Erik Seidel was born and raised in New York, where he was a competitive backgammon player. He spent about 8 years on the backgammon tournament circuit, but moved on to the stock market. On Wall Street, Erik traded GNMA's for PaineWebber, stock options on the AMEX, and stocks. Now living in Las Vegas, poker has been Erik's focus for quite some time now.

Erik has an impressive record in heads-up play, but may be most famous for a loss - his 2nd place finish in the '88 WSOP against Johnny Chan earned him an appearance in the movie "Rounders". Don't let that 2nd place finish fool you, that was his first major tournament. Since then, he's come out on top in all his heads-up battles against the likes of Chan, Helmuth, and Cloutier.

The sixth all-time biggest money winner in tournament poker, Erik's 6 WSOP titles, 2 Bellagio titles and numerous other wins add up to well over 2 million in winnings. He was also the points leader in the Champion of the Year standings for 2002-2003.

When he's not busy in his role as Poker Heavyweight, you'll find Erik listening to music or playing tennis.