Erick Lindgren is a professional poker player born on August 11, 1976, in Burney California – a 3,000-person mountain town. He has two brothers and all three of them have wildly competitive streaks and passion for channeling that energy into athletics. So Erick spent his first years in California, where he developed himself as an athletic high school star. He was voted a MVP award in basketball and was glad to be a part of the football high school team.
Being a successful basketball player was not all he wanted, though. His interest in poker was provoked in his second year at college when he dropped out of it. First he started out as a blackjack dealer. After realizing his love for poker, Erick Lindgren began training hard and has put together a nice string of victories. Erick Lindgren made his first major victory at the Bellagio in 2002. It was a big success for him, and 10 months later he won the World Poker Tour event in Aruba with a prize of $500,000.
The next achivements of Erick Lindgren are really impressive: in 2006, he took the third place in the WPT No-Limit Hold 'em Championship event at the Borgata Winter Open, followed by a victory in the Fourth Annual Five Star Poker Classic, and in June 2006, he won $600,000 in the $120,000 No-Limit Hold 'em event at the FullTiltPoker.Net Pro Showdown at the Red Rock Casino.
After half a year of taking a break, the next partings of Erick Lindgren in the big competitions made him one of the leaders in this sport. At the 2007 Aussie Millions he won the Main Event along with more than $795,000. He continued cashing in a lot of tournaments until the end of the year, including two of the top-10 finishes in the WPT and an eighth-place finish in the WSOP’s $1,500 No-Limit Hold ‘em Shootout event. In June, 2008 Erick Lindgren won his first WSOP bracelet and earned over $374,000. Due to this fact, he moved to 20th place on the all-time money list winnings with his more than $6 million.
Featured as one of the best poker players in the world, Erick Lindgren has written a poker book, "World Poker Tour: Making the Final Table." This book contains many advices about the tournament play. He is also a member of the Fulltilt Poker team of professional poker players and takes part in the games in Full Tilt Poker site. “I know that if you want to be a great poker player, you have to keep learning” said Erick Lindgren. Now he is learning from his main opponents – Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, and Daniel Negreanu and in his free time enjoys watching his colleagues play at TV shows like the World Poker Tour.
Today Erick lives in Las Vegas and is spending his free time traveling, playing golf and basketball. He likes his fans so if you want to meet him, it will not be difficult for you. Being a successful poker player has not changed the regular person he is. As of 2008, his total live tournaments winnings exceed $7,300,000.