Poker News

Erik Seidel wins NBC Heads Up Championship

Most casino poker players would be elated with the following career: $4.3 million in tournament winnings, a $250k Aussie Millions High Roller title, a $25k LA Poker Classic High Roller title, and an NBC Heads Up Poker Championship win. Even without rakeback, that's an incredible stat line! But for Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel, this is just the first two months of 2011.

Seidel added to his amazing two-month run by winning the 2011 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship on Sunday. The final match was a great story in itself as Seidel faced 2003 WSOP Main Event champion and PokerStars pro Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker put up a nice fight, but he was taken down by Seidel in two straight poker games during their best-of-three series. With the win, Seidel pocketed $700k, and Moneymaker earned the second largest cash of his career at $300k.

The road to the Heads Up Championship title wasn't easy for Seidel because he faced good competition every step of the way. The first four rounds saw Seidel face off against noted pros Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon and Vanessa Selbst. Seidel is certainly a deserving champion since he had no cupcake games along the way.

Aside from winning the NBC poker tournament, another big plus for Seidel is that he passed Daniel Negreanu to become the all-time leader in live tournament winnings. Seidel now has over $14.6 million, while Negreanu is sitting in second with over $14.1 million.

It's only fitting that Seidel would pass Negreanu on this list since many are comparing his 2011 year to Negreanu's incredible run in 2004. In 2004, Negreanu managed to earn almost $4.5 million en route to winning two WPT titles, and a WSOP bracelet. However, the key thing to remember is that Seidel has almost 10 months to go to set the new standard for an amazing year.

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