Professional poker player Erik Seidel says he chose to semi-retire this year — but not because his career was slowing down.
Seidel played his first major tournament in 1988, finishing as runner-up in the World Series of Poker main event. He became a full-time professional poker player in 1995, and over the course of his career has racked up winnings of more than $48 million playing in live poker tournaments, according to the Hendon Mob Poker Database, an online compendium of poker stats.
In recent years, the 66-year-old estimates he’s played roughly 130 to 150 events a year, including times he’s bought back in after being eliminated. Last year, his total tournament winnings topped $2.8 million, according to Hendon Mob.
But this year, he says, he plans to play maybe a quarter of the tournaments he usually plays, and virtually no “high-roller” events, which cost $25,000 or more to enter. The reason is simple, he says: taxes.
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed last July, includes a provision that changes the way gamblers can deduct losses. Taxpayers still must treat gambling winnings as income, but they can no longer use all of their losses to fully offset their winnings. Rather, starting in tax year 2026, they can only deduct up to 90% of their losses.
