“This win is just a dream come true. It means so much more to me to win in my local casino. Playing with Erik Seidel was very intimidating at first. But I just told myself to play like you would with anybody else.”
Scarborough held a 4-1 chip lead against Seidel once heads-up play began, and even though Seidel did his best to topple his opponent, he would never get near securing himself the title.Seidel had been the talk of the final table after his incredible tournament start to 2011. He had already won $4.3 million this year with two final table appearances at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the $100K High Rollers at the Aussie Millions, and the $5k Heads Up at the LAPC, plus wins in the Aussie Millions $250K Super High Roller, the $25k High Roller at the LAPC and the NBC National Heads-Up Championship.
Seidel settled for $155,103 for his second place finish. Seidel managed to consolidate his lead on the all-time money list with career winnings of $14,852,400, some $700,000 more than number two, Daniel Negreanu.
The final six included recent World Series of Poker Circuit winner Ali Eslami, 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller champ William Reynolds, and 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year Tom Marchese.
The final table results:
1. Mike Scarborough - $273,664
2. Erik Seidel - $155,103
3. Wiliam Reynold - $110,788
4. Tom Marchese - $77,551
5. Andy Whetstone - $62,041
6. Ali Eslami - $50,962
The $10k buy-in main event began Saturday with 97 players, down significantly from last year's 143 players.
