Erick Lindgren Refiles for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection Days After Making the Final Table of the Millionaire Maker

Erick Lindgren Refiles for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection Days After Making the Final Table of the Millionaire Maker

Former disgraced Full Tilt Poker pro, Erick Lindgren, has refiled for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, days after finishing seventh in the Millionaire Maker.

I would love to be a big-eared neuron in the mind of Erick Lindgren. He has created a debt load in excess of $10 million, has most of the poker world chasing him around the courts, and yet still manages to put the blinkers on and concentrate Erick Lindgren Refiles for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection Days After Making the Final Table of the Millionaire Makerlong enough to wade through 7,275 entrants to finish 7th in the Millionaire Maker.

A quick glance at The Hendon Mob website and you want to be enrolling him into the Poker Hall of Fame. Over $10.2m in live tournament earnings, two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet wins, a WSOP Player of the Year (POY) title, and two World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event victories.

Back in the real world, and he is recognized as a disgrace to his profession. Some would argue that he shouldn’t be allowed to play, others would like to bring back capital punishment for gambling crimes, and then there are those that pity him and the addiction that seems to have destroyed his life. And yet he still manages to compete with the very best.

Lindgren won a bracelet in 2013, and also finished runner-up in the WPT World Championships, he made the final table of the $10k NLHE Six-Handed event at the 2014 WSOP, and is only days removed from his most recent success, a $193,675 score in the Milly Maker.

He has won over $1.6m in the past two years, but how much of that he actually earned – after backers took their chunks – only he knows. What we do know is Lindgren has filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years, citing over $10m in debt, and only $50,000 in assets.

If you want the nitty gritty of the case, then Haley Hintze captures the details perfectly over at Flushdraw, but it seems Lindgren has dug a hole the size of the Mariana Trench and bankruptcy is the only way out of it.

Here is the roll call of shame:

• Lindgren is being sued for failing to return a $2m payment, made to his Full Tilt account, in error.

• Lindgren is being sued for an unpaid $531,807 loan made by Full Tilt

• The IRS claims Lindgren owes them $3.8m

• A further $6.5m is owed to various members of the gambling fraternity, including $1.1m to Andy Bloch.

Nevada attorney Samuel A. Schwartz is representing Lindgren. In 2013, he featured in an interview with Bluff magazine, where he admitted his gambling problems and talked about attending a rehab facility in a bid to get back on his feet.

He continues to be one of the most controversial figures in our game.