Eric Lingren Gets WSOP At Last

Lindgren has got his first bracelet in the $5k mixed Hold'Em event at the 2008 WSOP. This marks him out now as one of the best players around now he's proven it in the WSOP.

I was lucky enough to win a seat for the Aussie Millions in 2007 and had the absolute pleasure of being on a table with Eric Lindgren on day 1 for about 5 or 6 hours.

When he got moved to our table after 4 hours or so, I was the chip leader on it, with about $45,000 (starting chips $20k).

When Eric sat down he had a quick look round the table, at the stacks not the people and only looked up at anyone when he got to my stack. (I was dead opposite him in seat 1, he was in seat 4.) He smiled at me and said "high..how you doing?

I just smiled back at him as I knew what he was up to.

I did chat to him though as time went by, and he seemed a genuinely nice guy with a great sense of humour and some great one liners. He said a couple of funny things about Matusow and Phil Ivey too.

We stayed out of each others way and in all the time we played together he raised my blind only once, and when I passed he showed me A,K and that was the only time he showed his hand voluntarily all day.

I raised his BB only once. It was passed round to me and I had 6,7 suited and couldn't resist it. I was glad he passed though. I really didn't fancy my chances of outplaying him after the flop.

He is an amazing player. When he sat down he had about $27,000, and he never won a pot with more than $4 or $5,000 in it all day. But somehow at the end of the day he had passed me and had $70,800 to my $67,000. To this day I still don't know exactly how he did it.

It was a joy to watch though, and his reading ability of peoples hands was simply jaw dropping. On one occasion he passed on the river and said to the guy I think you have A,J. Trust me there was nothing obvious to suggest those cards. The guy was so shocked that he'd named his exact 2 cards that he turned them over for all to see.

He always looked to keep the pots small, and only raised sensible amounts, but just enough to put a little pressure on his opponents and keep them guessing. He won countless pots without showing down a hand.

To give you an idea of his humour, here are couple of things he said. After several hours a newbie came to the table with not too many chips (about $15,000) and 1st hand on my BB, when it was passed round to him he raised it. It was passed round to me ( I'd got $55-60k) and I re-raised him all in and he folded. I had a strong hand though I didn't have to show it.

The next 2 hands the newbie folded and on the 3rd it was Eric's BB and the newbie raised again, this time Eric re-raised him all in, and he folded again. Eric while piling the chips, lent forward and said to the newbie, "by the way buddy, welcome to the table".

The newbie didn't learn very quick as he raised my BB next time with exactly the same result. So the next time he raised on Eric's BB, it was all in as he only a few chips left. Eric called him with 4,4 as it was only a few extra chips and the guy turned over 8,8.

The flop brought no possible straight or flush for Eric, but he hit a 4 on the turn and another on the river for quads. Eric said "well wadda ya know, I only had 2 outs and I hit both of em".

All the Full Tilt guys including Eric and Mike "the mouth" came over on the same plane and Eric said he was worried that the pilot would deliberately crash the plane. "arghh, kill Mike and save the world".

I didn't see Eric on day 2, though I know he got knocked out as I saw it on the big screen.

Just prior to the start of day three, I was walking through the huge poker room to take my seat and there was a big crowd on the rail watching the players go in.

As I walked through the roped entrance I heard someone say "good luck today buddy" and when I turned round to say thanks, I was amazed to see that it was Eric.

I was surprised and proud in equal measure. All the rail birds were looking at me thinking I must be someone famous!

Now I know he was more talkative to me than anyone else at the table on day one as he wanted me onside, but for him to take the trouble to come over and wish me luck just shows you the sort of guy he is.

I was thrilled to see he's finally won his 1st bracelet, and you can take it from me that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

How did it all start?

I read a thread on EMS a while back entitled "Whats your story". People had posted how they 1st got into poker and it made me think.

As I've been playing about 33 years, a one paragraph post wouldn't be able to cover it.

I have therefore decided to blog it. I'm still working on it but hope to get it done in the next week or so.

Fluence-Too Old to Blog?

I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks. Blogging at my age, I should no better.

I have decided to start a blog as all my posts on EMS or PL seem to be longer than most. That way if you don't wish to be bored stupid turn back now before it's too late.