by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Apr 10, 2024 | Updated on Apr 10, 2024
Summary:
- Poker legend Erik Seidel has won the first event of the 2024 U.S. Poker Open.
- The $5,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament victory brought him $145,000.
- It was the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee’s second tourney victory of the year.
2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel once again proved his irrefutable poker skills as one of the best players in the world by grabbing the first event title of the 2024 U.S. Poker Open in Las Vegas.
On Tuesday, Seidel managed to defeat all of his 115 opponents in the $5,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament held at the PokerGO Studio.
He took home $145,000, marking his second tournament victory in 2024 of the year.
Poker Mastery from Seidel
The poker pro went into the second and final day of play with a leading lead over his five opponents.
Eric Afriat was the only one who came in close in chips, with the rest of his opponents only holding crumbs compared to Seidel.
Justin Zaki exited the final table first, grabbing the sixth position and scooping up $29,000 after losing to Dylan Linde.
Shortly after, it was time for Afriat’s pocket kings to kick William Lamar-Boone out in fifth place for $37,700.
Afriat took the chip lead for a while, but Seidel managed to get some of his chips back after winning a big pot with pocket kings.
This helped him double in the hand against Afriat while also busting John Khoury, who exited the final table in fourth place with $49,300 in his hands.
The same hand switched things back around for Seidel who started to take over the final table and catch some cards.
The tournament ended with an existing three-way all in which saw Linde be forced all in, Afriat raising to 750,000, and Seidel moving all in while holding on to around 80% of the chips in play.
Eventually, Afriat called with approximately 1.7 million behind and the board ran out clean for aces, which concluded the first U.S. Poker Open event of 2024.
Linde grabbed $63,800 for his third-position exit. The runner-up took home $89,900.
Seidel, who grabbed his 10th WSOP bracelet in the Bahamas at the end of 2023 and currently boasts $46.2 million in live tournament cash, has proven to be off to a powerful start to the year at age 64.
