An evening with Erik Seidel

[Dan Druff]

So I got moved a million times in today's tournament ($1500 Ante Only NL).

Here is a bunch of nonsense about how my tournament went:

 

The first table went really well. I quickly chipped up to 17k, amazingly winning no big pots but just winning a huge succession of small ones (like 10 in a row without losing, or something like that). Sadly I had monster hands over and over yet got only minimal action. One time I even had AA vs QQ pre, but somehow the guy (who admitted he was a novice) flatted the QQ pre, and then the board of JJ7 didn't allow me to extract all that much value out of him, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, as soon as I got moved to my second table, things went downhill. Had AK against a 7k stack's AA, and we didn't get it in until an A flopped, which of course was a huge cooler. Then I just couldn't even chip up again, and hung onto a short stack for a long time (as the big stacks at my tables were directly to my left and very aggro), and never picked up another premium hand. Well,, I did get AA and chopped against another AA.

Anyway, with about 80% of the field gone, I finally busted. But that's not the point here.

The last table I got moved to (probably my 6th table) featured Erik Seidel. He had a big stack that just kept growing because he was both aggro and couldn't miss.

Right when I sat down, he saw my PFA hat, and asked, "So... what is PokerFraudAlert?"

This was like a giant softball being underhanded to me.

I responded, "It's a place where we talk about things like Full Tilt."

The entire table laughed.

Erik took it in good spirits. He said, "I guess I should have been expecting that answer."

I didn't bother to hassle him further about Full Tilt, because to my knowledge, he wasn't responsible for stealing the money there. He did hang on for far too long after the debacle, still wearing the patch. Like the other pros, he also never offered to give any of the money back. But putting that aside, since he didn't directly steal, I didn't give him more of a hard time, as I would have Howard or Chris.

During the event, Bill Chen approached him and quietly said, "Uh, that deal you were offering... I'd like to do that."

Erik responded, "Okay, the minimum is 1%. You interested?"

Bill said, "Yeah, let's do 1%. We'll settle up later."

Bill walked away.

Erik then told the guy next to him that he was selling One Drop pieces (not sure what markup, if any), and was hoping to sell 70% of himself off.

The guy then asked Erik, "What about your backers? Can't they just cover this?"

I didn't realize Erik Seidel had backers, but I guess it makes sense, given the high buyin events he enters.

"Well, with my backers... let's just say there were some issues that came up," responded Erik. "There were some problems. It kind of hit me out of the blue. I had cashed $1,000,000 earlier this year, and I would have just forwarded it over to the One Drop had I known, but I didn't, and now I'm stuck trying to raise 700k."

Erik concluded, "It's a lot harder than you might think to raise $700k on short notice."

[BeerAndPoker]

Erik Seidel record in these $100K+ events sort of speaks for itself.

Even though nobody imo has played a strong enough sample size of them since they haven't been going on long enough Erik has ran great in them so he's going to find the backing he needs imo for the Juan Sepulveda Drop.

Druff- Nice shot at FTP but yeah Seidel was clueless in all the stuff that went on with the original FTP. Since them guys are still likely his friends he will choose the words he uses very carefully at the table especially to guys he don't know especially ones who run a site called Poker Fraud Alert.

[BCR]

I haven't been paying attention for awhile, are we to infer that his backers were fulltilt people? The timeline doesn't seem to match up. Someone involved in that Trincher mess being a native New Yorker? Or just table banter and the backer is mysterious? I'm just asking because I haven't been paying attention and was curious if the bill became due on some large fine for the fulltilt people or something?

[SrslySirius]

I have an Erik Seidel story I'd like to share. I kinda feel awful about this.

A week after making my first trip to Las Vegas and beginning my shitfest adventure with QuadJacks, Zac and Marco took me to the Bellagio where the WPT $25k was going on. This was the first time I'd ever stepped foot inside a casino or seen 'famous' poker players. It was weird, and I admittedly felt a bit starstruck. I chatted a little bit with Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow, but I was too shy to interact much.

Anyway, Zac really wanted to do an Erik Seidel interview. This was only like 3 or 4 weeks removed from Black Friday, so nobody really knew that Full Tilt was going to absolutely shit the bed yet, but some of us suspected that something wasn't right. Erik was still patched up, though IIRC some pros had already stopped wearing it at that point.

Zac told me to introduce myself to Erik on the break, tell him that I'm the Seiborg guy, and see if he would agree to do an interview with Marco. I was very nervous about it, but I did exactly that. Erik seemed very pleased to meet me, called me a genius, and told me that his kids love the song I wrote. It was an amazing thing hearing Erik Seidel say that to me. So I asked for the interview and he agreed. Here's how that went:





Erik was pissed. I didn't hear it at the time, but he said to Marco "That was an ambush" and angrily stormed off. A bit later, as he was leaving, I said something like "It was a pleasure meeting you", but he just sort of grunted and kept walking.

2 years later at the 2013 WSOP I met him again. He was wandering around the empty Pavillion room during the dinner break of some event. By this point I wasn't shy about talking to poker pros at all, and asked him if he'd do a quick interview with me.

"I'm busy right now."

"Oh, you're going to eat."

"Well, no."

He didn't appear to be doing anything at all. Just wandering around aimlessly.

"How about next break?"

"I'm busy then too."

Yikes. I guess he still remembers me and hates me now. I've avoided talking to him ever since.

[4Dragons]

Did he recognize you Todd? I mean you shouldn't need to wear a 60 Minutes hat for him to know that you are a giant land mine to guys like him.

[simpdog]

Nuts that he wins 1 mill for a backer in Feb and is strugging for backing in June. Times have changed for the FTP former pros.

Back in the day they were likely freerolling all their entries so it was 100% profit. If you look through Erik's 2012-2014 cashes he has made 270k, 2 mill, 1 mill. But if he is getting backed he likely isn't making out that well himself.

My guess is he does have a nice portfolio but isn't the gambling type of guy. So definitely do not feel sorry for him at all.

[bukowski72]

He might just want backers to reduce his risk. Like most tournament pros I think he was close to busto before FT and his big run. He might have learned from that (and his wife) to try and stay out of that spot. There was some gossip she wasn't to happy with the downswings.

[simpdog]

Seidel is on the One Drop's official page. I thought this listed only people who have bought in, not confirmed.

Is it possible to unreg?

[4Dragons]

Seidel is on the One Drop's official page. I thought this listed only people who have bought in, not confirmed.

Is it possible to unreg?

Quite possible that he plunked down the reg fee and is hunting down backers to take up what he already committed to. I really don't think he has any problem writing that check.