Eric Lindgren Files For Bankruptcy With Less Than $50k In Assets

Eric Lindgren’s life is proving to be one of poker’s longest running bad beat stories, with the 38 year-old now filing for Chapter 11 or “reorganization” bankruptcy with less than $50,000 in listed assets. This is the second time in three years Lindgren has had to file for bankruptcy protection, with the US pro’s 2012 bankruptcy having been concluded without his debts having been cleared. As a result, Lindgren is still believed to owe around $8 million in outstanding debts, including $2.5 million to PokerStars.
Eric Lindgren is one of tournament poker’s most successful players having won two WSOP bracelets, and 2 WPT titles in a career dating back to 2000. During that time, Eric “E-Dog” Lindgren has also amassed $10,203,245 in earnings, placing him at number 32 on poker’s “All Time Money List”. In other words, there is no denying Lindgren’s poker prowess and within the past few weeks he has managed to add a further $193,675 score to his resume after finishing the 2015 WSOP $1,500 NL Millionaire Maker (Event #16) in 7th place out of a field of 7,275 runners.
In spite of his successes, however, Eric Lindgren also admits to straying from his field of expertise and blowing millions of dollars feeding a serious gambling problem, a large part of which was lost during the 2011 football season. Lindgren subsequently felt it necessary to check himself into a California rehab facility, and as he later explained:
“I’ve had a gambling problem for a long time.. I learned that I wasn’t that different from a lot of the people that have addictions whether it’s alcohol or drugs or whatever.. I don’t want to stop my profession.. I want to gamble the right way and do my profession as well as I can.”
Unfortunately, Eric Lindgren is not the only talented poker pro to have squandered his winnings gambling away from his chosen profession, with other examples including Stu Ungar, and T. J. Cloutier. Even sticking to the volatile game of poker carries  risks all of its own, with the legend Doyle Brunson, who is now believed to be worth in excess of $75 million, admitting to having gone broke several times throughout his illustrious career.