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Bluff Magazine Article On Erick Lindgren


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The latest issue of Bluff Magazine has a fascinating article on Erick Lindgren's situation with his massive sports betting problems and his debts.

 

At one point he lost $6 Million in one month.

 

He's now going through Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has been in rehab for his gambling addiction.

 

I don't think it's available yet on the Bluff Website but I read it on the Bluff Mobile App that they have for both Apple and Android. If you can you should read it.

 

 

BLUFF Magazine@bluffmagazine

Exclusive Erick Lindgren story in February issue of BLUFF, available now for iTunes http://bluffm.ag/Jan13iOS and Android http://bluffm.ag/Jan13droid

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I know he's Daniel's friend & all but I never liked him. He always seemed so full of himself & arrogant kinda like that stereotypical captain of the football team in high school.

 

Good thing he doesn't have to pay that 2 million back to FTP he'd be screwed for life if he isn't already.

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I think he has to pay the 2mil back to stars doesn't he?

 

Moving back to Vegas and being staked to sports bet doesn't strike me as good ways to get over your gambling addiction.

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Can't feel any more sorry for him than the thousands of others destroyed by gambling, and it does make me sick because I see a lot of people throw their lives away like this over the years,

 

Just because he was a "golden boy" and fell from great heights doesn't change things much,

 

It still seems galling that he still has the arrogance to think that he can still bet sports and possibly screw Voulgaris out of the money he owes him by paying him last.

 

If he hasn't been humbled by now there may be no hope for him.

 

Still I wish him the best at getting out of the hole.

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Can't feel any more sorry for him than the thousands of others destroyed by gambling, and it does make me sick because I see a lot of people throw their lives away like this over the years,

I don't think gambling (or gaming as they call it in Nevada) is to blame for destroying anyone's life. The issue is with the person, and that person needs to find a way to solve the issues that cause them to turn to drugs, or excessive gambling, or overeating or whatever.

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I think he has to pay the 2mil back to stars doesn't he?

 

Moving back to Vegas and being staked to sports bet doesn't strike me as good ways to get over your gambling addiction.

 

Really.

 

Wtf he is bankrupt and moving his family to Vegas to gamble? Personally I think it is ****ed up for anyone to continue gambling when they owe so much money, but I can understand playing poker if he is backed, but backed in sportsbetting? Congrats to him for having rich friends.

 

Also the part on him paying Haralabos back last because he doesn't like him is also messed up. If you want to gain respect back you pay everyone back fairly whether you like them or not.

 

That article really makes me hate Lindgren

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“I would like to make good on all of my debts,” said Lindgren, who admitted some hostility toward Voulgaris. “It’s probably safe to assume that he would be the last person I would deal with in the paying back of people. Bob has never been my favorite person and vice versa regardless of any money dealings we’ve had, but that being said, I do apologize and I am in the wrong.”

 

WTF is he saying here? Or why is he saying? Does he not realise from this alone he comes across as a complete a**hole?

 

I'm not sure, but it seems Lindgren could just be really stupid. After what he's apparently learned, how can he think this is ok? And if he learned nothing, and is doing all this for show, is he that stupid that he doesn't realise he should just say "ya I was wrong with Bob, he will get paid back eventually, I was in the wrong". I cannot think of why on earth he would say something like that. The only explanation is that either he's really dumb or the jorunalist is being a bit liberal with his words.

 

It also looks like he's trying to pretend to be a bit of saviour with the full tilt, trying to come across as if he orchestrated the whole tilt-stars deal.

 

I dunno, I could be wrong, but suffice to say, that article doesn't fill me with confidence

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The craziest thing about "poker mania" circa 2003-2008 was just how incredibly stupid otherwise sane people got with money.

 

Granted, a disregard for the value of money is a key asset to a poker player, you can't bet it if you sweat it, but even in a larger, macro'ish sort of way, these kids were just ****ing mind-blowingly stupid with how they treated enormous sums of money, who they trusted, how they trusted them. I mean, yeah, most of them were math'y cul-de-sac kids who had no ****ing idea how life really worked and on that basis were ripe to be scalped but seriously, the naivete on display was unbelievable. "Oh, I'll just 'ship' a quarter million dollars over to that guy... He's good for it. I've seen him on forums, plus I've seen him playing high stakes before..."

 

Retards.

 

If there is one lesson to be learned that is 100% consistent yet ignored 100% of the time, its that when you find yourself riding on a gravy train, grab as much as you can, while you can, and SAVE as much as you can because it won't last forever. Doesn't matter if it was making piles of cash off worthless .com companies in the late 90's, churning and burning real estate in the early 2000's or playing "professional online poker" shortly thereafter.

