The Railbird Report: Online's Biggest Winner Patrik Antonius Back in Action

August 18, 2016

For many years, Phil Ivey was considered the best poker player in the world. Not only was he the biggest winner live, for a long time he also held the top spot in the online rankings, where he's won $19,242,743 according to HighStakesDB.com. But as Full Tilt Poker went down, and Ivey switched to PokerStars to play under the moniker "RaiseOnce", so did his graph. He lost $2,483,564 on PokerStars, and lost another $6,317,217 on Full Tilt Poker after the site returned under Amaya's umbrella and he resumed play as "Polarizing". He's still up $10,441,962 overall, but by no means is that enough to come out on top at the online poker all-time money list.

That title is now reserved for Patrik Antonius, who surpassed his archrival despite also being down online in recent years. We combined all his known accounts into one big graph to give you an idea of the swings the Fin endured since starting online many years ago, and how much he's up. Emphasis on 'give you an idea', as the graph is anything but conclusive, as explained underneath:

The graph has been plotted with data from HighStakesDB.com, and shows Antonius up $16,920,166. Antonius played on multiple accounts on Full Tilt Poker in the early days of the online poker room. While not all accounts have been confirmed to be his, it was widely rumored and in some cases public knowledge at the time that it was Antonius playing. Before Antonius signed with Full Tilt Poker, it was common for high-stakes players to switch accounts every now and then, before this practice became condemned by not only Full Tilt Poker but other poker sites as well.

The results tracked begin in 2007, but Antonius was already one of the biggest players online before that, starting at the end of 2005. Antonius regularly battled the likes of Prahlad Friedman and Johnny Lodden at the highest stakes on the Prima network (now MicroGaming). The results from that period of time aren't available and results aren't incorporated into the graph above. If you're interested in reading about the action back then, be sure to check out the threads dedicated to the subject on the Full Contact Poker and TwoPLusTwo poker forums.

While the graph shows 2009 to be a very profitable year for Antonius, he was down for the year according to an interview with CardPlayer in February 2010:

"It might look like I did very well, but I lost millions, millions, millions of dollars with other stuff last year. It looks like no matter how much you win, you never have a lot of money." [...] "I’ve had some bad investments. I’ve lost a lot of — a lot of — money last year with other people, and I lost some money in sports betting, too. I’ve been very unlucky with other people. I think I’m down in my lifetime close to $10 million for taking pieces of other people. That’s a lot of money. It’ll be hard to get it back in my lifetime. When I bet sports, I bet at least $50,000. And I don’t think I won any bets last year. And I lost millions on the golf course, as well. I’m a big loser in golf now."

Antonius took a step back from online poker last year. In an interview with PokerListings during European Poker Tour Barcelona, he said he quit because he realized he wasn't beating online ring games anymore:

"I lost about a million straight and then I realized that I couldn’t beat the ring-games anymore and that was largely due to tracking software. I would take my chances against any high-stakes player live, but online I don’t like my chances anymore, unfortunately."

Antonius has since eaten his words a bit, as he's been active online quite a bit this year. In fact, he's up $48,807 this week, which makes him the second-biggest winner over the past seven days. He's up $287,795 for the year, breaking the downward spiral he's been on since 2015.

How accurate this graph is, and what Antonius' bankroll is, remains unknown. What we do know is that he's one of the best players in the history of the game and the biggest online winner ever.

The Biggest Pot Ever Played Online

The biggest pot in the history of online poker featured Antonius. Back in November 2009 he and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom played a record-breaking pot-limit Omaha game, with blinds of $500/$1,000 and massive stacks at the table. Thousands of railbirds saw the two of them built a pot worth $1,300,000.

Patrik Antonius Won a $1,356,946.50 Pot (1,357 big blinds) versus Viktor "Isildur1" Blom
^{($500/$1,00 PLO Heads Up)}

Blom opened the button for $3,000 and Antonius three-bet to $9,000. Blom made it $27,000 and saw Antonius five-bet to $81,000. Blom called, making the pot $162,000 going into the flop.

The flop came 4♠5♣2♥ and Antonius made a continuation bet of $91,000. Blom raised to $435,000 and called the all-in for $597,473.50 after Antonius pushed.

Antonius flopped a wheel and backdoor hearts and was up against the wrap draw of Blom. The two saw the 5♥ hit the turn which took away some of Blom's outs as Antonius now had a flush draw to complete his already made hand.

The 9♣ on the river gave Antonius the $1,356,946.50 record-breaking pot!

Last Week's Biggest Pots Online

While Antonius ended up the biggest winner of the week, all of the biggest pots played online came from a heads-up session between Daniel "d2themfi" Isaacson and Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton.

1) Daniel "d2themfi" Isaacson Wins a $61,458 Pot (307 big blinds) versus Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton
^{($100/$200 PLO Heads Up)}

Haxton made it $680 to go from the button and was facing a three-bet to $2,120 from Isaacson quick enough. Haxton made the call to make the pot $4,400 going into the flop.

On A♦6♠4♥ Isaacson fired $2,158.50 and Haxton called to grow the pot to $8,717. The 2♦ hit the turn and Isaacson bet $6,475.50. Haxton shoved all in for $26,370.46 and Isaacson made the call.

The two had 'run it twice' check marked, but neither the 8♠ or 8♣ made a difference for Haxton, who was forced to reload.

2) Daniel "d2themfi" Isaacson Wins a $53,830 Pot (269 big blinds) versus Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton
^{($100/$200 PLO Heads Up)}

The pre-flop action was similar to the pre-flop action in the previous hand. Haxton opened to $680 again and called as Isaacson made it $2,120.

Like the above hand, the pot was $4,400 going into the flop. On 8♠7♣J♣ it was Isaacson checking. Haxton bet $1,900 and Isaacson check-raised to $5,958.50. Haxton called, making for a pot of $16,317 going to the turn.

The 4♦ hit and Isaacson bet pot. Haxton shoved all in for just a tiny bit more ($18,756.46 total) and Isaacson quickly called.

Both had the nuts with nine-ten, but Isaacson had a flush draw to go with it to give him a free roll. They ran the river twice again, and both times Isaacson spiked a club to grab the entire pot: 4♣ then 3♣.

3) Daniel "d2themfi" Isaacson Wins a $48,062 Pot (240 big blinds) versus Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton
^{($100/$200 PLO Heads Up)}

Another open to $680, three-bet to $2,120 and call, but this time the positions were swapped and it was Isaacson opening and Haxton doing the reraising.

Again $4,400 in the pot going to the flop which came J♦4♥7♦. Haxton bet pot and Isaacson made the call.

With $13,034 in the middle already, the 8♠ hit the turn. Haxton bet $12,951 and Isaacson shoved all in for $17,513,87. Haxton added some to call.

Haxton needed some help in the form of diamonds, but got none of them on the river. They ran the last community card twice, but the 3♠ and Q♠ both didn't help Haxton.

Online High Stakes Action Last Week

Daniel "d2themfi" Isaacson is this week biggest winner, making most of his profit from the heads up action against Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton.

The 2016 Leaderboard

Andres Artinano, Alex Millar and "candela2005" all had quiet weeks and played no tracked hands on the high stakes tables. Three other members of our top winners and losers did play, but all three of them lost a bit. Here are a few tables based on 2016 data gotten from HighStakesDB.com:

_{The above top three of biggest winners and losers in online poker for 2016 and the top 10 biggest winners and losers online for the last two weeks only consist of PokerStars accounts that haven't opted out with HighStakesDB.com.}

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