Patrik Antonius

Patrik AntoniusPatrik Antonius is one of the most successful poker players in the world, both online and offline. Many pros have described Antonius as the best all around player in the game, as he has mastered online cash games, online tournaments, live cash games, and live tournaments. Antonius is feared for his extreme aggressiveness, a tactic he uses while playing cash games at nosebleed stakes.

Patrik has only been a professional player since 2002, but has already racked up over $3,000,000 in live tournament winnings. This total excludes his cash game profit, as well as his online scores, so Patrik's true winnings are far greater.

Antonius' Early Life

Patrik Antonius was born on December 13, 1980 in Helsinki, Finland, where he would spend the majority of his childhood. In his younger days Patrik was a male model in Vantaa, Finland, and also coached and played tennis.

Antonius' Poker Career

While working in Finland, Patrik started playing poker casually with friends and co-workers at home games. After realizing he had a knack for the game, Patrik decided to test his skills online to see if he really was a superior player. The results were conclusive, as Antonius dominated the online tables, and quickly moved up in stakes.

After a few months of playing online, he decided to move to the USA to play poker semi-professionally. Although Patrik never had true intentions of becoming a full-time pro, that is exactly what happened after he went deep in a few EPT, WPT, and World Series of Poker events

Antonius' first major score came at the 2005 EPT Baden bei Wien Event, where we won the tournament for €288,180. After this tournament Patrik realized that poker was his true calling, and hit the tournament circuit with a deep determination to continue his winning streak. Patrik's other major scores include:

  • 2nd Place in the 2005 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Event for $1,046,470.
  • 9th Place in the 2006 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event for $205,920.
  • 3rd Place in the 2007 WSOP Pot Limit Omaha Event for $311,394.

Surprisingly, Patrik has never won a WSOP bracelet or a WPT event, but his deep finishes have added up to over $3,000,000 in career tournament earnings. Besides seeing success in the live poker tournament circuit, Patrik has also won millions of dollars playing online poker. You can often find Antonius playing nosebleed stakes Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold'em at FullTiltPoker.com, where he has won six and seven figure pots.

Patrik used to play online under aliases such as "knockout U", "try hrdr fish", "Finddagrind", "Luigi66369" and "CryMeRiver9", but since signing to Team Full Tilt, has switched to screen name "Patrik Antonius".

Durrrr Challenge

Antonius was the first player to accept Tom Dwan's famous "Durrrr Challenge", and at the time of this writing trails Dwan by about $800,000 a little over half-way through the event. For up to date coverage of the challenge, please visit www.DurrrrChallenge.com .

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