BY TOM SOMACH

Erik Seidel, whose loss in the 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event to Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan was immortalized in the movie “Rounders,” has won his eighth career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

The victory moves the native New Yorker and Las Vegas resident into fifth-place on the list of WSOP bracelets won lifetime.

Seidel won 2007 WSOP Event #54, a $5,000 buy-in, no-limit 2-7 draw lowball tournament with rebuys, that featured 78 participants and a total prize pool of $1,476,260.

For his winning effort, Seidel picks up more than a half-million bucks–$538,835 to be exact.

It was the fifth WSOP event this year that Seidel has moneyed in.

Finishing second was Chad “Downtown” Brown of Los Angeles, Calif., USA, who earned not-too-shabby runnerup money of $324,777.

Finishing sixth was Freddy Deeb of Las Vegas, Nev., USA, who is fresh off his $2.3 million win a week ago in the WSOP $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tourney.

For this tourney, Deeb picked up sixth-place money of $73,813.

Finishing seventh was Todd “Son of Doyle” Brunson of Las Vegas, who copped $51,669.

Finishing eighth, which was out of the money, was Barry Greenstein, the poker pro who claims to give all his winnings to charity.

With the victory, Seidel now has finished in the money in 109 poker tournaments, including 49 WSOP events, for lifetime earnings of about $6.3 million.

The eighth bracelet puts him behind career leader Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr., who has 11; Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson and Chan, who each have 10; and Johnny Moss, who has nine.

With 54 of 55 ‘07 WSOP events now in the books, the only remaining competition is Event #55, the so-called main event, a $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tourney.

The main event began Friday and runs through July 17.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)