Erik Seidel is known for many things in the poker world. He is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He sits fifth on the all-time money list with over $42 million in live earnings and is tied with Johnny Moss in fifth on the all-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet list. He appeared in Rounders at the beginning of the Poker Boom in a clip of his memorable runner-up finish to Johnny Chan in the 1988 WSOP Main Event.

But there is a lesser-known side to the poker legend. Few may know, for example, that when Seidel isn’t in Las Vegas or Europe for the latest poker stop, he is probably at a Broadway musical or at a folk festival in Brooklyn. Or that when he is focusing at the poker table, he is likely listening to a playlist packed with jazz and classical, as well as indie artists like Sparklehorse and Angus & Julius Stone.

“It’s almost like he’s capable of living these two completely full and fulfilling lives in parallel,” Maria Konnikova told PokerNews. “And I honestly don’t know when he sleeps because it’s kind of crazy how seriously he takes poker and how passionate he is about it, and yet how much time he finds for music, art, just living life, traveling, being with his family.”

The New Yorker writer turned poker pro may know Seidel better than anyone else in the poker world. Seidel mentored Konnikova as she prepared for the 2017 WSOP Main Event and the two developed a strong friendship.

“It’s almost like he’s capable of living these two completely full and fulfilling lives in parallel”

Here’s how Konnikova described Seidel in her 2020 book The Biggest Bluff: “In the bombastic, testosterone- and expletive-filled, ego-driven world of professional poker, Erik is atypical in more than his unassuming manner. He may be the only poker pro to boast a membership to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a willingness to fly cross-country to see Dave Chappelle do stand-up, or a near encyclopedic knowledge of the latest in the culinary scene from Los Angeles to Manila. He’s certainly the only pro who prefers New York to Vegas — and has a part-time residence on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the same area where he grew up, and not just the usual Vegas abode. His curiosity is genuine and boundless, his enthusiasm for life entirely contagious.”

PokerNews recently spoke with Seidel about his creative side and, specifically, his deep passion for music.

“I’ve always loved music,” the nine-time WSOP bracelet winner said. “I grew up in a family where there was always music around. I dunno, some people take Prozac, I listen to music.”

The Seidel Music Bug

Now 63, Seidel’s audiophilia traces back to his childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, when the cultural hotbed that is New York City was producing revolutionary music acts like The Velvet Underground, Ramones and Television.

“Both my parents were really into music. My mother played music — I grew up with my mom primarily, and she always had something on the stereo. She was obsessed with Nina Simone, she loved Paul Simon. She listened to a lot of music and she had good taste.”

Another Seidel with good taste was Erik’s younger brother, Steve Seidel, who is “really into music” and turned his sibling on to bands like the English indie pop group Florence + the Machine, which “was a big one.”

“Because that was before her album even came out in the US. I got to see her in London. I think the album was out in London, but … it was probably about six months away from being released here in the US. So that was cool, and then getting to see her here in the US before she blew up was really fun.”

Further demonstrating that music appreciation runs in the Seidel family, Steve’s daughter runs a weekly radio show at the University of California at Santa Cruz titled Music From My Dad, where she spins classic artists like Bill Withers and Steely Dan and contemporary acts like Daft Punk and Thundercat.

“He’s got great taste and often writes about music, as well,” Seidel said about his younger brother. “I pay a lot of attention to his end-of-the-year lists and whatever he recommends. Afghan Wigs is one band he turned me onto that I really like. He listens to a lot of stuff.”

A Glimpse at Erik’s Playlist

The idea for this story came while I was live reporting at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona stop in August, where Seidel was, in standard fashion, grinding long hours and making final tables.

During Day 1 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, I spotted Seidel with bulky headphones over his ears in a black t-shirt that caught my attention. It was from the 2018 “There’s No Leaving New York” festival, a massive gathering at Forest Hills Stadium that featured indie artists like The National and Phoebe Bridgers, both of whom I myself have seen perform live.

