Erick Lindgren On The Rise Once More?

At the beginning of this year, Erick Lindgren was thrust dramatically into the limelight, not because of his poker prowess, but because he confessed to having a serious gambling problem that had cost him up to $10 million. Having declared bankruptcy and checked in at a rehab center in Newport Beach, California, the 36 year old explained:
“I owed people a bunch of money, and it’s something that I’ve been working on for a long time, but I definitely slipped up, made some really bad mistakes and I needed to address that.”
Now it seems the poker pro who is 27th overall on poker’s ‘All Time Money List’ with $8,569,334 in winnings may finally have gotten his life back on track. This month, not only did he take down the $1,500 WPT World Championship in Las Vegas for $39,722, but he has now made the final table of the $25k WPT Championship Main Event, where he has already guaranteed himself a minimum payout of $173,993.
Nevertheless, Erick Lindgren’s focus will purely be on taking down the top prize worth $1,150,297, and adding another WPT title to the two he already possesses. As the final days action gets underway later today, Lindgren will start the final table of six in second spot (3.355m), behind another player who had also had his fair share of controversy, namely Chino Rheem (5.495m). Other finalists also competing for the title include Jonathan Roy (1.9m), Matt Hyman (1.56m), Brandon Steven (1.21m), and David Peters (1.085m).
Before succumbing to a gambling problem, Erick ‘Edog’ Lindgren was the toast of the poker tournament scene and had fans wherever he travelled. Similarly, Lindgren will still have his die-hard supporters at the WPT Championship final table, as well as the support of those players still hoping to retrieve owed money from the Las Vegas resident.
A big score now could see Lindgren’s rehabilitation put firmly back on track, and as he explained earlier; “I don’t want to stop my profession. I just want to get better at it. I want to stay in full control, which means not gambling wildly, not going beyond my bankroll and gambling with other people’s money. I want to gamble the right way and do my profession as well as I can.”