 

When large groups of people disregard the fundamental value of money, get in there, take it away from them and set it aside.

 

Sincerely:

 

A guy who owns free-and-clear real estate via taking money away from online poker for half a decade.

I thank god it came around when I was a bit older, rather than dumping all that money in my lap when I was in my 20's. Would've blown that shit like a rapper in a strip club full of chubby blondes with low self esteem.

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He was down 10 mill all that time he was on TV etc?

 

It actually sounds like he was sort of solvent before Black Friday - compared to whenever

 

So is Bob at all a leech for sucking in a degenerate sports gambler and taking the other side - if you are a bookie and you have someone losing tons of money and you never check whether they are good for it and keep taking their action at what point does it become partly your fault?

 

If I lose ten mil and can't pay and you let me lose 100 mil - aren't you at some point a moron?

 

If you are giving me credit based on my ownership of a company and that company goes under - your collareral isn't worth anything any more and aren;t you partly to blame at least a little for misvaluing the collateral?

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So is Bob at all a leech for sucking in a degenerate sports gambler and taking the other side - if you are a bookie and you have someone losing tons of money and you never check whether they are good for it and keep taking their action at what point does it become partly your fault?

 

I'm not sure Bob was a bookie exactly but EL certainly did want it to look that way. However, it's not really the bookies fault if EL loses gobs and keeps making bets.

 

If I lose ten mil and can't pay and you let me lose 100 mil - aren't you at some point a moron?

 

He wasn't down 100mill.

 

If you are giving me credit based on my ownership of a company and that company goes under - your collareral isn't worth anything any more and aren;t you partly to blame at least a little for misvaluing the collateral?

 

not at all.

 

His FTP 3% was worth quite a bit on the surface and I don't think the online sports book was even close to being out of line from what I read in the article.

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From 2+2 post by Haralabob:

 

tl;dr cliffs;

 

I was never an agent.

I was a primary investor in a sportsbook

that sportsbook was the target of a purchase

Erick lost money to buyer of the sportsbook after I vouched for him.

The buyer wanted to back out or deduct the amount Erick owed.

I agreed to absorb the debt so that the other investors of the sportsbook could be made whole.

I intended to charge him interest (5% per year).

Aside from interest I never profited nor intended to profit one cent for vouching for EL.

 

full post

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The craziest thing about "poker mania" circa 2003-2008 was just how incredibly stupid otherwise sane people got with money.

 

Granted, a disregard for the value of money is a key asset to a poker player, you can't bet it if you sweat it, but even in a larger, macro'ish sort of way, these kids were just ****ing mind-blowingly stupid with how they treated enormous sums of money, who they trusted, how they trusted them. I mean, yeah, most of them were math'y cul-de-sac kids who had no ****ing idea how life really worked and on that basis were ripe to be scalped but seriously, the naivete on display was unbelievable. "Oh, I'll just 'ship' a quarter million dollars over to that guy... He's good for it. I've seen him on forums, plus I've seen him playing high stakes before..."

 

Retards.

 

If there is one lesson to be learned that is 100% consistent yet ignored 100% of the time, its that when you find yourself riding on a gravy train, grab as much as you can, while you can, and SAVE as much as you can because it won't last forever. Doesn't matter if it was making piles of cash off worthless .com companies in the late 90's, churning and burning real estate in the early 2000's or playing "professional online poker" shortly thereafter.

 

When large groups of people disregard the fundamental value of money, get in there, take it away from them and set it aside.

 

Sincerely:

 

A guy who owns free-and-clear real estate via taking money away from online poker for half a decade.

I thank god it came around when I was a bit older, rather than dumping all that money in my lap when I was in my 20's. Would've blown that shit like a rapper in a strip club full of chubby blondes with low self esteem.

 

Good post

 

He was down 10 mill all that time he was on TV etc?

 

It actually sounds like he was sort of solvent before Black Friday - compared to whenever

 

So is Bob at all a leech for sucking in a degenerate sports gambler and taking the other side - if you are a bookie and you have someone losing tons of money and you never check whether they are good for it and keep taking their action at what point does it become partly your fault?

 

If I lose ten mil and can't pay and you let me lose 100 mil - aren't you at some point a moron?

 

If you are giving me credit based on my ownership of a company and that company goes under - your collareral isn't worth anything any more and aren;t you partly to blame at least a little for misvaluing the collateral?

