Erik Seidel may have taken the spotlight away from Scott Seiver at the World Poker Tour Championship on Friday. But the 26-year-old poker phenom has 1.6 million reasons not to care.
Seiver earned his first World Poker Tour title and $1,618,344 for his victory in the $25,000 WPT Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The Brown University graduate, who already had a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet to his credit, also won a seat into next year’s WPT Championship. He now has more than $4.5 million in live tournament earnings despite being known best as a heads-up high-stakes cash game specialist.
Seiver bested a field of 220 players, including an extremely tough final table en route to his biggest career cash. He and 2011 PCA champ Galen Hall led the way heading into Friday’s six-handed final table and both players were extremely active out of the gate when play commenced Friday afternoon.
First it was Hall getting his hands dirty, sending the short-stacked Justin Young out in sixth place with $225,654. After Young put in a three-bet preflop, Hall moved all in to put Young at a decision for his remaining chips. Young called with Ad-Jh but was in bad shape against the Ah-Kc of Hall, whose hand help up to win the pot and reduce the table to five.
Just minutes later, Seiver eliminated Michigan pro Tony Gargano. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Seiver min-raised under the gun to 200,000, Gargano moved all in from the small blind for around 2 million with Kh-Jh and Seiver called with Ad-Kd. An ace in the window was enough to give Seiver the pot and send Gargano to the rail with $278,749.
Roger Teska was the next to make his exit after a tough beat coming at the hands of Hall. Teska called Hall’s preflop shove from the big blind with Ad-10d, which led Hall’s Js-9s, but the board ran out Jh-5s-2d-5s-4c to ship another big pot to Hall. Teska took home $371,665 for his efforts over the six days.
From that point on it was all Seiver. He began 3-handed play with more than half the chips and used his big stack to push Hall and Farzad Bonyadi around. Hall found himself short stacked after Bonyadi doubled through him and moved his remaining chips in from the small blind with Jd-7d. Seiver called from the big blind with Ks-10h. The Kd-Kh-Qd flop made things interesting, giving Seiver trips and Hall a flush draw, but the turn and river were no help to the Stanford student, who added another big score to his 2011 winnings by collecting $589,355.
Seiver held a 3-1 lead over Bonyadi going into heads up play and it took him nearly two hours to dispose of the three-time WSOP bracelet winner. On the final hand of the tournament, Seiver rivered a straight and moved all in. He waited patiently while Bonyadi thought over his decision for nearly five minutes. Bonyadi finally called with two pair, and Seiver stood in amazement as he took in the moment that he had been envisioning for more than three years.
Seiver posted the following on Twitter after his victory: “Won the WPT for 1.6 million! Thank you so much everyone for the support. I love you.”
His victory came hours after Erik Seidel won the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event for just over $1 million — the Hall of Famer’s fourth victory of 2011 to increase his yearly winnings to $5.4 million.
On Thursday night, Seidel and Erick Lindgren agreed to bag their chips and finish the tournament Friday afternoon, with Seidel holding a chip lead over his fellow Full Tilt Pro. It looked like the match would end quickly, as the two players got all of their chips in on the third hand of the day, Seidel holding a flopped flush to Lindgren’s two pair. But Lindgren made a full house on the turn to double up and reclaim the chip lead.
However, in true Seidel fashion, he fought back to take control of the match, at one point winning 11 of 12 hands to take a substantial lead before finally putting Lindgren away. On the final hand of the tournament, the two players saw a flop of Ac-4c-2c. Lindgren checked, Seidel bet 125,000 and Lindgren check-raised all in for around 1 million. Seidel paused before deciding to call with Ah-5h for a pair of aces and an inside straight draw. Lindgren had Jc-3h for a flush draw and a gutshot, and the rest was up to the deck to decide Seidel’s fate.
The 9d turn was no help to Lindgren, and the 2s on the river put a stamp on another High Roller victory for Seidel, who said afterward that it was the toughest final table he’s ever played. Daniel Negreanu, Vivek Rajkumar and Justin Bonomo were the other players to cash in the star-studded event.
Here’s a look at the final results from the two major events at the WPT Championship at Bellagio:
$100,000 Super High Roller
1. Erik Seidel — $1,092,000
2. Erick Lindgren — $700,500
3. Daniel Negreanu — $448,320
4. Vivek Rajkumar — $336,240
5. Justin Bonomo — $224,160
$25,000 Main Event
1. Scott Seiver — $1,618,344
2. Farzad Bonyadi — $1,061,900
3. Galen Hall — $589,355
4. Roger Teska — $371,665
5. Tony Gargano — $278,749
6. Justin Young — $225,654
