Congratulations to Erick Lindgren, Champion of Event No. 4 ($374,505)
The night started on the right foot for Lindgren when he knocked out ninth-place finisher Isaac Haxton on the second hand of the final table. Lindgren continued to build his stack from there. When heads up began, Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo had a 3-to-2 chip advantage over Lindgren.
After holding steady through the initial no-limit round of play, Lindgren began taking sizable pots off of Bonomo in the limit round. Then, in the 40th hand of heads up, Lindgren finally claimed the last of Bonomo's chips and the bracelet was his.
This was an ESPN televised final table, so Norman Chad has just conducted an interview with Lindgren from behind the enormous stack of cash collected on the table. Chad asked Lindgren if he was worried about perhaps never winning a bracelet. "It was really on my mind," answered Lindgren. "Until the final card turned, I was worried that he would come back."
Lindgren added some complimentary words about Bonomo. They chatted a bit about young phenoms like the 22-year-old second-place finisher. Then Chad, pointing out that Lindgren was past age 30, asked him if perhaps he thought his best years of poker were behind him.
"Are you kidding me?" answered Lindgren incredulously. "Doyle thinks his best years are ahead of him!"
They are shooting photos of Lindgren and his winning hand. That's one genuine smile he's got going there.
All in all a very memorable night from the Rio.