In fact, that’s how he started playing poker in New York City’s famous Mayfair club alongside the likes of Stu Ungar and Dan Harrington.Ī stint as a trader followed before poker tournaments became his thing. Back before poker was popular, Seidel was a professional backgammon player. The native New Yorker has been into numbers his whole life. Erik Seidel aka SeiborgĮrik Seidel might not be as charismatic as Phil Hellmuth, but he knows how to win. From there, he began tearing up the live scene and, today, as well as WSOP events, Koon has found his niche in super high rollers. He was long considered a tough opponent to play against and, after graduating from college, he won a variety of online titles, including FTOPs and SCOOP. Koon’s ascent up poker’s tournament ranking started online. Indeed, after mastering the basics, he learned how to win a pot on the flop, turn or river, regardless of the hand he’s holding. Koon was an athlete in school and used his competitive nature to win in poker. Jason Koon is the perfect example of what happens when you combine talent, commitment and hard work. As well as making high roller tournaments his niche, Bodyakovsky is a world-class cash game player. Deep runs in EPT high rollers eventually turned into top-three finishes in Asia. However, once he entered high roller poker tournaments, things changed. Why? Because 2013 was the year he turned 21 and made his WSOP debut in America.īodyakovsky’s results between 20 were solid but far from spectacular. He joined PokerStars and used the name fish2013. However, it wasn’t until he appeared online that people started to take notice. The Belarusian started playing live tournaments in 2010 when he turned 18. When poker fans think about high-roller tournaments, such as the Triton Series, they think about Mikita Bodyakovsky. Add to this the fact he’s got a natural talent that people can’t learn, and it’s easy to see why people call him the GOAT. Indeed, you can go on YouTube and see him winning cash game pots worth over $800,000. It doesn’t matter if it’s at a live poker table or online, Ivey will play and win.
However, it’s the fact Phil Ivey is capable of beating the toughest cash games in the world that makes him the best.