Intrigued and always eager to discuss bands I like, I couldn’t resist asking about the shirt.

“I think they (The National) are the best band in the world,” Seidel told me. “I really do.”

Later, I asked Seidel if he’d be willing to have a longer discussion about his love for music. He agreed to do so, just not in the middle of a tournament.

Seidel’s taste in music can only be described as eclectic — hip-hop, soul, classical, jazz, folk, rock, pop, he likes it all, no matter how obscure.

“Indie is probably what I listen to most. A lot of singer-songwriters.”

“I would say a decent percentage of the music I listen to is stuff that most people would not have heard of,” he said. “And I have a playlist, it’s kind of meant to be kind of a mellower playlist for when I’m getting a massage or something like that, and that has a lot of songs on it that are just from a pretty wide variety of artists. But it’s definitely meant to be on the mellower side. But I think if anybody looked at that on Spotify they would find a huge percentage of different bands and singer-songwriters that they’ve never heard of.”

But there is one alternative rock subgenre closest to his heart.

“Indie is probably what I listen to most. A lot of singer-songwriters. The National is probably my favorite band. I love Wilco. I tweeted about Valerie June, I love her. I was just looking to see if she’s got any live concerts coming up anywhere in my neighborhood. But she doesn’t do any touring, (or) as much as I would like.”

Seidel turned the tables and asked me a question: “And what kind of music do you generally listen to?”

I told him that I grew up listening to listening to heavy metal like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and had branched out to more subtle genres in recent years.

“Interesting,” he replied. “I wonder if we tend to mellow as we get older.”

Mellow Music on the Felt

When Seidel’s at the poker table, the mellower the music, the better.

“It’s always interesting to me what people listen to (while playing poker) because I know a lot of people listen to metal or rap and feel it pumps them up or whatever, but for me, I want to listen to the most mellow stuff. I just want to listen to stuff that’s not distracting. A lot of times I’ll just sit and listen to jazz or find a classical album or something. I don’t want anything too distracting, or I don’t want to be banging my head on the table.”

And every now and then, music takes precedence for the relentless grinder. He may be the only player on the high roller circuit to have skipped a tournament to attend a blues show, which is what he did in October when he missed an EPT London High Roller to instead see a performance at Shepherds Bush Empire in West London by Mississippi musician Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, a “really incredible blues guitarist that is only 23 years old and they’re already calling him the future of the blues.”

“It really was one of the most exciting shows I’ve seen in my life,” he recalled. “He was just an incredible guitarist, and he was also a really great performer, as well. He was really getting the crowd into it.”

“I felt like that was going to be a much more memorable thing for me than playing another tournament.”

“I had heard his album maybe earlier this year and just it struck me right away that this guy is really special. And so I bought the tickets months ago knowing I was going to be in London for the EPT, and I just decided at the end of it, I felt like that was going to be a much more memorable thing for me than playing another tournament … That’s also part of the fun of being in a city is going and exploring new venues and new neighborhoods and things like that. And getting to walk around. London is really such an incredible city to walk in.”

After the momentary break from the felt, Seidel played the EPT London Main Event, where he ran deep and wound up finishing in 12th place for $46,462.

“He Might Be the Only Person I Follow on Spotify”

Seidel immediately made an impression on Konnikova when she approached him to get his mentorship in preparation for the 2017 WSOP Main Event.

“I think that when you’re meeting a poker player you expect a certain thing,” she told PokerNews in an interview for this article. “At least, I know that now. When I first met Erik, I really didn’t know what to expect. So I didn’t know how shocked I should’ve been. But these days, I know that most poker players, they play poker … They do tend to be circumscribed a little bit.”

“And right away when I met him, I was just completely blown away by the depth of knowledge of these different topics that he has (interest in).”

After their first meeting, Seidel startled Konnikova by asking what she thought about Sergei Dovlatov, a 20th-century Russian writer whose books probably don’t line the shelves of many poker players.

