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There aren’t many professionals better known in the poker world than Erik Seidel. He gained fame throughout the late 1980’s to early 1990’s, and has been raking in millions of dollars – along with a multitude of honors – ever since. Over the weekend, Seidel proved that he’s still got what it takes to compete among the world’s finest poker players, adding over €2 million to his impressive career earnings by taking down the 2015 EPT Grand Final’s €100k Super High Roller in Monte Carlo.

Erik Seidel wins 2015 EPT Grand Final Super High RollerA field of 71 entries posted the €100,000 buy-in on Saturday to compete in the super high roller event. It wasn’t an easy road to victory for the 55 year old poker pro, who fought tooth and nail for most of the day just to remain alive in the EPT Grand Final event. His name remained on the lower rungs of the chip counts throughout much of the tournament.

Final Moments of the EPT Grand Final Super High Roller

Even as the final table was formed, Erik Seidel wasn’t in the best of shape, but he wasn’t the worst off either. Fellow poker phenom Scott Seiver was hanging on by a thread, coming in with just 12 big blinds and finding his hopes severed almost immediately. But Seidel hung on, keeping above water long enough to watch other elite members of the poker world like Igor Kurganov and Max Altergott fall to the rails.

When heads-up play began, Seidel found himself short-stacked still, down 3:1 against rising poker star Dzmitry Urbanovich of Poland. But in true form, the American continued to remain patient, grinding away at his opponent and slowly drawing more chips to his side of the table. It took an exhausting four hours to eliminate Urbanovich and claim the 1st place prize.

On the final hand of the evening, Urbanovich shoved his last 17 blinds, little more than 5 million in chips, into the pot. Seidel made the call, tabling pocket 10’s to Dzmitry’s K-9o. The 8-2-Q flop delivered no help for the faltering Pole, nor did the 3 turn or 7 river.

Dzmitry Urbanovich still scooped an impressive 2nd place prize of €1,446,600, but it was Erik Seidel who took the cake. His esteemed efforts earned him €2,015,000 and the honor of 1st place winner of the 2015 EPT Grand Final Super High Roller.

EPT Grand Final Super High Roller Final Table Results

1st Erik Seidel €2,015,000
2nd Dzmitry Urbanovich €1,446,600
3rd Max Altergott €940,300
4th Dario Sammartino €709,500
5th Igor Kurganov €551,000
6th Thomas Muehloecker €427,100
7th Fedor Holz €337,500
8th Scott Seiver €261,800
9th Vladimir Troyanovskiy €199,620

Erik Seidel jumps to 3rd on Poker’s All-Time Money List

Prior to the events of the last weekend, Erik Seidel was in 5th place on Poker’s All-Time Money List, having raked in just over $22 million throughout his long and illustrious career. In that time, Seidel filled his trophy case with 8 WSOP bracelets and a WPT Title.

Saturdays enormous victory boosted the American poker pro into the 3rd position on the All-Time Money List with $24,065,940, exceeding the live tournament cashes of Phil Ivey (4th place, $23,199,535) and Dan Colman (5th place, $22,894,180). Catching the roster’s leaders will take quite a bit more effort, though, as Daniel Negreanu holds the top position (1st place, $29,973,908), trailed by Antonio Esfandiari (2nd place, $26,407,940).