Lindgren vs Bonomo for the Bracelet
One of the best poker players never to win a WSOP bracelet found himself head-to-head against one of the best online poker players on the planet, in the 2008 WSOP Mixed Hold’em Event #4. Erick Lindgren, who had won over $5 million in tournament poker play and is a multiple WPT winner, had never managed to win a WSOP bracelet. And to win his first he had to beat one of the best young poker minds around, in internet sensation Justin Bonomo.
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Lindgren was “in the zone” all day during the final table, and had been reading opponents with uncanny accuracy. One of the most important hands in the head-to-head battle came when the two were playing limit hold’em, with blinds of $40K/$80K. Lindgren was dealt pocket sevens and raised the $40K blind to $80K. Bonomo called with Q-8 of diamonds, and they saw a flop of 4d-Js-6s. Lindgren, who was in first position, led out $40K and Bonomo made it two bets to $80K. Lindgren begrudgingly called.
The turn card was a scary 6h, and once again Bonomo pushed the action with an $80K bet, sensing that Lindgren had missed the flop. Lindgren made the call and they saw a river card of 5c. Once again Bonomo fired $80K into Lindgren’s lowly pocket sevens. Somehow Lindgren put Bonomo on nothing, and after some thought made the final call.
Lindgren was facing an opponent who had raised pre-flop, check-raised the flop and bet out the turn and river, yet he still made the incredible call to win a $640K pot. All betting indications said that Bonomo had a hand, but Lindgren could see through the internet prodigy’s continuation bets and didn’t back down. It gave him a commanding lead that he carried on to the victory. Poker doesn’t get much better than that hand.
Bonomo will have to wait to win his first WSOP bracelet, but it’s obvious that he will eventually own one. For Lindgren it was a big monkey off his back, and the hardware further solidified him as one of the best hold’em tournament players in the world.
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