Richard Lyndaker, the legendary high stakes poker pro who went by the screenname “nutsinho,” recently died due to an accidental overdose of prescribed medication, according to a report posted on the TwoPlusTwo forums. He was 33.
News of Lyndaker’s passing was shared with the poker world by someone posting under the name “RIPnutsinho,” who described themselves as a close friend of him and his family.
Big Game Regular on PokerStars, Full Tilt
According to the post, Lyndaker had been taking prescribed pills in order to deal with pain from a recent soccer injury. He died in his San Diego apartment sometime between July 29 and July 30, with a toxicology report confirming the accidental overdose.
Lyndaker was once known as one of the most successful high stakes online poker players in the world. According to HighStakesDB, he was one of the winningest online players prior to Black Friday, winning more than $2 million in online cash games during that period. The site reported that in 2010, he earned more money from PokerStars high stakes cash games than anyone else on the site, and that in 2011, he was playing in $300/$600 no limit hold’em games on Full Tilt Poker.
That alone made him a favorite of railbirds in the golden age of internet poker. But Lyndaker was able to find success in live poker as well.
According to the Hendon Mob database, Lyndaker earned $1.87 million in career live tournament winnings, enough to put him in the top 1,000 on its all-time money list. His biggest tournament cash came back in 2008, when he finished second in a $5,000 no limit hold’em event at the World Series of Poker, winning $570,551 in the process. He would go on to have four more six-figure cashes in his career, and finished ninth in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship at the 2018 WSOP.
Lyndaker Remembered Fondly by Poker Community
In an interview with CardPlayer Magazine in 2014, Lyndaker talked about how it might never again be possible to make the kind of money he made in online poker before Black Friday.
I thought we could see a lot of action in America when online poker came back,” Lyndaker said. “But it’s coming back so gradually, and in small, state-by-state markets, that there isn’t going to be any massive influx of money into the online poker community.”
As news of his passing spread, players from across the poker world shared their memories of Lyndaker.
The world morns the loss of a truly beautiful person, one of the world’s greatest poker poker players, and one of the most kind-hearted people I’ve had the joy to know. I will cherish the times we had. RIP Rich Lyndaker (Nutsinho) you will be missed 💜 pic.twitter.com/HP0USUUo4x
— Lexy Gavin-Mather (@LexyGavinPoker) August 1, 2019
“I remember watching Stars NL 5k back in the day and thinking ‘this guy is an absolute sicko,’” Doug Polk wrote on Twitter. “It was seeing guys like Rich play that made me dream big in poker, it just feels so unfair that he is no longer with us. I only hung out with him a few times over the years, but I can say he seemed to have a good heart and was a genuine human being.”
