Meet the Final Table

The Skinny

Isaac, at 24, is one of the youngest players in the League yet one of the most universally respected. The native of Menlo Park, California, possesses a staggering amount of talent, poise, and potential. When he was just 19, he won over $1.1 million in online poker tournaments and was named Card Player Magazine’s 2007 Online Player of the Year. By the time he was old enough to enter a Las Vegas poker room legally, he had already won over $1 million on the European Poker Tour. In the last 2 years, he has proven himself a fierce closer, making 3 final tables in events with buy-ins of $5,000 or more and winning twice. He has earned over $2.2 million in live tournament poker and a similar amount online. He cashed in both of Epic’s Main Events.

The Story

Baron, one of the superstars of online poker, was cut adrift by Black Friday’s closure of online poker to U.S. citizens. With over $2 million in live tournament earnings, the idea that Isaac hasn’t reached his full potential in poker is awesome to contemplate. He finished in the money in the first Epic Poker League event but, despite enormous poise and savvy, got some tough breaks at the wrong time. His skills brought him back to the scene of the crime. Can they take him the rest of the way so he can stake his claim as the best player in the world?

The Links

Isaac Baron player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Russell “Dutch” Boyd represented the early part of the poker boom second only to Chris Moneymaker. Boyd started college before we was thirteen and became the second-youngest law school graduate in American history at eighteen. A pioneer of online poker, he just missed the WSOP Main Event final table in 2003, won the first of his two WSOP bracelets in 2006, and has earned over $2 million. He has also borne the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, battling business problems, depression, and the huge swings of tournament poker – like earning just $10,000 in live tournaments over the previous year.

The Story

At thirty, Boyd is more centered, admittedly more humble, and more appreciative of what he has accomplished, along with what he has left to accomplish. This is his first sniff of a championship in a long time. Can he finish the job? Will this be another disappointment in a long road back to the top, or a major step in that direction?

The Links

Dutch Boyd player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Getzwiller made the final table after qualifying in Epic Poker’s Pro/Am. In fact, Sean qualified for both Main Events via the Pro/Am, and his final table appearance makes him eligible to play in Main Event 3. He truly played his way into Epic Poker, not only in Epic’s events but throughout 2011, his first big year in live poker. He won his first WSOP bracelet for over $600,000, made another final table, and cashed six times in October during his first poker tour of Europe.

The Story

Sean Getzwiller has never taken the easy road. He made money as a day-trader, until the end of the Internet bubble killed the market (and his bankroll). He made money in real estate, until the real estate crash killed the market (and his bankroll). He turned to online poker and made money there, only to be frustrated by Black Friday. He shifted to live tournaments and made $800,000 in five months. Can he secure his future and his place in Epic Poker with a win?

The Links

Sean Getzwiller player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Nam Le celebrated his thirty-first birthday the day after the Final Table. During his twenties, Nam has been one of the best tournament players in the world. In 2006 and 2008, he earned $2 million – each year. (He earned nearly $1 million in 2007.) Le was a creature of habit at the Palms during the tournament, ordering the same breakfast delivered at the same time every day, following the same routine of returning to his room during every break to lie down, and even watching the same television show before going to bed. It is unknown whether such habits fueled his strong play, either in the past week or in the past decade but his return to familiar circumstances paid off.

The Story

Can Nam Le, now in his thirties, be the same dominant, successful player he was during 2006-2008? This birthday weekend is not, in fact, the first time he found himself in this position, against some of these competitors, at this time. On the same weekend in 2008, Le made the final table of the APPT High-Roller event in Macau. Like at this final table, he trailed chip leader David Steicke. In 2008, he rallied and earned himself a victory and a $473,000 birthday present. Can he do it again?

The Links

Nam Le player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Mike would celebrate his twenty-second birthday two days after the final table. He has always been the youngest everything. When he was in high school, he kept secret from most of his friends that he was already earning six-figures playing poker online. He became the youngest major titleholder in poker in 2008 by winning $1.4 million at the European Poker Tour German Open. (It also made him the youngest player ever to win over a million dollars in a poker tournament.) Even though he has $3.8 million in career earnings, he has taken time away from poker to try being a full-time student – and he is still the youngest player in the Epic Poker League.