“And I was like … ‘Wait, why in the world are you asking me?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I saw that he was mentioned on this New Yorker podcast that I listen to and I was wondering if I should read his short stories.’ Who does that?! I was like, ‘Yeah you should read him, he’s wonderful.’ But that, to me, encapsulates how he approaches it and how he’s just truly interested and passionate about all of this.”

Konnikova called Seidel her “go-to source for music,” mentioning that “he sends me albums and playlists all the time and I know I will like them, and they’re all over the map, from rap to soul, jazz, classical, just everything.”

“And he’s constantly listening to music, by the way,” she said. “He constantly has new playlists going … I think he might be the only person I follow on Spotify.”

Has Konnikova ever gotten to accompany her poker mentor to a concert or show?

“Oh, always. Yes is the answer. He just has an absolutely insatiable amount of energy, an insatiable curiosity and, I don’t know, an interminable amount of energy … But it’s just bottomless, and every single time that we’re in New York at the same time he will always be like, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this?'”

“Every single time that we’re in New York at the same time he will always be like, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this?'”

One memory came to Konnikova’s mind. Seidel asked if she’d accompany him to a late-night comedy double-header, starting uptown with Chris Rock and ending with Jerrod Carmichael in the Village.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m gonna be asleep. I can’t do it.’ And he did it … He absolutely did it and he loved it. He was like, ‘Absolutely worthwhile.’ And I don’t know what time he probably gets home after things like that. 3 a.m.? 4 a.m.? I couldn’t do that even when I was 18 years old!”

Heaven or Las Vegas or NYC

Though he lives in Las Vegas, Seidel estimated he spends about a third of his days in his hometown NYC. And in that time, he tries to make the most of it.

“I pay a lot of attention to what’s happening in the music scene and the theater scene. So when I’m in New York I’m out pretty much every night doing something. Because there’s just always … I mean, all of the most gifted people in the world come here and perform here, and so it’s just incredible to me to hang out and have the opportunity to do all the things that we have here in the city.”

With the majority of his time spent in Vegas or on the road, Seidel called it “a real treat when I do get to be here (in New York).”

“This is really heaven for me,” he said. “I’m always happy here.”

Recently, Seidel spent his 63rd birthday in his favorite city seeing a revival of the musical Parade starring Ben Platt, a performance that was “actually incredible.”

“It really was one of the most powerful shows I’ve ever seen. It was just a short-term production, so it was only there for five days and they’re hoping to take it to Broadway, so I do hope they make it to Broadway. It was just really a brilliant production.”

While Konnikova has amassed more than $375,000 in live tournament earnings and won a 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure trophy with Seidel’s mentorship, she is also grateful for the Poker Hall of Famer’s guidance in life’s other facets.

“One of the things that I absolutely love about New York is just the vibrancy and that there’s always something to do,” she said. “And I do love music and art and culture and theater and jazz and all of these (things), and I love the availability of all of that there. And I think he made me appreciate New York more in the sense of actually taking advantage of some of these things. And getting over my laziness, because I do get lazy, and he’s like, ‘No, you have to see this.’ And he’s made me realize, you know what, just get off your ass and go see it. So I definitely owe that to him.”

More than two years after they first met online, a ClubWPT group of friends dubbed the “Stream Team” finally gathered together in Las Vegas at the luxurious Wynn for an evening of delicious bar-be-que and poker.

The fun evening for the 50 members of the group occurred two days before the start of the historic WPT World Championship, the first ever $15 million guaranteed live poker tournament. On Monday, the $10,400 buy in event will begin at Wynn, and the field is expected to crack 1,700 entrants, perhaps even hitting 2,000, an unthinkable amount for such an expensive tournament.

