Erick Lindgren's Million Dollar Week
Erick Lindgren had never played on a cash game livestream before last week. He made the most of his debut, winning seven-figures under the bright lights of Hustler Casino Live's Million Dollar Game.
Erick Lindgren walked into the Hustler Casino in Gardena, CA last weekend with $25,000 and over the two nights that followed, parlayed it into $1,283,000 after working and playing his way into one of the highly coveted seats in the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game.
The first step was a $25,000 MDG satellite on Sunday night. This was the first year that Hustler Casino Live ran a satellite to get players into the Million Dollar Game. The invite-only field was made up mostly of players that longtime Hustler Casino Live viewers would recognize. Lindgren decided to take a shot and was one of 51 players in the field vying for not only the $1 million buy-in for the event but also a guaranteed seat in the exclusive invite-only affair.
“It was mostly just the guys who play week-to-week on the HCL stream, so it was a different group. They don't play a lot of tournaments per se, but they are all aggressive,” Lindgren said. “(Playing against aggressive players) suits anybody that makes some hands, which I did early and that just propelled me to the final table.”
Lindgren brought a commanding chip lead to the final table and eliminated his final three opponents to win the $1 million and the highly coveted seat into the first night of play for the Million Dollar Game.
Indeed, Lindgren has a well-known poker resume, with two World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour titles, and has won both WSOP and WPT Player of the Year awards. He played on High Stakes Poker during the show’s initial run and a few other cash game TV shows but had never played a livestreamed cash game before showing up on Monday night to take his seat.
Over the course of the eight-and-a-half hours that the game ran, Lindgren’s stack fluctuated, dropping to as low as $647,000 before building it back up and finishing the night with $1,238,000. He was one of five players to post a profit in the session which certainly helps with his first impression of playing in the game, but he also liked the players he was with on a personal level.
“Very cool. It helps to be with a cool cast of characters,” Lindgren said. “Really enjoyed Steve, the lawyer. I've never met anybody like him. That guy is sharp. Had fun with Keating, had fun with Texas Mike. Everybody was a good time.”
Like a lot of poker fans, Lindgren tunes into the Hustler Casino Live show often and already had an understanding of who the players were and what they were capable of at the table. With a cast that included ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek, Alan Keating, Peter, Steve, and eventually Nik Airball, Lindgren didn’t see a single opponent who was afraid of mixing things up and playing for it all.
“I was pretty sure that everybody could play and they definitely showed it. I know Pav ran poorly, but he played very well I thought,” Lindgren said.
Winning the satellite came with a unique condition. To prevent a player winning the $1 million and then hitting and running the Million Dollar Game itself, they were required to play for eight hours on the first night unless they went bust. That put Lindgren with some unusual spots and forced him to take a unique approach on some hands.
“It alternated from feeling like a cash game to a tournament. I thought it was stressful in a lot of ways. It was different. I wasn't used to it and I didn't really know exactly how to handle some of the situations and a lot of them I just took the low road and decided to fold,” Lindgren admitted.
When the final stats came out for the first night of play, Lindgren had the second lowest VPIP of the night at 39%. As the final two nights of the MDG played out, others had a lower VPIP and Lindgren took some solace in knowing the online critics had a few other targets to consider.
“I watched the next couple nights, so of course for Haralabos (Voulgaris) and Nik Airball had a much lower VPIP, so I felt pretty good about that,” Lindgren said. “I think in my situation, if you play around 40% VPIP with Texas Mike and Alan Keating to your left, I think you did pretty good.”
Just a few hours before the second night of the game was about to start, word broke that the buy-in was being lowered to $500,000 after a few players dropped out and HCL co-owner and producer Feldman was having trouble filling the game. Hearing this, Lindgren admits he gave some thought to jumping back in and finding out if momentum is real.
“Definitely crossed my mind. I'm a competitor. I wanted to keep playing,” Lindgren said. “I wanted to play again. I'd like to make a run at playing it next year.
After the two-day run, Lindgren took some time to recover both mentally and physically from the grind.
“I honestly got as worn out from those two days as I normally feel at the end of the WSOP,” Lindgren said. “So basically this week it's just been hanging out with family and really just a lot of laziness.”
Now that he’s had a chance to show that he can play at the highest stakes offered on a livestreamed cash game, he thinks more opportunities to play might come his way.
“I would hope so. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the players and I was a little handcuffed in the game,” Lindgren said, referring to the eight-hour time requirement. “I was not supposed to be in a million dollar game and there I was, but I look forward to being able to splash around a little bit more.”
With a seven figure score just three weeks before the 2025 WSOP begins, Lindgren believes he’s already in a good spot to continue the momentum.
“The summer's looking good. I’m excited to play the events. (This) obviously takes pressure off. I think whether it's the WSOP or the months leading to it, if you can have a good start, it definitely takes the pressure off of the WSOP,” Lindgren said. “I definitely plan on playing a decent amount … I love that group that plays a lot of the $10Ks and stuff. There's just so much ballbusting and just trash talking. It's just fun. It's the way poker's intended to be.”