Erick Lindgren was a standout high school athlete who became the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.

Charles Barkley is an NBA Hall of Famer whose post-basketball exploits with casino table games haven't been nearly as prosperous.

The competitive drive shared by successful athletes led them both to the poker table, although they come from opposite backgrounds and took dissimilar routes. And they have both made headlines in the gambling world, albeit for decidedly different reasons.

Lindgren, 31, grew up in Burney, Calif., a small town in the Sierra Nevada about 2 ½ hours northeast of Reno. He was an all-star in football and basketball who turned to poker after failing to make the cut in college basketball.

He remembers a high school basketball game in which his team trailed by one and had the ball with time winding down. He badly wanted the final shot, but it ended up going to a teammate.

"In poker, the ball is always in my hands," Lindgren said.

At this year's WSOP, Lindgren has taken the proverbial ball and ran with it. He was regarded as one of the best players to never have captured a WSOP title, but wiped away that distinction by winning a $5,000 buy-in hold'em event and finishing third in the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament, a mixed-games format which many poker pros consider to be the game's world championship event.

In all, Lindgren has cashed in five WSOP events and earned nearly $1.5 million in about a month's worth of work. That was before the start of the Main Event, where he could potentially earn more.

"Before the WSOP started, I said to myself that I was going to give it everything I had this year," Lindgren said.

Lindgren is the latest in a long line of former athletes turned poker pros, a list that seems to grow by the day.

Doyle Brunson, the two-time world champion often regarded as the "Godfather of Poker," was an NBA prospect at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, before a knee injury derailed his career. The 74-year-old Brunson remains a force in the game. He won his 10th WSOP bracelet in 2005.

Six-time WSOP bracelet winner T.J. Cloutier played in the 1959 Rose Bowl for Cal and later in the Canadian Football League until injuries caught up with him, too.

Noted poker pros David Benyamine, a Frenchman who has World Poker Tour and WSOP titles to his credit, and Finnish cash game specialist Patrik Antonius, a former model who is one of the game's most feared players, each quit budding tennis careers because of back problems. They decided to take their games from the clay to the felt, and each is now a world-class poker pro.

Perhaps following the lead of their fellow sportsmen, former tennis professionals Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Boris Becker each turned to poker full-time in recent years; Becker even secured a lucrative sponsorship from PokerStars.com.

Other recognizable sports figures recently have arrived on the poker scene with mixed results. Former National League Cy Young award winner and ESPN analyst Orel Hershiser moved to Las Vegas not long ago and got hooked on the game. This year, he received an invitation to the prestigious NBC Heads Up Poker Championship and reached the round of eight in the 64-player field, defeating pros Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham and Freddy Deeb along the way. He lost to eventual runner-up Andy Bloch.

The list of jocks-turned-poker-junkees includes former University of Louisville basketball coach Denny Crum and Gonzaga basketball alumn Blake Stepp, who have each cashed in a WSOP event in the past year.

But for every Orel Hershiser and Denny Crum, there is a Jose Canseco or Lennox Lewis, whose recent WSOP appearances came with much-hyped entrances but ended with quiet exits.

When Canseco lost to pro Amir Vahedi in last year's Main Event, ESPN commentator Norman Chad joked Canseco likely would extract revenge by "linking Amir to HGH in his next book."

Lewis had a trip to Las Vegas that ended unlike any other -- he got knocked out by a girl. The former heavyweight champ sat down at the table and looked visibly uncomfortable from the start. His bout with poker was stopped about an hour afterward when he was sent to the rail by tournament veteran Cecilia Reyes.

Then there's Barkley, who could merit a category of his own. The former NBA star, now better known as a brash studio analyst for TNT, was in Las Vegas last week to participate in actor Don Cheadle's Ante Up For Africa charity poker tournament. Recently dubbed "The Round Mound of Double Down" by one media outlet, Barkley's gambling junkets in Vegas are well-chronicled.

By his own estimate, he has lost at least $10 million over the years to the casinos, and he brought his employer some negative publicity during the NBA playoffs when it was revealed that owed Wynn Las Vegas $400,000 in unpaid loans. The debt since has been re-paid.

Barkley said he was still upset that his debt was made public and that he was staying away from gambling for a while, not because he intends to kick the habit, but to let the negative coverage subside a bit.

"I'm here donating my time to charity, and they're trying to make a big deal out of it," Barkley said. "They can kiss my (butt)."

Barkley shrugged off the suggestion of a link between athletes and poker, instead attributing the trend to what he sees as a natural desire among humans to roll the dice.

"Most people like to gamble," he said. "If you didn't lose money, everyone would gamble. Gambling is fun..."

But told that several poker champions were, in fact, former competitive athletes, Barkley was incredulous and demanded an example.

"Really? Who?" he insisted. Informed of Brunson's basketball accomplishments, the Chuckster remained nonplussed. "I didn't know that. I guess I ain't that old."

As for his own chances in the charity tournament, Barkley said he wasn't worried because, "We were playing poker long before they put the stuff on TV."

Evidently, his experience did not give him an edge. Barkley, fellow TNT analyst Kenny Smith and Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd were among the first players eliminated from the tournament.
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