Goshen poker player wins $358K
GOSHEN — Goshen native Chris Lindh was in third place as he started Day 7 of the World Series of Poker Monday night. His performance at the Rio in Las Vegas would determine whether he'd get a chance to win millions.
Monday night's game, to be broadcast on ESPN next week, winnowed players down to the nine who will compete in the final game in November. Lindh came in sixteenth, so he won't be part of the "November Nine" to play on Nov. 4 and 5 for the $8.4 million prize.
"Chris busted out in 16th place overall but still earned $357,665," said Christopher Hunt, Managing Editor of PokerListings.com, in an email to The Chronicle on Tuesday. "Pretty great for seven days of work! And he outlasted well over 6,300 players."
The World Series of Poker began with 6,352 entries. On Monday Lindh was among only 27 players left fighting for a place at the final table.
Lindh has experience on the live tournament circuit, winning $547,014 in his career so far.
Poker obsession starts early
Hometown boredom launched his poker career, Lindh said in an audio interview for PokerListings.com.
"There wasn't much to do in high school, middle school, so I started playing with a bunch of my friends," Lindh said. "We played pretty much every night, sometimes for 24 hours straight."
He went to college in Boston, where he got a degree in finance, then moved to New York to work for the investment bank Bear Stearns. On weekends he played poker in Altantic City casinos.
He lost his job when Bear Stearns failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis. Lindh said this misfortune may have led to his current fortune as poker champ.
Lindh refers to his playing as "just grinding cash." A "grinder" is poker player who plays for consistent and steady wins.
He said his win is "definitely going to change my lifestyle."
He said he might just leave his "beater car" in the parking lot where it died this week.
Lindh already has a corporate sponsor, Game Plan Nutrition LLC, a line of nutritional supplements sold online through a network of personal trainers.
"The amount of exposure and eye-balls Chris' success has generated will be in the millions when ESPN airs the 2013 WSOP," said CEO Andrew Bachman in a press release.
ESPN begins its coverage of the World Series of Poker with a two-hour telecast on Tuesday, July 23, at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. ESPN will release two episodes week by week, leading up to live coverage of the final table on Monday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Online:
PokerListings.com audio interview with Chris Lindh: http://bit.ly/1amUXOr
Editor's note: The original online article was corrected to reflect the eliminations game held Monday night, not Tuesday night.