 

The sportsbook (or Bob or whoever) certainly took a risk in giving EL credit, but it's not like it was a contract based on EL's shares/payments of Full Tilt. FTP goes under, sucks for EL and bad circumstance but he is totally responsible for the money. When you give someone credit, you always take a risk of not getting paid, and in this case that might happen. If it happens, yes the sportsbook knew there was a risk of this happening. However, they are still absolutely entitled to the money EL owes, and should do every thing in their power to get it.

 

It's kinda like people borrowing money for overpriced houses, then the market collapsing and the house being worth 1/3rd of what they paid for it. It's unfortunate for those people, but they still owe money to the bank. If they can't pay back the money, the bank just has to deal with it and make the best decision it can at that time. The bank there was a risk of this happening.

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actually if you're house is underwater - you just give it back to the bank - that's how collateral works

 

not that EL had any kind of collateral deal with his FTP shares but if people gave him credit because - hey he has 3% of full tilt - they made a bad decision too

 

doesn't clear EL just saying

 

still sounds like Bob was trying to shear EL but wound up sort of skinning him instead - as amarillo slim would say

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actually if you're house is underwater - you just give it back to the bank - that's how collateral works

 

not that EL had any kind of collateral deal with his FTP shares but if people gave him credit because - hey he has 3% of full tilt - they made a bad decision too

 

doesn't clear EL just saying

 

still sounds like Bob was trying to shear EL but wound up sort of skinning him instead - as amarillo slim would say

 

 

Guys like EL in the poker world and more so for those cashing in on "poker celebrity" are only as good as their word and their name. There are known to lend each other a lot informally, if he welches there is nothing to re-possess but they will not be in line for any endorsement deals ever again unless they make good on what they owe and not getting out of it through some legal maneuver.

 

It seems like EL possibly could be a profitable mid-lever grinder on the tables but unless he has a few big scores in tournaments the lime light is gone.

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I'm not seeing much about EL's monthly distribution from FTP which I've read to have been around $250k per month... I can't relate to the scale of money obviously, but I think that black friday's cutoff of a $250k guaranteed chunk plays a massive factor in EL's fall from grace, with the FTP monthly money EL could've quite easily continued chipping away at debts and his cost of living, and assuming he had backers he could approach to continue playing I just don't see him being in that terrible of a spot respecting the culture and nature of the games/community he's playing in. It's probably a good thing for EL long term that the cutoff forced his hand to recognize deeper issues.

 

I agree with the comments about how casually loans of this amount are treated between friends and even in my local casino guys are regularly passing a couple thousand back and forth each night.

 

All that said, EL has clearly accepted that he has a gambling problem and making steps to repair/improve his life and payback so I wish him the best. I have no problem with a gambling addict making future plans to get things under control and moving to Vegas to play poker. If the proper accountability and personal systems are in place I believe in people's ability to change, and I appreciate when it's for the better.

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I'm not seeing much about EL's monthly distribution from FTP which I've read to have been around $250k per month... I can't relate to the scale of money obviously, but I think that black friday's cutoff of a $250k guaranteed chunk plays a massive factor in EL's fall from grace, with the FTP monthly money EL could've quite easily continued chipping away at debts and his cost of living, and assuming he had backers he could approach to continue playing I just don't see him being in that terrible of a spot respecting the culture and nature of the games/community he's playing in. It's probably a good thing for EL long term that the cutoff forced his hand to recognize deeper issues.

 

I agree with the comments about how casually loans of this amount are treated between friends and even in my local casino guys are regularly passing a couple thousand back and forth each night.

 

All that said, EL has clearly accepted that he has a gambling problem and making steps to repair/improve his life and payback so I wish him the best. I have no problem with a gambling addict making future plans to get things under control and moving to Vegas to play poker. If the proper accountability and personal systems are in place I believe in people's ability to change, and I appreciate when it's for the better.

 

That was actually his argument in the article - with his distributions he was paring down his debt and with the current pre black friday value of his FTP shares he was fine - - what happened after that he clearly needs to be held responsible for

 

Most gambling addicts tho aren't going to say i owe two mil - i need to stop gambling - they will say I'll keep gambling til i'm cut off or above water

 

When I was at the 2007 WSOP i asked the valet there who the best tipper was and he said Lindgren tipped 100 in and out every day - I understand that a lot of pros argued that they'd rather lend money to a poker player than a normal person because their word is bond, but when you are talking that kind of money it seems foolish to just assume they are good for it because they are on tv a lot

 

I just wonder how much more of all the stuff ESPN fed us about how great these poker pros were was nonsense

 

Amarillo Slim was a great character but he obviously wasn't above cheating - Doyle was his partner what does that say about Doyle and all the rest?

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