Seidel wins WPT Foxwoods
April 10, 2008
It took a few seasons, but poker legend Erik Seidel has finally won himself a World Poker Tour title.
He defeated 346 players to win the Foxwoods Poker Classic.
Erik Seidel entered the final table as the chipleader, and wasn't going to settle for anything less than first place. The final table was amarathon too, lasting 229 hands and more than 11 hours.
Seidel's stack went through some ups and downs, but at the end of it all he was the last man standing. Erik Seidel wins the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, earning $992,890 -- the biggest cash of his storied poker career.
More importantly, Seidel adds a coveted WPT title to his resume as he becomes the 87th, and most recent WPT Poker-Made Millionaire. Included with Seidel's prize is entry into the Season VI WPT World Championship that begins in about nine days (April 19) at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Although Seidel's first prize payout of not quite a million US dollars was his biggest ever, it seems a little low for a big poker event these days, perhaps reflecting the waning popularity of some of the WPT events. This was the second year in a row that player numbers at Foxwoods have dropped.
This could be because of the fact that not many online poker rooms seem to run satellite tournaments into WPT events any more. Because of the WPT's structure of holding their events at many different casinos, and letting the casino run nearly everything to do with the tournament, it is difficult and time consuming for the online poker rooms to develop working relationships with all of the casinos.
It goes to show the power that the online poker rooms have over live tournaments these days. Without their help, you just won't be able to run a big event.
Here were the final table placings and prizemoney.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erik Seidel | $992,890 |
| 2 | Robert Richardson | $558,792 |
| 3 | Andrew Barta | $281,011 |
| 4 | Frank Cieri | $200,261 |
| 5 | Adam Katz | $151,811 |
| 6 | Ted Forrest | $103,360 |
Bodog still allows player to qualify online for World Poker Tour events through thier 'players choice' tournaments. Win a players choice tourney online at Bodog and you can choose to play in just about any $10,000 event in the world!
