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Andrew Robl dashed off to the bathroom quickly. His opponent, Erik Seidel, took the opportunity to unfold himself from his chair and wander over to the other heads-up table. Seidel watched for a couple of minutes while comfortably resting his arms on one of the pillars decorating the set. Those pillars come up to my chin.
A big pot at the feature table drew our attention on the turn of a 
board. Jonathan Duhamel checked and called a bet from Chris Moneymaker. The river appeared to be a blank, the 
. Duhamel checked again and was put to the test when Moneymaker moved all in with the chip lead. Duhamel called and tabled top pair, 
.
Moneymaker showed down 
for top pair with a better kicker. MOC Jordan Siegel announced, "Chris Moneymaker moves on to the finals!" Indeed he does, and will have some time to cool his heels while he awaits the winner of Robl-Siedel.
While the cameras were focused on Chris Moneymaker and Jonathan Duhamel, a big pot brewed between Erik Seidel and Andrew Robl. Seidel moved all in on the river of a 
board. Robl was covered and had to fold or risk his tournament life. He looked miserable as he sank into the tank. Robl's friends jumped out of their chairs, but they sat back down after watching a few minutes of Robl's agonizing. He shuffled his chips, grimaced at the double-paired, three-heart board, then shuffled some more.
Finally Robl announced a call, and the audience leapt up again. Seidel showed 
for treys full. Robl couldn't beat it, meaning Seidel moves into the finals for the second year in a row. Robl earns $125,000 for third place. Seidel and Chris Moneymaker are each guaranteed $300,000, so Seidel is certain to cash for more than the $250,000 he earned last year when the buy-in was $20,000 instead of $25,000. Tonight's winner will take home $750,000.
The 2-out-of-3 finals are scheduled to start at 5:30pm. The crew is currently preparing the set.
Cards are in the air for the first match in this best-of-three series.
For the finals each player started with 800,000 in chips: one stack of yellow chips (25,000 each, 500,000 total); two stacks of pink chips (5,000 each, 200,000 total); and five stacks of orange chips (1,000 each, 100,000 total). After one level of play it appears that Chris Moneymaker is down to 680,000. Correspondingly Erik Seidel is up to 920,000.
Erik Seidel is used to looking down on everyone else. He's known as a humble, likable guy, but standing a foot taller than most of his opponents, he just can't help it. Now Seidel can look down from one more lofty perch: the top spot of the Hendon Mob's all-time money list. Seidel made a charge to the top in 2011, cashing for an astonishing $3.59 million in the first two months of the year. That gave him a gross (and sick) day rate of $60,000 in January and February and propelled him to second on the money list.
This morning the top of this list looked like this:
1st: Daniel Negreanu - $14,116,192
2nd: Erik Seidel - $13,947,297
3rd: Phil Ivey - $13,859,944
By advancing to the finals here, Seidel has guaranteed himself $300,000 and given himself a shot at $750,000.
At the conclusion of two or three simple heads-up matches, the all-time money list will look like this instead:
1st: Erik Seidel - $14,247,297 or $14,697,297
2nd: Daniel Negreanu - $14,116,192
3rd: Phil Ivey - $13,859,944
The rankings are a tad arbitrary with the figures close enough to be impacted by missed cashes or unreported chops over the past 20+ years and debates aplenty over whether invitational events and extremely high buy-in tournaments with tiny fields should be counted. Either way, Seidel's score today adds one more line to the Poker Hall of Famer's stunning resume and gives Negreanu added incentive to get back to the grind.
It's time to bump the blinds up to 8,000/16,000 for the third level of the first match between Erik Seidel and Chris Moneymaker.
Seidel - 1,000,000
Moneymaker - 600,000
So far the first match of this best-of-three finals has been all Seidel. Seidel had the button for the most recent hand that he and Chris Moneymaker played. Seidel raised and Moneymaker called from the big blind. Both players checked a flop of 
. When the turn came Moneymaker check-called a bet from Seidel. Moneymaker also checked the 
river. Seidel fired another 125,000 into the pot.
Moneymaker furrowed his brow at the large bet. He said a few words to himself, shook his head, then cut 125,000 off his stack and called. Seidel showed down a face card and a 
for trip sevens, earning himself another pot.
Moneymaker is down to about 400,000 in chips now, while Seidel is up to 1.2 million.
We could forgive Chris Moneymaker if he feels frustrated right now. Every move he makes is countered by Erik Seidel. On a flop of 
, Moneymaker checked his first action to Seidel, who made a standard continuation-bet. Moneymaker then tried a check-raise to 80,000. Seidel pondered for about twenty seconds before three-betting to 350,000, enough to set Moneymaker all in. Moneymaker flicked his cards into the muck.
Our guesstimate has Moneymaker down to about 250,000 in chips, with the remaining 1.35 million in front of Seidel.
