Erik Seidel Wins His Ninth WSOP Bracelet in the Super MILLION$ High Roller for $977,842
Erik Seidel cemented his status as one of the greatest poker players of all-time with a ninth WSOP bracelet. He defeated Uruguay's Francisco Benitez heads-up to win Event #11: $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller of the 2021 WSOP Online on GGPoker for $977,842.
It has been 14 years since Seidel's last bracelet, but this result sees draws Seidel level with three-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Moss on nine WSOP bracelets.
Seidel also becomes the first player with more than five WSOP bracelets to win an online WSOP bracelet after winning his first back in 1992 when he defeated Phil Hellmuth heads-up in Event #4: $2,500 Limit Hold'em for $168,000.
Event #11: $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erik Seidel | Canada | $977,842 |
| 2 | Francisco Benitez | Uruguay | $759,419 |
| 3 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | $589,785 |
| 4 | Shyngis Satubayev | Montenegro | $458,043 |
| 5 | Chin-Wei "davidchien88" Chien | Taiwan | $355,729 |
| 6 | Joachim Haraldstad | Norway | $276,269 |
| 7 | Claas Segebrecht | Austria | $214,558 |
| 8 | Isaac Baron | Mexico | $166,632 |
| 9 | Rui Ferreira | Brazil | $129,410 |
Note: Countries as per GGPoker client
Final Table Recap
Against a star-studded final table that featured two former Super MILLION$ champions, Seidel battled back from seventh in chips at the start of the final table to clinch his ninth WSOP bracelet. It didn't take long for nine to become eight following the elimination of Rui Ferreira, and just half an hour later Seidel had manoeuvred himself from his starting position to first in chips ahead of Benitez. The lead would change hands back and forth as Isaac Baron fell in eighth and former Super MILLION$ champion Claas Segebrecht was sent to the rail in seventh.
Benitez then started to edge ahead of the chasing pack, with the Uruguayan's chip stack growing to more than 25 million as the short stacks continued to battle it out. This battling caught out Seidel, as following the eliminations of Joachim Haraldstad and Chin-Wei Chien in sixth and fifth place respectively, the WSOP legend found himself bottom of the pile, albeit with 30 big blinds.
It took a cooler for the deadlock to be broken four-handed, with Benitez the beneficiary. Holding queens he snap-called the shove of Shyngis Satubayev with tens, to send the Kazakh player to the rail and open up an enormous chip lead, now holding more than the rest of the chips in play.
And that chip lead would grow even further following the elimination of Thomas Muehloecker, with Benitez again snap-calling a shove this time with ace-queen against Muehloecker's ace-ten to hold more than a 4:1 chip lead heads-up.
Heads-Up Play
There were just 20 minutes of heads-up play, but it was action-packed from the off with Seidel scoring a huge double-up with queens against jacks, flopping a set to cut Benitez's lead. Not only did this get Seidel back into the contest, but just a handful of hands later it was Seidel opening up a 2:1 lead and looking to close out the match.
The final hand (350,000/750,000) saw Erik Seidel limp with ace-eight of hearts and Francisco Benitez three-bet to 2.8 million with ace-king offsuit. Seidel thought about it before moving all in, putting Benitez to the test for his last 26 million, which at this stage was still almost 35 big blinds. Benitez called.
The four-ten-jack flop with two hearts gave Seidel a flush draw and the turn was the ace. Seidel needed an eight or a heart on the river, with the three of hearts giving him the nut-flush flush to eliminate Benitez and secure victory.
PokerNews WSOP Online Live Reporting
Live coverage of the 2021 WSOP Online continues right here on PokerNews all this week with the conclusion of Event #13: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship taking place on Wednesday, August 18. After that, we bring you two days of coverage of Event #14: $500 THE BIG 500. Head to GGPoker for your last chance to jump into the BIG 500!