The Story

How much, or how little, does the experience of age count? Mike McDonald doesn’t act like he’s the youngest player in the League. There’s no swagger or bravado. He plays with the quiet poise and confidence we associate with Erik Seidel. But now we will see Mike tested. When play was 9-handed, McDonald lost most of his chips in a brutal hand against Erik Seidel, where both players made full houses. In an instant, Mike saw one future – where he entered the final table with a huge chip lead, having vanquished Erik Seidel – disappear, replaced by the reality that he had to struggle to make the final table, and make it with a short stack. If the roles were reversed, common wisdom would be that Seidel has the experience to rebound. How does Mike McDonald have that experience? More important, does he need it?

The Links

Mike McDonald player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Erik, 51, may be the best tournament poker of all time, and 2011 has been his best year. He is a New York native and Las Vegas resident, a former securities trader put out of business by the 1987 stock market crash that discovered poker at a local backgammon club. That poker game became the world’s most difficult home game, the Mayfair Club. Players in the game over the next few years include Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington, Jay Heimowitz, Jason Lester, Mickey Appleman, and Steve Zolotow. In Seidel’s first poker tournament, the 1988 World Series Main Event, he finished runner-up to defending champion Johnny Chan. He went on to win 8 WSOP bracelets, a World Poker Tour championship, and an NBC National Heads-Up Championship. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in November 2010 and has, since then, had one of the great seasons in poker history. He started 2011 with $10 million in career tournament earnings. He is now closing in on $17 million. Erik has made 11 final tables in 2011 in events with buy-ins of $5,000 or more. His worst finish is 4th: 4 wins, 3 runner-ups, 2 3rd places, 2 4th places.

The Story

Erik Seidel has earned nearly $17 million in tournament poker. The other seven players at the final table – in any other group of players a murderers row, where six of them had to earn $1.25 million to qualify for the League and Sean Getzwiller, the Pro/Am qualifier, has earned $1 million – have only barely out-earned Erik, with $21 million. Those seven have won four WSOP bracelets. Erik himself has eight. Why would anyone root for such a dominant player?

Because Seidel does it right. He represents much of what is good about professional poker: intelligence, humor, competitiveness, honor. He also has something to play for: in “his” year, when he has won everything in sight, the first Epic Poker championship just barely evaded him. Is he going to let that happen again?

The Links

Erik Seidel player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

Fabrice, a charismatic former television, film, and internet producer, has made a good living from poker for more than a decade as one of several emerging talents from Europe. His first WSOP bracelet, in 2011, earned him over $600,000 and the respect accorded to the annual HORSE (alternate rounds of hold’em, Omaha-8, Razz, Stud, and Stud-8) champion. As a result, his ranking in the Global Poker Index has been as high as GPI#3. He has earned over $3.5 million in his career. This is just his third U.S. cash of 2011, but the first two were a runner-up finish in Heads-Up at the L.A. Poker Classic and a victory in the $10,000 HORSE World Championship at the WSOP.

The Story

Fabrice started Moving Day as the chip leader, but spent most of the day a frustrated short stack. He rallied at the end of the day, but he still starts the day with only half the chips of the leaders. Can he remain patient and make a serious run at this championship? If so, will he then deserve to be recognized not just as “a great European poker player” but simply as “the best in the world”? As Europe increasingly becomes the center of tournament poker in a post-Black Friday world, can Soulier go that extra distance to be Europe’s break-out star in the poker’s nest phase?

The Links

Fabrice Soulier player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.

The Skinny

David Steicke is either a happy-go-lucky guy who doesn’t exactly understand how he got to the final table in a league of elite professionals, or a high-rolling commodities trader who uses his success and indifference to the stakes to bully competitors into making bad decisions – or maybe a little bit of both. David, born in 1962 in Australia, makes his living trading commodities in Hong Kong. (He has the furthest commute of any player in the Epic Poker League, 8,000 miles, or 20 hours by air.) He insists, “I’m not a professional, just a recreational player” who finished third in a High-Roller event in Macau in 2007 “without knowing anything about NLHE! It was just the third-ever tournament I had played in.” He has since won two High-Roller events, including the Aussie Millions High-Roller in 2009 for over $850,000, and a total of over $2.6 million in limited action over the last four years.

The Story

Unofficially, David Steicke’s cover is blown. He plays unconventionally, loose and passive early in hands, and then aggressively later. When he gets a big stack, that aggressiveness multiplies and he constantly tests opponents. At this final table, David Steicke starts with the chip lead. He has tangled with several of these players, like Erik Seidel, Mike McDonald, and Nam Le, in high-roller tournaments in Australia and Macau. Will he win another big-money, elite-field event and establish himself as either a top professional, or an “recreational player” who defeats the top pros?

The Links

David Steicke player page, biography, career results, GPI, photos, and videos.