Friends Gather in Las Vegas

During Day 1c of the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn, which had an impressive 5,430 entries ($5.2 million prize pool), Stream Team members, and a few plus-one’s, congregated in the Brahms reception room for a tasty meal along with World Poker Tour commentators Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst, Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, WPT President and CEO Adam Pliska, and the talented presenter Lynn Gilmartin. Even Steve Lipscomb, the WPT’s founder back in 2002, stopped by.

What is the Stream Team? Back in March 2020 when the pandemic first struck, poker rooms across the world were closed. The World Poker Tour, along with every other tournament, was forced to cancel all events for months. But the WPT crew found a way during that time to keep the game going.

Gilmartin, Savage, and Dunst would stream ClubWPT action during the pandemic. It was during these streams when the now appropriately named Stream Team first began chatting. They often congregate in a Discord group to discuss poker, life, and the WPT.

Over the past couple of years, the group has bonded online and formed friendships that will last a lifetime. But until Saturday, they’d never met in person.

Check out the WPT Hub on PokerNews here!

The Stream Team comes from all walks of life — mostly in the United States, although a few members live in Canada. There are men and women of various ages, and they all have different occupations. Some are married and have kids, others are single. Some are retired, others are early in their careers. But there’s one thing they all have in common that will always keep them bonded — a passion for poker.

Most of the 50 members and invited guests traveled on their own dime to Las Vegas just to hangout with their fellow Stream Teamers. A few, such as Jason “Kabby” Kabakoff, who moved to Henderson (Las Vegas area) from Dallas, Texas a year ago, only had to drive across town.

Also in attendance was the ClubWPT Player of the Year, Mark “Symo4709” Symons, who hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He spoke with the WPT during the BBQ and said he beat out thousands of players to win the award.

“I started playing poker about two years ago during the pandemic,” Symons said. “I had a work-from-home job and it was not very interesting, and so I tuned in to some of the old episodes and I saw Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton talking about how different hands are played out, and Tony Dunst breaking down the ‘Raw Deal.’

For his accomplishment, Symons won a free seat into the WPT World Championship, which runs Dec. 12-20.

Surprise Revealed

For two years, Al Kalieta and Lynne Christiensen played in Stream Team private games in separate rooms from the same home in Long Island, New York. They’re engaged, and no one else in the group even knew about it until the couple broke the news this weekend.

“She’d play on the first floor, and I’d go upstairs and play,” Kalieta explained.

The couple has an interesting story to tell, which they did to PokerNews Saturday night. According to Kalieta, the two met on the Match.com dating site 18 years ago. But their relationship only lasted for about two years.

A couple years ago, he signed up for the Bumble app and had recognized someone on there — it was his ex, Lynne Christiensen.

“I got in touch with her, she responded and we’ve been together ever since,” he said.

The New York couple rekindled their romance and plans to one day tie the knot, although they don’t have a wedding date set. As for who the better poker player is in the relationship, they both had similar answers, although Kalieta wisely chose his significant other.

“I’ve been playing longer, but I’m going to tell you that she’s the better one,” Kalieta said with a bit of hesitation.

Christiensen, on the other hand, took no time whatsoever to defiantly answer, “I am.” So that settles it.

Let’s Play Some Poker

The Stream Team has played hundreds of online games together for nearly three years now. On Saturday, they finally had an opportunity to sit next to each other face-to-face in a live poker room to play some cards, and they got to take a shot against World Poker Tour familiar faces such as Gilmartin, Dunst, and Savage.

Each player bought in for $120 with the first-place winner taking home $1,500. The first to exit was Dunst, who was sent packing by Christiensen, perhaps proving her claim that she’s a better poker player than her significant other.

At the end of the night, Patrick Grimm was the last player standing, beating out Terry St. Peter heads up to take it down. Fun was had by all, even those who didn’t reach the money.

View the Full Photo Gallery from the Stream Team’s Evening at Wynn

Did You Know the World Poker Tour is Online?

The launch of WPT Global means that poker players around the world now have the chance to win their way to WPT events, win prizes and enjoy exciting games such as Poker Flips. As one of the world’s largest cash game poker networks, WPT Global is available in over 50 countries and territories around the world.

