracelets than Seidel. During the sixth season of the World Poker Tour, Seidel won the 2008 WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, earning $992,890. In January 2008, Seidel finished in second place in the Aussie Millions $10k main event and won $1,000,000(AUD). Just five days later, Seidel pocketed $2,472,555 when he won the Super High Roller Event at the Aussie Millions. In February 2011, Seidel won the High Roller Event at the Los Angeles Poker Classic for $144,570. In March 2011, Seidel won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, defeating Chris Moneymaker in the final. The $750,000 he collected for the win moved him into first place on the all-time tournament money list. In May 2011, Seidel won the $100K Super High Roller event at the WPT World Championship for $1,092,780. In May 2015, Seidel won the 2015 European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller for €2,015,000. As of 2015, his total live tournament winnings exceed $25,400,000, of which $5,087,102 have been won at the WSOP. Seidel has won eight WSOP bracelets.
