Many of the best poker players in the world meet annually in the World Series of Poker Main Event. Some are lucky enough to play the final hand while others have come to honor the hall of fame inductee of the year. Last year, Erik Seidel has been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. It is just but fitting to look back at how this man has come into the game and emerged among the throngs of poker players.

Erik Seidel is a fitting recipient of the Poker Hall of Fame. He has a record of eight WSOP bracelets and one World Poker Tour title. This is not a simple feat that any poker player can achieve. This commendable record requires years to be built and an exceptional skill to outplay the best players. He prides himself as the only player to win three World Series of Poker titles in three consecutive years. He has proven his knack of the game by showing time and again his powerful arsenal of strategies. Most probably he has gained much of the knowledge from his previous game, backgammon. Many do not know it but Erik Seidel started out as a professional backgammon player. Eventually he found his interest in poker and in just few years he has gained much expertise of the game.

Hi game with Johnny Chan in the fated 1988 World Series of Poker is immortalized in the film Rounders. Although he claims that he has blocked it from his memory, the poker world can seem to get enough of that sensational duel. It always crop up every time Erik Seidel is on spotlight. But the game can be considered an achievement for the novice Seidel. In fact, it was just his first bid in the WSOP and successfully ended with a battle against a giant. Now, after decades in the world of poker, he has honed his skill well and has gained for himself the respect of fellow professional poker players.

The life of this Hall of Famer started out simply. Born in the busy New York City, he had to be competitive and he seemed to enjoy the thrill of ultimate bet poker board games. When he attended classes at Brooklyn College, he found himself engrossed with backgammon. After some time, he decided to drop out of school to play fulltime. He travelled across United States to play at different backgammon competitions. He did this for eight years and during this time, he had started to play casual poker games.

He felt that gambling was not that economically stable so he decided to work at Wall Street as stockbroker. To supplement his salary, he played poker cash games at the Mayfair. This has become his breeding ground. In 1987 the stock market unexpectedly plummeted causing him to lose his daytime job. It seemed that Eric Seidel was not meant for a day job so he went back to Mayfair as fulltime gambler. This time he played poker more often than backgammon. He made a powerful arsenal of poker strategies and when he felt confident about his game, Eric convinced some friends to fund his bid into the WSOP. Although he started out flat in WSOP, but he eventually found a way up into the ladder. In almost a decade of playing professional poker tournaments, he has gained respects from many poker fanatics. In 2010, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, the biggest prize that any poker dreams to achieve.