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From a man who entered this event with nearly $22 million in career tournament cashes, the admission that this was "one of the best tournaments of my career" make a strong statement. That's what Erik Seidel called his win in the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller. Seidel topped a field of 71 entries to add €2,015,000 to his coffers, making him jump from fifth till third on the poker's all-time money list, surpassing Phil Ivey and Daniel Colman.
"I've knocked on the door a few times here," he said. "It was a surprise to me because I was low on chips all day."
Indeed, Seidel spent much of the day near the bottom of the counts and entered heads-up play at a 3-1 deficit to fast-rising Polish star Dzmitry Urbanovich. However, he managed to grind his way to victory over the course of a lengthy four-hour match that saw him slowly but surely turn the tide. He eventually worked to put Urbanovich away without letting the lead slip from his hands once he grabbed it.
The final day of the tournament began with the official final table of eight players, featuring some of the usual high-stakes stars like Igor Kurganov, Max Altergott, and Scott Seiver.
Seiver came in as the short stack with just about 12 big blinds and found himself out the door in short order. German World Championship of Online Poker champ Fedor Holz was next to go, shoving 
for 15 big blinds over a button open from Kurganov. Kurganov put him at risk with the 
, and the 
board cut the tournament down to six.
Two hands was all it took for Thomas Muehloecker to follow Holz out the door in sixth place. He found a good spot, calling off his last eight big blinds from the big blind with the 
when Urbanovich shipped with the 
from the small blind. The star of EPT Malta flopped a three and managed to hold up as Muehloecker bricked out.
Then, Urbanovich ascended to the top when he flopped trip fours with the 
and took a heap from Kurganov, who was in the lead at the time, and it looked like everyone else might be playing for second because Urbanovich then held half of the chips in play five-handed. Kurganov's fall was completed a bit later when he lost a race to Urbanovich for the rest of his stack and busted in fifth place.
Urbanovich's hot run continued when he cracked Dario Sammartino's with the 
as the board came 
, giving Urbanovich a backdoor flush. Two hands later, Altergott, who grinded a short stack the whole day, sent his chips to Seidel.
After the dinner break, the heads-up match began, and Seidel couldn't do much but tread water for the first hour. However, he stayed patient and found a double when Urbanovich shoved the button with the 
and Seidel woke up with the . The eight-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner called off his 12.5-big blind stack and doubled up. He took the lead shortly after when he made a flush with the 
against the 
on a 
board and got paid off for 1.6 million on the river.
From there, Seidel didn't let up and chipped away for the next two hours until Urbanovich limp-shoved for just over 5 million (17 big blinds) with the 
. Seidel had a dominating 
, and the board of 
meant Seidel had his win.
"It feels so good just to get the win," he said afterwards. "I'm just thrilled."
turn. The 
on the river gave both players a straight. Urbanovich bet 375,000 and Seidel called. The two of them chopped it up and they were on to next one.
, and the flop came 
. Seidel checked, and called Urbanovich's bet. 
on the river made both players check and Seidel took it down.
from the button. Seidel in the big blind holding 
made it 1,075,000. Urbanovich wasn't backing down, four-betting to 1,850,000. Seidel pushed all in and Urbanovich folded.
, and after unknown flop action, a 
, and Urbanovich three-bet to 950,000, getting a fast fold.
, and Erik Seidel made it 825,000 with the 
. The river paired the board with the 
. Seidel folded.