Huck Seed

Huck Seed was a former engineering student at CalTech. He took a leave of absence in 1989, started playing poker, and never went back to college. It is said that he is a native of Montana. While imposing at 6’7″ tall, his quiet and private nature go far beyond the poker table. Stone cold silent at the tables, very little is really known about the very private champion.

Huck won won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 1994 in a Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Two years later he won the WSOP Main Event, his second bracelet, and $1 Million dollars. Huck returned to the final table of the WSOP in 1999, but finished 6th. As of 2004 he had a total of four WSOP bracelets. As of 2005, his live tournament winnings exceed $2,365,000.

Huck is also well known as an avid proposition gambler, taking on bets outside of card play. He once made a bet with Phil Hellmuth that he could float on any body of water. There was $10,000 at stake and he was allowed to wear a wetsuit. Seed lost. He subsequently won the money back from Hellmuth by traveling all the way to Madison, Wisconsin, where Hellmuth lived, and defeating him at 9-ball for $2,000 a game. Hellmuth lost $24,000 that night.

Huck also conquered what most of us would deem an impossibly challenging bet. With many thousands of dollars at stake, he had to play a desert golf course four times in a single day and break 100 on each round while using only a 5-iron, a sand wedge and a putter. The guy making the bet was able to choose the day, and he selected a day when the temperature was up to 120 degrees, and Huck had to play without the benefit of a cart, he had to run the course to complete all the holes. According to Howard Lederer Huck shot a 100 on his first round at 6 in the morning. So at 8:30 he still had to shoot four more rounds. More incredible than Seed’s winning the bet is that he improved with each round. As Seed put it at the time, “I really got into a groove with the 5.”

Huck’s winning WSOP hand:

9d 8d

Holding K8 Van Horn initially raised with Huck calling quickly, when the flop fell 984 Huck went on the attack and bet, when Van Horn re-raised Seed pushed all in and Van Horn followed. An Ace on the turn gave Van Horn 12 outs including a straight draw, but the river bought a 3 and Huck’s 2 pair held up.

In his own words:

“Why don’t you two discuss among yourselves who has the best hand and then have that person call me.”