For all of the success that Erik Seidel has experienced in the first three and a half months of 2011, I keep waiting for him to go on an incredible downswing where he fails to cash in 100 straight tournaments, goes insane in the process, and pulls out the last few remaining hairs he has left. Looks like my vision will have to wait at least one more tournament since Seidel’s tear through the tournament poker world continued in the WPT Hollywood Open.
Taking advantage of the fact that he was the best player out of the 97 players who were able to find Lawrenceburg, Indiana on the map, Seidel generated a lot of buzz as he ripped through the field and onto the final table. In the end, Seidel found himself pitted against yokel local Mike Scarborough for yet another notch in his belt; however, he was also dealing with a 4-1 chip deficit, which helped Scarborough dispatch him in just 12 hands.
Even still, Seidel’s second place finish is another incredible result in an unbelievable year. After earning $155k for his second place finish, Seidel ($14.85 million) moves that much farther ahead of Daniel Negreanu ($14.15 million) on the all-time live tournament winnings leaderboard. In addition to this, Seidel is also challenging Negreanu for the greatest live poker year ever; right now, Seidel has over $4.3 million in 2011 compared to the $4.7 million Negreanu earned in 2004.
Of course, it’s not so much the money that makes both of these years stand out because several WSOP champions have earned more money. Instead, it’s the numerous tournaments that both Negreanu and Seidel cashed in to complete their impressive years. In ’04, Negreanu won two WPT titles and a WSOP bracelet in addition to notching several other huge cashes. In ’11, Seidel has won the $250k Aussie Millions High Roller, the LA Classic High Roller, and the NBC Heads-Up National Championship, along with several other impressive cashes.
And while you can argue that Seidel is tearing it up because he’s playing against much smaller fields, there’s no denying that he is doing very well against top competition. More importantly, he’s still got 8 and a half months to complete the best poker year ever!
