Patrik Antonius



Patrik Antonius (born December 13 1980 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo. Antonius was mentored by Marcel Lüske as a member of Luske's “Circle of Outlaws” and later advised by Jennifer Harman.

Early life
He was born in Helsinki, Finland, Patrik Antonius has become one of the most revered poker players in the world, especially in the areas of online and live cash games. His career goals were quite different from the typical professional poker player. He didn’t set out to become a poker player but the chain of events that happened in his life piloted him to the Green Felt where he achieved a level of success that many of his contemporary can only dream of. Patrick Antonius was born to a working class family. His dad worked as a delivery man for a bakery and his mom worked in a day care center to assist the family’s finance.

Patrik had a natural talent for sporting activities and he was aiming at becoming a professional tennis player in his teenage years. He had great prospect and was seriously pursuing his career goal until things went downhill for him.

At the age of 15, Patrik had a serious back injury that almost defeated his dreams of becoming a professional tennis player. When he turned 18, he started playing at Casino Helsinki which happened to be the only Casino in Finland at that time. At his first try, Patrik took the weekly $25 No Limit Hold’ Em event and won the $225 prize. Interestingly, he became a Hold’ Em champion by winning the tournament even though he had never played at the game before. Patrik went on to graduate from Helsinki Business College and was drafted into the army for his mandatory service.

Tournament poker
Antonius began making a name for himself on the poker tournament circuit with two finishes near the final table of World Poker Tour (WPT) event, 12th at the WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, then 15th at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event two months later, in early 2005. He went on to finish in the money in three events of the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

In September 2005 he made the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event final table, finishing 3rd in Barcelona. The next month, Antonius won the EPT event in Baden bei Wien, taking home the €288,180 first prize when in the final hand his beat Gunnar Østebrød's  on a board of.

In December 2005 he finished the year 2nd in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada, winning $1,046,470.

In July 2006 he placed 9th in World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, taking home $205,920, his biggest cash that year.

In 2007 World Series of Poker, Antonius entered numerous tournaments but he only cashed in the World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha event, placing third and winning $311,394, making that his ninth WSOP cash and increasing his WSOP earnings to a total of $569,964.

Antonius has been featured three times on NBC's Poker After Dark. In his first appearance he finished as runner up, losing out to fellow poker professional Jennifer Harman, but his next attempt saw him defeat Brad Booth in heads-up play to take the victory. In his third appearance he was runner up again, this time to Johnny Chan.

As of 2008, Antonius' total live tournament winnings exceed $2,800,000. He also plays in some of the highest profile online tournaments, and in September 2008 he finished 2nd in the Full Tilt Poker $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha Championship, winning $320,000.

Cash games
Antonius is a heads-up specialist. He is a regular high stakes player online and one of the most successful having won millions of dollars. He has played on Full Tilt Poker under several nicknames, including Luigi66369, CryMeRiver9 and Finddagrind, but having become a member of "Team Full Tilt" he now plays under his real name. During his early career he also used screen names e.g. I_knockout_U, try_hrdr_fish and -ANTONIUS- on various other poker networks. Previously Antonius was one of a team of players associated with Martinspoker.com.

He is equally prolific in live cash games, and is a regular in the Big Game, the high-stakes cash game at the Bellagio.

Antonius appeared on the third and fourth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker. Patrik was involved, along with Sammy Farha, in the show's largest ever pot; it totaled $998,800. After a preflop raise and re-raise the flop came ; Antonius held for top pair and Farha held, giving him two over-cards and a flush draw. Sammy called Patrik's all-in raise instantly and the two agreed to run the turn and river four times. Though Sammy's hand was a slight favorite, Patrik won three of the four runs and collected $749,100.