Image courtesy of PokerGO.com: WSOP 2025 Event #66 – Erick Lindgren
Erick Lindgren is an American professional poker player with two World Series of Poker bracelets, two World Poker Tour titles, over $11 million in recorded tournament earnings, and the 2008 WSOP Player of the Year award.
He’s one of the most recognised professionals from the poker boom era. However, his financial story is more complicated than the earnings figure suggests.
All financial figures cited here draw on publicly available records, including court filings, and should be treated as estimates rather than confirmed personal wealth.
Who Is Erick Lindgren?
Lindgren turned professional in the late 1990s after years of multi-tabling online and working as a proposition player in California, then relocated to Las Vegas in 2002. His first major win came that December at the Bellagio Five Diamond Classic.
He followed it with back-to-back WPT titles: the Ultimate Poker Classic in 2003 and the PartyPoker Million III in 2004, where he beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up for a $1,025,000 prize. The WPT Player of the Year award came the same year.
- The WSOP bracelets arrived in a different burst. In 2008, he won the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em event, cashed five times across the series, and was named Player of the Year, one of only two players to hold both that award and the WPT equivalent.
- His second bracelet came in 2013 in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event, three weeks after finishing runner-up to Chino Rheem in the WPT World Championship.
What sets Lindgren apart from his competition is the breadth across formats (limit, no-limit, mixed) and his consistency across a wide range of buy-in levels.
Erick Lindgren’s Net Worth (Estimated)
Erick Lindgren's net worth is estimated at around $1 million, based on publicly available records. That figure is considerably lower than his gross tournament earnings would suggest, and the reason is documented in federal court.
In June 2015, Lindgren filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the District of Nevada, listing assets of less than $50,000 and debts exceeding $10 million. His 2012 filing included $3.8 million in IRS debt.
In a 2013 Bluff Magazine interview, he acknowledged gambling debts that had reached approximately $10 million at their peak and estimated he'd repaid over $3 million before Full Tilt's collapse ended his income.
Tournament earnings, entry costs, taxes, and staking arrangements never appear in any database. In Lindgren's case, the court record doesn't leave much to speculation on the downside.
Tournament Winnings Breakdown
According to the Hendon Mob, Lindgren's recorded career earnings stand at over $11.3 million across 195 cashes. Nearly all of it came between 2002 and 2013, with 87 WSOP cashes alone accounting for over $4 million of the total.
His five largest recorded results:
- WPT PartyPoker Million III Limit Hold’em Championship, 2004 – $1,025,000 (1st place)
- Aussie Millions $100k Hold'em, 2007 – $795,279 (1st place)
- WSOP $50k H.O.R.S.E., 2008 – $781,440 (3rd place)
- Five Star World Poker Classic $100k Super High Roller, 2011 – $700,500 (2nd place)
- WPT World Championship $25k, 2013 – $650,275 (2nd place)
Each figure is a gross payout. The Aussie Millions entry alone cost A$100,000 (~$80k USD); the H.O.R.S.E. event cost $50,000. Travel, accommodation, and applicable US and foreign taxes further reduce every figure.
Staking arrangements, standard at this level, split the net proceeds before the player sees them. The database records what the cage paid out. What Lindgren retained from each result is a separate calculation that no public source tracks.
It's worth noting that four of his five biggest cashes came in a three-year stretch from 2007 to 2013, a concentration that reflects a career that peaked sharply and then wound down gradually.
Other Income: Sponsorships, Media, and Professional Activity
Lindgren was a founding member of Team Full Tilt and one of the platform's most visible sponsored pros from its launch through Black Friday in April 2011.
As a shareholder and sponsored player, he received approximately $250,000 per month in distributions, income that ceased when the DOJ shut down the site.
One of the best players during the 2000s, Erick Lindgren is up to his old tricks at the @WPT Choctaw Championship, deep and playing for $360k.
Check out our interview with the former Full Tilt Poker star below: 👇https://t.co/VrVV70AqiD— PokerNews (@PokerNews) May 6, 2024
He authored World Poker Tour: Making the Final Table in 2005, a strategy guide for poker tournaments with an associated royalty stream, though no figures have been disclosed.
In 2007, he won a $350,000 prop bet against Gavin Smith, Phil Ivey, and others: four rounds of golf in a single day in 41ºC Las Vegas heat, carrying his own clubs. That result is documented and unambiguous.
No post-2011 sponsorship or commercial deal has been publicly confirmed.
Public Profile, Lifestyle, and Privacy
Since 2012, Lindgren has kept a notably quieter public profile than his boom-era prominence might suggest. He's spoken openly about gambling addiction, the bankruptcy filings, and his focus on family.
He told the WPT in 2024 that his years away from the circuit were mostly spent raising his sons. On the financial specifics, he's said little, and his situation is better documented through court records than through anything he's chosen to share publicly.
FAQ: Erick Lindgren Net Worth
Is Erick Lindgren a millionaire?
The 2015 bankruptcy filing listed assets of under $50,000. Whether his net worth has since recovered to seven figures is not publicly confirmed. A modest net worth in the low millions is plausible, but not certain.
What is Erick Lindgren best known for in poker?
Erick Lindgren is best known for two WPT titles, two WSOP bracelets, and the 2008 WSOP Player of the Year award. He’s one of only two players to have earned both the WPT and WSOP Player of the Year titles.
Do tournament winnings equal net worth?
No. Prize money is a gross figure before taxes, buy-in costs, and staking arrangements. In Lindgren's case, the gap between recorded earnings and actual retained wealth is confirmed by public court filings rather than inferred.
Does Erick Lindgren earn income outside of tournaments?
His Full Tilt sponsorship was his primary non-tournament income source, and it ended in 2011. He has published a poker strategy book that focuses more on exploitative than on GTO poker strategy and he has documented prop bet winnings. No current commercial deal is publicly confirmed.
Why are net worth estimates for Erick Lindgren specifically difficult?
For most players, estimates are uncertain in both directions. Here, the 2015 filings give a precise snapshot of the bottom. What's genuinely unknown is how much ground has been recovered since, and that has no public answer.
