Erick Lindgren

Erick Lindgren Profile
	Nickname: E-Dog Full Tilt Username: Erick Lindgren Web: www.fulltiltpoker.com Birthdate: August 11th 1976 Birthplace: Burney, California Lives: Las Vegas, Neveda Tournaments Won: 8 WSOP Bracelets: 1 Total Winnings: $6,590,028

Sometimes it is hard for friends to play each other because they know each other’s tendencies. Bluffs can turn into double bluffs or triple bluffs and it can get confusing. All that second-guessing can rise exponentially. When Erick Lindgren came up against his good friend Daniel Negreanu on GSN’s ‘High Stakes Poker,’ it was a case in point. It was Lindgren’s first appearance on the show and when interviewed beforehand, he commented that Negreanu, ‘probably expects me to try a bluff on him today.’ Lindgren and Negreanu were sitting next to each other at the table and Negreanu bet $2,000 with a 10♥ 9♥ in his hand. Lindgren called and they awaited the flop. The general table chat continued through the flop of Q♣ 8♥ J♦ and Negreanu casually threw $4,000 worth of chips into the pot having hit the nut straight draw.

Lindgren quietly called and the turn card was an 8♦. Confidently, Negreanu bet again, adding $12,000 to the pot. Erick took a quick glance at his friend and played with his chips, obviously thinking hard before laying down enough chips to match Negreanu’s raise. The river card was an A♥ and Negreanu, after making a show of thinking things through, bet $25,000. Lindgren took his time and then grabbing a large wad of cash announced, ‘All in,’ causing Negreanu to slap the table in annoyance, wondering what was going on. It was another $72,700 to call and Negreanu thought out loud saying, ‘he doesn’t have a king ten, I know that.’ Negreanu continued to pontificate and at one point raised his eyebrows at Lindgren. It drew no response though, as Lindgren just remained staring forwards, his chin resting on his linked hands. Eventually, out of frustration, Negreanu announced, ‘I don’t know what he has. I’m just going to call.’ Erick turned over 8♠ 8♥ and gave a shell-shocked Negreanu an apologetic smile. Without gloating, Lindgren solemnly collected up the $233,100 worth of chips.

Erick grew up in the Northern Californian mountain town of Burney, population 3,000. He and his two brothers were driven and competitive and channelled their energies into sport. Erick especially excelled, in high school he was the team’s quarter back and most valuable player in the local basketball league. College followed high school and a short drive from there was the Colusa Indian Casino. He found work there as a blackjack dealer and described it as ‘the crappiest job’ he ever had, though outside of poker, it was the only job he ever had. However, he could watch and learn from the clientele and before long he was using his acquired knowledge in small stakes games as poker took over from his college studies.

At 20, he made what he described as his ‘biggest bluff’ and pretended to his parents that he was still attending college when in fact, he had dropped out to play poker full-time. Lindgren would play up to eight online games at once, sometimes running the three computers in his flat at the same time. Once it was legal for him to do so, he became a proposition player at the Californian San Pablo Casino. It is the proposition or ‘prop’ player’s job to try to discourage conservative play through playing loosely and to incite the punters into parting with their chips. It was at this time that he got the nickname ‘E-dog’ when a customer loudly exclaimed, ‘Eee, you dog,’ after losing to Erick in a number of hands.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Lindgren began to try his hand at tournament poker and buoyed by his final table finishes in some small competitions decided to move to Las Vegas where the big tournament action was. Just after his move, he entered the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic, took first prize and his first big payout, $228,192. May 2003 saw the beginning of the second season of the World Poker Tour and cemented the friendship and friendly rivalry between Lindgren and Daniel Negreanu. Both players were performing consistently at WPT events and were regulars at the final table. In October, Lindgren won the WPT Ultimate Poker Classic but Negreanu had been further in more events. Near the end of the season the pair met heads-up in the Party Poker Million main event. Lindgren won the $1million first prize and along with it was voted WPT Player of the Year, just ahead of Negreanu.

In the next couple of years, Lindgren continued to fare well, taking home several six figure sums for numerous final table finishes that included two outright victories. A World Series of Poker bracelet continued to elude him however, and he was disappointed to only come away in the runner-up spot of the WSOP No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event in 2006. A January trip to the Australian sun the following year cheered Erick up, as he came first in the Crown Aussie Millions Championship and finally in June of 2008 he was able to hold up a WSOP bracelet from the Mixed Hold’em Limit/No Limit event. This and his other good WSOP results earned him 2008’s WSOP Player of the Year award.

Away from the bricks and mortar casinos, Erick is a Full Tilt Poker Pro and is regularly active online, finding the internet rewarding. In June 2006, he won the Fulltiltpoker.net Poker Pro Showdown event making it past a glittering array of poker talent and finally beating Mike Matusow in heads-up play to bring in $600,000. As a Full Tilt pro, Lindgren has also hosted tournaments on the site and in February 2008, he became the first of the Full Tilt team to win their own event, outlasting over 5,600 entrants. When he’s not playing poker Erick can found on the golf course, also the scene of one of his crazier wagers. He bet fellow pros Phil Ivey, Gavin Smith and Chris Bell that he could play four full rounds of golf, scoring under one hundred shots each time, in a single day. Carrying his own bags and in temperatures that reached 41 degrees centigrade, Lindgren pulled off the fourteen hour feat, losing twelve pounds in weight and gaining $350,000 in cash. The money he earns has helped him upgrade his three computers to six plasma screens and a couple of large monitors to watch sport on. He has also been known to put five figure sums behind the bar to pay for friends’ drinks and you can be sure that after he took almost a quarter of a million dollars from Negreanu on ‘High Stakes Poker’ that he commiserated with him by buying his friend the odd beverage.   

You can play online poker with Erick Lindgren at Full Tilt Poker.

You can play online poker with Erick Lindgren at Full Tilt Poker. Check out our Full Tilt Referral Code FTPGOLD for a sign-up bonus of 100% up to $600 plus private freerolls to live events like WSOP, Aussie Million and WPT plus cash freerolls throughout the year.

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