WPT Global offers a large deposit match bonus: 100% on deposits up to $1,200 (using any payment method). New players depositing a minimum of $20 automatically receive this match bonus which is unlocked in $5 increments (credited straight to the cashier) for every $20 of rake contribution.

Both tournaments and cash games count towards bonus unlocking; new players have 90 days from the date of first deposit to unlock and claim their full bonus amount.

Listen to more about the WPT World Championship on the new PokerNews Podcast!

_{*Images courtesy of WPT.}

In November, Venetian Las Vegas played host to the Deepstack Extravaganza IV, a 48-event series that catered to a combined 6,321 entries and awarded $4,298,123 in prize money.

Among those to capture titles during the series were Nghia Nguyen (Event #1: $1,100 MPST for $90,215), Connor Stuewe (Event #5: $1,600 MSPT for $156,520), Benjamin McKevitt (Event #20: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $17,078), Michael Helander (Event #22: $400 NLH Ultimate Stack for $29,100), Jeffrey Fuhr (Event #37: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $14,053), and Thomas Heally (Event #48: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $9,997).

Here’s a look at some of the bigger winners from the recently-completed Deepstack Extravaganza IV.

Check out the Venetian Poker Room Review on PokerNews here!

John Riordan Scores $176K in Card Player Poker Tour

In mid-November, the $2,500 Card Player Poker Tour $2,500 Main Event attracted 363 runners, which offered up an $816,750 prize pool to the top 46 finishers. It marked the 11th time the CPPT held an event at Venetian dating back to 2013.

Some familiar names to cash were Stanley Lee (11th – $11,476), James Romero (12th – $9,334), Chance Kornuth (20th – $6,576), Jeremy Ausmus (31st – $5,701), and Ryan Riess (40th – $5,430). Also, at the final table were the Moreno Brothers – Johnnie and Andrew. The former finished in third place for $84,416 while the latter placed sixth for $32,026.

In the final hand of the tournament, Carl Oman got his chips all in on the turn with a pair and straight draw but was way behind the flopped set of fives of John Riordan. The river was a brick and Riordan captured his eighth career title and moved up to just shy of $2 million in career earnings according to the Hendon Mob.

“I wasn’t expecting much coming into the final table, coming in sixth of nine,” Riordan told Card Player after the win. “But I knew if some good things happened it was anybody’s tournament. I’m very happy and fortunate that it turned out to be mine.”

He continued: “The biggest turning point came on [day 2], where I had the starting stack all day long. Then I went from 100,000 to 2,000,000 in two hours, just winning everything, making tons of hands. It was very fun.”

Card Player Poker Tour Final Table Results

More Venetian Success for Kfir Nahum

At the end of November, Event #41: $600 NLH Ultimate Stack attracted 373 entries and offered up a $188,365 prize pool to the top 42 finishers. Among those to walk away with a cash were Shawn Daniels (13th – $2,589), Ben Palmer (19th – $1,918), Brian Sung (26th – $1,438), Aaron Massey (30th – $1,246), Lokesh Garg (39th – $1,150), and Elvis Toomas (42nd – $1,150).

Coming out the victor was Kfir Nahum, who defeated Patrick Truong in heads-up play to deal him his second runner-up finish of the series. Nahum is no stranger to success at Venetian; in fact, he’s claimed several titles including winning the 2018 MSPT $1,100 Poker Bowl II for $108,410.

Event #41 Final Table Results

Taylor Pollard Wins Ultimate Bounty

Back on November 12, Event #16: $800 NLH Ultimate Bounty saw 422 entrants compete, which fell short of the $300K GTD. As such, Venetian added $8,820, and the $300,000 prize pool was paid out to the top 54 finishers including Mitch Garshofsky (12th – $1,615), Jeremy Pekarek (14th – $1,340), Nipun Java (17th – $1,340), Allyn Shulman (20th – $1,136), and Jim Collopy (24th – $1,136).

