Erick Lindgren
Erick Lindgren was born in a Burney, California, a small mountain town, on August 11th, 1976. Even at a young age, Lindgren was prone to gambling; betting his friends on things such as whether or not he could make a half court basketball shot. It probably helped his pockets then that he was a star basketball player in high school, who practiced nearly every day, and actually got offered scholarships to play in college.
However, Erick chose not to venture towards the almost impossible dream of the NBA and enrolled at Butte Junior College, not too far from his hometown. It wasn’t too long before he discovered an Indian casino near his campus. It didn’t take much more time for Lindgren, 19, to get a job at as a blackjack dealer. However, blackjack wasn’t exactly the best of jobs Lindgren explained.
“The crappiest job I ever had was dealing blackjack when I was 19 [laughs]. Come to think of it, that’s about all I’ve done apart from playing poker. I shoveled snow off rooftops in high school. That sucked.”
[Bluff Magazine, May 2006, Bluff Magazine Staff]
Although he had player the game a tiny bit before, the casino was where Lindgren learned Texas Hold’em. After learning the game Lindgren started to spend much of his time at the low stakes tables in the casino. Soon, Lindgren was spending less time studying and more time playing poker because of the massive amounts of money he was raking in. Eventually, Lindgren dropped out of school to become a professional poker player. Keeping it from his parents Lindgren says was the “best bluff of he’s ever made.”
“[My best bluff was] telling my parents I was still at school for the first year I was playing poker. They weren’t too happy when they figured out I’d been running that bluff... They're pretty happy now.”
[Bluff Magazine, May 2006, Bluff Magazine Staff]
At twenty-one Lindgren became a proposition player (a player who is paid to play at short handed tables to keep the action going). In his spare time, Lindgren found online poker to be very profitable. He had a few different computers in his apartment so he could play cash games at multiple tables through various websites. Lindgren grinded his way up to the higher stakes, continuing to learn and progress.
After five years of being a professional, Erick decided it was time to move to Las Vegas. He broke onto the poker scene by winning the Five Diamonds Poker Classic at the Bellagio for $230,000 in 2002. After nabbing a few more tournament wins the year after, 2004 was by far Lindgren’s most successful year. He defeated Daniel Negreneau, considered by some the best tournament player in the world, in the Party Poker Million III, cashing, as the title advertised, one million dollars. After winning his second career WPT event, Lindgren also took down WPT player of the year honors.
In 2006, Lindgren had several more six-figure cashes, including another WPT win at Borgata, winning the Five Star World Poker Classic, Full Tilt Poker's Pro Showdown, and his best finish in a WSOP event ever, second in the $5,000 buy in Short Handed No Limit Hold’em.
Lindgren now lives very richly. His house not only show’s off his many computers, but also six big screen plasma televisions. Surely it hasn’t hurt his pockets that much, Lindgren has now amassed more the five million dollars in live tounament winnings.
Common Misspellings: Eric Lindgren, Erik Lindgren, Erick Lingren, Erick Lindgrin, Erick Lindgreen
Learn more about Erick Lindgren at Full Tilt Poker.
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