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Erik’s fame in poker came for all the wrong reasons. In 1988, he was heads up with Johnny Chan playing for the Championship bracelet in that year’s World Series of Poker. At the commencement of heads up, Erik doubled up when both he and Chan had pocket pairs (Erik has the higher pocket pair!).
While Erik took the lead early, Johnny Chan outplayed him in a series of hands and regained the chip lead. Then arose the most famous hand in the history of poker. Chan had J-9 and Erik has Q-7. The flop was Q-10-8 (giving Chan the nut straight). On the flop, Chan checked, Erik bet and Chan called. On the turn, both players checked. On the river, Chan (to the amazement of everyone watching) checked again. Had Erik checked behind him, Chan would have won a relatively small pot with the pure nuts and the battle would have continued into the night. But Chan knew that Erik would probably move all-in on the river and try to pick up the pot (which is exactly what happened). Chan called in a flash and took down his second consecutive WSOP Championship title. This showdown features with poignancy in the film “Rounders”.
While Erik honourably finished second that day, he is not a second-rate player by any stretch of the imagination. In point of fact, Erik is one of the most fascinating players to watch live, especially when he reaches the final table. His hyper-aggressive preflop style combined with a unsurpassable finishing class makes Erik one of the best players to have played the game, despite the fact that he has never won the Championship title at the WSOP.
In one final table I witnessed, Erik was intensely aware of the fact that everyone at the table feared him. Accordingly, he raised pre-flop over and over and over again, until his small-medium stack grew to a large stack. The crowd knew that it was only a matter of time before an opponent would take a stand and reraise all-in to try and slow Erik down. When that time finally came, the table was astounded when Erik called in a flash, rolled over pocket kings and eliminated the player who tried to stand up to him. This is the sort of polish but fascinating unpredictability that Erik exudes like few other players.
Erik grew up in Manhattan and apparently, he did not want to live anywhere else in the world. He traded stock for Paine Weber on Wall Street while sharpening his poker abilities on the side. Eventually, he jumped on the poker circuit and never looked back. He now resides in Las Vegas and claims that he now prefers it to the hectic lifestyle of New York.
Erik is a proven champion in all forms of poker - considered as a true "all-rounder" at tournament poker. Erik is also a renowned backgammon player and wouldn’t turn down a game by the pool on a sunny afternoon…. Playing $500 a point! |
