Erik Seidel Beats Phil Hellmuth Heads-Up at U.S. Poker Open Event #9

Erik Seidel picked another high roller victory in his great career by winning Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2022 U.S. Poker Open. Seidel topped the one and only Phil Hellmuth in heads-up play after the pair was the final two players from the 63-entry field. Seidel took home $472,500 for the win.
 
“It’s pretty wild that the two of us got heads up,” Seidel said. “That’s the third time we’ve been heads up, so it was fun.”
 
Seidel later added that every time he’s gotten heads up with Hellmuth, he’s been the one to come out on top and is now a perfect 3-0 against him. The first time was in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the Bicycle Casino in 1988. Then in 1992 at Binion’s, Seidel topped Hellmuth in the WSOP $2,500 Limit Hold’em event to win his first-ever gold bracelet.

“It’s always fun to play a final table,” Seidel said. “I don’t think there’s any extra meaning to it that we were heads up, as I would’ve been happy to win against anybody. It’s just nice when things go your way for a few hours in a critical period like this. It’s great.”

In addition to scooping up $472,500 in prize money, which pushed him to fourth on poker’s all-time money list ahead of David Peters, Seidel improved his standing on the 2022 U.S. Poker Open leaderboard to fifth. Seidel has 428 points and is now right behind Hellmuth, who has 464. Seidel said after that he plans to continue competing at the U.S. Poker Open in hopes of winning the series title.
 
Perhaps the biggest story of the final table was a very weird call that Phil Hellmuth made with Q4 when Alex Foxen made a 4-bet showe with pocket nines. With a little bit of ‘White Magic’ Phil caught not one, but two queens and made a huge double up that got him to the heads-up match.
 

2022 U.S. POKER OPEN EVENT #9 RESULTS