“I played nine satellites and I lost all of them,” says Seidel.
But what events led up to that second-place finish that would etch him in poker history?
You can find out how the lifelong New Yorker came to be in Vegas for the WSOP in our Before the Game article series. But what was the iconic poker moment like for Seidel, the man who lost the 1988 WSOP Main Event but who would one day surpass “Johnny Chan, the Master” and become one of the greatest if not the greatest of players to exist in multiple eras of no limit hold’em? And how did it come to be? Getting In In the scene, Chan famously looks up to the ceiling of the Binion’s Horseshoe and to the commentator’s hushed tones, his ‘Eye to the Sky’ moment precipitates the final all-in and call of the tournament.Ĭhan got the better of Seidel to win back-to-back World Series Main Events.
Damon’s character, Mike McDermott, is watching old footage of Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel in the 1988 WSOP Main Event. Mention the World Series of Poker to any movie fan, and they’ll think of the moment in Rounders, the 1998 film starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton.
