One of the Mayfair players, Erik Seidel has shown an affinity to playing competitive games since early childhood. Born in 1959, in New York, Seidel took part in the popular television trivia show “To Tell the Truth”, at the age of 12.

His first brush with the world of professional gaming came while attending Brooklyn College, through backgammon. The idea of being able to make a living playing a game appealed to him, so much so that after a while it made perfect sense for him to leave college to play backgammon professionally.

The Mayfair Club in New York was a hotspot for backgammon, bridge and poker games, a place where an avid player could always find some sort of action. It was in the Mayfair Club that Seidel started playing poker, and it was there he met up with Howard Lederer and Steve Zolotow to discuss poker strategy.

Initially, he found the life of a full time professional gambler tough, and in 1985 he decided to switch to a 9-to-5 job instead. He became a stock broker, but as luck would have it, the stock market crashed in 1987 and he was thus forced to return to professional gaming. It was then that he hooked up with Zolotow and Lederer and began taking poker seriously.

The Mayfair discussions had a huge impact on his game. In 1988, he was already confident-enough in his abilities to ask friends to sponsor him for no fewer than 10 WSOP events. After the first 9 events though, he failed to pocket a single penny. Just when his backers were beginning to doubt their judgment, Seidel came through where it mattered the most: in the Main Event.

According to most experts, the final hand of that tournament has been the most important one of Seidel’s career.

He pushed all-in from the BB holding top pair against Johnny Chan’s nut straight, as the latter decided to slow-play it and trap him.

Following his 1988 WSOP Main Event second place, He returned to work on Wall Street, but he kept playing poker, and in 1992 he finally hit WSOP gold, in the $2,500 Limit Holdem event.

From there on he’s made a habit of winning a WSOP bracelet almost every other year. He won one in 1993 and one in 1994, followed by another bracelet in 1998 and one in 2001. 2003, 2005 and 2007 also saw him walk away with bracelets.

Altogether, Erik Seidel has 8 WSOP bracelets and 53 money finishes.

He’s also bagged a WPT title, 2 final tables and 17 WPT money finishes.

Seidel is currently a member of the in-house team of professional players that Full Tilt Poker maintains.