The final table was a stacked affair, and in the end, it was Taylor Pollard of Sacramento, California defeating Patrick Truong in heads-up play to claim the title and $30,383 top prize.

Event #16 Final Table Results

What’s Up Next?

The DeepStack Extravaganza NYE is already underway and will run through January 8, 2023. The series is comprised of 58 events – including the final MSPT event of the season from Dec. 28-30 – and offers more than $2.2 million in guaranteed tournament prize pools.

Click here to see the DeepStack Extravaganza NYE schedule!

The third high-stakes contest of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague festival has come to a conclusion in the early morning hours. After more than 13 hours of live poker action at the Hilton Prague, Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller has come to a conclusion.

Out of a field of 30 entries, the top five finishers shared a portion of the €720,300 prize pool, and the player to collect all the chips was the same as the previous night. The UK’s Ben Heath scored back-to-back victories after a fiercely contested heads-up duel with Thailand’s Kannapong Thanarattrakul, after which Heath walked away with the top prize of €273,710 and second PokerStars Spadie trophy in a row.

Thanarattrakul dominated the final table and was responsible for bursting the money bubble but he was unable to finish the job after a heads-up duel that lasted more than two hours. Aleksejs Ponakovs, Pablo Brito Silva, and Jorryt van Hoof were the only other players to earn a cash prize while Kent Staahle was the last contender to walk away empty-handed without anything to show for.

Be Part of Poker History; Qualify for the 2023 EPT Paris Main Event

Final Result Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller

It wasn’t smooth sailing by any means for Heath to claim the second victory in a row and he even needed to take advantage of the reentry option after he ran with ace-king into the pocket aces of Timothy Adams in Level 3. By then, Mike Watson was already on the rail after he crashed out on the very first level.

Other notables would follow such as Orpen Kisacikoglu, Pascal Lefrancois, aforementioned Adams, Tom Orpaz, and
Rodrigo Seiji. The eventual runner-up also had to buy back in after his ace-ten suited was cracked by the ace-nine of Adams. The latter found no fortune on bullet number two and Heath was ousted a second time, too, when Staahle rivered a straight.

Last night’s runner-up Alex Kulev quickly doubled after entering the fray but couldn’t keep up the momentum to bow out before the dinner break. Five late entrants at the end of the registration period paved the way for the last two tables and they quickly became one as notables such as Juan Pardo, Dimitar Danchev, €10,200 Mystery Bounty Event winner Seiji, and Steve O’Dwyer were all among the casualties.

Adrian Mateos and Sam Greenwood suffered cruel beats after the field of hopefuls had combined to a single table for the last time. The Spaniard got it in with pocket tens for an overpair only for Thanarattrakul to river a nine-high straight. However, the exit of Greenwood was even worse when his kings were up against the ace-king of Heath. Despite improving to a set with the case king on the flop, Greenwood was doomed when Heath hit running cards for Broadway.

Kisacikoglu never recovered from a major setback to fall two spots away from the money and Staahle then risked it all with the nut flush draw. Thanarattrakul looked him up with top pair and prevailed to let Ponakovs as the far shortest stack celebrate. Down to the final five players, Heath and Thanarattrakul were the runaway chip leaders and took their turns to decimate the field to the heads-up stage.

Thanarattrakul entered the duel with a two-to-one lead and Heath slowly but steadily took chunks out of his stack to take over the top spot. The Brit established a five-to-one advantage for a short period only for the Thai poker pro to regain the lead. And then, after more than two hours of cagey heads-up play, it was all over in the blink of an eye when they flipped for it with king-ten versus ace-jack as Heath came out on top once more.

Many of those who entered the two editions of the €25,000 Single-Day High Rollers are expected to jump into the €50,000 Super High Roller, which is set to take place from December 11 to 13, 2022. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action from the tables in the capital of the Czech Republic.