The first of the three sessions of the HCL Million Dollar Game has just wrapped up and while we saw some massive pot over the ten-hour session, Erick Lindgren has got to be the story of the day.
The man who made his claim to fame during Full Tilt’s glory days hasn’t been in the public eye much as of late, but last night, E-Dog was back in the limelight.
Lindgren was the lucky winner of the $25,000 satellite to secure his seat for the first session of the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game. Nine hours later, he’s turned that seat into a $1.3 million profit – a good day at the office by pretty much anyone’s standards.
E-Dog Is Back in Style
Those of us who have been fans of Texas Hold’em for a little while certainly remember Erick Lindgren, a former Full Tilt ambassador and the man who was a staple of numerous high-stakes cash games and tournaments back in the heyday of poker.
After Black Friday, Lindgren has largely withdrawn from the public space, but he never stopped playing. Although he’s been a central figure of a controversy or two over the years, many fans still have fond memories of his appearances, so the poker world was stoked to hear E-Dog was the one to fill the qualifier seat for the Million Dollar Game.
Once a high-stakes regular, E-Dog is used to somewhat lower limits these days, so everyone was curious to see how he’d fare in this ultra-high, super-deep stacked setup.
And he did not disappoint!
Showing up with a smile on his face and posting a VPIP of 39% by the end of the night, nobody could accuse him of “playing it safe.” Lindgren came to play and he wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the likes of Alan Keating, Peter, Texas Mike, and Steve – all players who play in these games almost on a daily.
Erick fit right in, though, casually chatting, having fun, and, at the very least, doing a good job of hiding the fact he was anxious. Although the rules stipulated he had to stick around for at least eight hours, he played for over an hour extra, leaving his seat only as the game started to wrap up anyway.
Years of Experience Paying Off
If there is one thing we can be certain of when you put the likes of Peter, Texas Mike, and Keating at the same table it’s that the action will be fast and furious. With chips flying left and right, it took Lindgren a couple of hours to get settled, and he got off to a bit of a rough start, getting stuck a few hundred thousand.
Although he was down nearly half of his million-dollar buy-in only three hours into the session, Erick managed to keep his wits about and slowly but surely stage a comeback.
The first big pot to come his way happened when he flopped an overpair with pocket queens on an eight-high board and managed to get a lot of value from Steve, who flopped the top pair. Lindgren even found a river value bet despite the ace showing up, picking up over $400k to get back to the even mark.
After that E-Dog waited patiently for his next opportunity, and it once again presented itself in a hand against Steve, who really couldn’t get anything going last night.
The hand started with Erick holding K♥Q♥ and four players taking the flop in a bloated 3-bet pot. The flop came A♦Q♠7♠, but it was Steve who decided to take a $90k stab at it with just 9♥5♥.
Lindgren made a call with his pair of queens, which actually caused Texas Mike to fold his weak ace, so E-Dog found himself heads-up against an opponent who had almost no equity. But he had to make it to the river.
The turn came 6♣, giving Steve a bit of hope, and the action checked through, with $270,000 in the middle. The 2♦ river brought no help to Steve’s hand, though, so he made one last attempt at winning by brute force, firing out for $142k.
With all possible draws missing by the river, Erick took a few moments but eventually came to the right decision to make the call and drag in the pot of over half a million.
After this, Lindgren picked up a few more pots, with his stack growing to almost $1.5 million at one point during the session.
For the next few hours, he won some and lost some, but without getting involved in any major confrontations, eventually wrapping his night up with just shy of $1.3 million in his stack after about nine and a half hours of play.
Million Dollar Game Returns on Wednesday
In addition to Lindgren, who ended up winning about $300,000 (or $1.3 million, depending on how you want to look at it), Texas Mike was the big winner, profiting just over $1.5 million.
Peter ended the night $700,000 to the good, Alan Keating staged a nice comeback to end with a profit of $450k, and Nik Airball, who only showed up for the last hour of play, won a few quick pots to turn a profit of $430k.
On the bad side of the win/loss leaderboard, Jack ended on the bottom, losing $1.5 million, while both Pav and Steve dropped around a million each.
The second session of the 2025 HCL Million Dollar Game will take place on Wednesday. Lindgren will not be in the mix, but all other usual suspects will be there, including Nik Airball, who got off to a great start last night and will be itching for action!
