WSOP: Eric Feld, Retiring at Age 21?

Young gun swears he will not be intimidated by age or fame at poker's Main Event

June 15, 2006

By Jake Gosselin
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

Eric Feld was born at 7:23 p.m. on the seventh month and 23rd day of 1985. That means that Feld turns 21 four days before the WSOP Main Event begins this year. And since you have to be at least 21 to play in the WSOP, Feld is almost certainly the youngest player at poker's premier event.

Feld, of Hollywood, Fla., is an accounting student at Florida State University and if all goes according to plan at the World Series of Poker, he will never have to balance anyone’s books but his own. If Feld wins big this year, he plans to retire.

Feld qualified for the WSOP through Bodog by winning the third stage of a sit-n-go tournament that gave him enough credits to play in a multi-table WSOP qualifier. In that qualifier, he beat 27 other players to win his Main Event seat. With over $70 million in prize money up for grabs at the WSOP and a first-place win paying out $10 million in the Main Event, maybe Feld’s dreams of early retirement aren’t all that far-fetched.

Although he has been playing poker for a year and a half, Feld's level of experience will be relatively minimal compared to the players he will face in Vegas. But that doesn’t worry him.

“I don't think age really has anything to do with it, there have been people from every age group to win the WSOP, players in their 20s, 30s to 50s and beyond.” says Feld. “As the youngest player maybe people won’t want to knock me out because I’ll have just had my 21st birthday. Maybe they’ll take it easy on me.”

The 2006 WSOP will feature approximately 8,000 players from around the world. This year, Bodog is sending 700 of its most talented online poker players to the WSOP, which runs from June 25-Aug. 10. All of the games are played at Harrah's Rio casino and hotel. If Feld has his way, he'll be there right to the end.

He isn’t even thinking about what he’s going to do if he comes up against the likes of Scotty Nguyen or Michael Mizrachi.

Feld is more concerned with getting knocked out by Ben Affleck. To him and his circle of friends, losing at the hands of someone they consider to be as embarrassingly cheesy as Affleck would be worse than death, Feld says.

On the top of Feld’s list of players he is hoping to go up against is Jason Alexander. That’s right, the actor from Seinfeld who has made such an impact on Feld that he has not only proclaimed that Alexander played the greatest character to ever appear on television, but he has even honored Alexander in the only way he knew; he named his dog Costanza.

While Feld might not be arduously studying the classic poker manuals or reading every poker article he can get his hands on to prepare for the WSOP, he knows his priorities. And you can damn well guarantee that this Team Bodog player will not be bumped by the man formerly known as the lesser half of Bennifer.

God speed Eric Feld. God Speed.

PHOTO: The WSOP's youngest player, Eric Feld, is an accounting student from Hollywood, Fla.