Patrik Antonius

Patrik Antonius is a Finnish professional poker player and Poker Hall of Fame member, having been inducted in 2024.

With over $29.7 million in career live tournament earnings, he's made a name for himself as one of the best high-stakes online poker players in the world. He also became known internationally during the Full Tilt Poker days and for competing against Tom Dwan in the infamous 2009 Durrrr Challenge.

He also won the European Poker Tour Baden Main Event in 2005.

In 2023, Antonius made headlines for winning a $1,978,000 cash game pot — the largest ever broadcast on a US live stream.

"I've always felt very comfortable (on camera) and enjoyed playing streams (and) televised poker, especially cash games," Antonius told PokerNews in 2023. "Those are really fun things to play; what can I say."

Read More: High Stakes Legend Patrik Antonius Says Live Streams Should "Focus on the Poker"

Background

Antonius was born in 1980. He started playing poker at a very young age with his friends. He was also a very promising tennis player, but he suffered a severe back injury as a teenager and was out of training for a year and a half. It was at that time that he started taking poker seriously, playing $50 games with his buddies. When he turned 18, Antonius took his game to the local casino.

Although Antonius pursued his tennis career after the injury, a few years later, he suffered another one and was forced to give up his dream of becoming a tennis superstar. In search of a new path in life, he tried a number of other things, including modeling, waiting tables, selling products door-to-door, and coaching tennis, but nothing caught up to him—nothing except poker.

Use These 7 Patrik Antonius Poker Tips To Become a Pro

Poker Career

Antonius began his poker career in the early 2000s, and it wasn't long before he recorded back-to-back six-figure scores on the European Poker Tour. Shortly after winning the Scandinavian Poker Championships in Stockholm, he finished third in the EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2005 for €117,000 and then took down the EPT Baden Main Event one month later for €288,180.

Patrik Antonius: Changing the Game

2005 was an incredible year for the Finn, finishing second in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas that December for $1,046,470. Antonius' most recent cash under the WPT umbrella came in 2021, where he finished in second place to one and only Phil Ivey in the WPT Heads Up Championship which played out on the online felt. Antonius collected the $200,000 runners-up prize while Ivey pocketed the $400,000 up top.

This success would see him gain notoriety in the poker world, and Antonius would make regular appearances on Poker After Dark, Poker Million, and Late Night Poker throughout the poker boom in the late 2000s.

The first time Antonius finished in the money at the World Series of Poker was in 2005. He cashed in a total of three events that year, collecting almost $21,000 in winnings. Then, in 2006, he added another five cashes. His best result that year was the 9th place finish at the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, for which Antonius collected just over $200,000. In 2007, he scored his best WSOP result to date, finishing third in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha for more than $300,000.

Antonius made another WSOP final table in 2008, placing seventh in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em for more than $120,000. Then, in 2011, he scored a ninth-place finish at the WSOP Europe €10,000 Main Event in Cannes, France, collecting €90,000.

Antonius would have to wait until 2012 for his next seven-figure score, finishing second to Phil Ivey in the Aussie Millions A$250,000 Challenge for A$1,200,000. The Finn would become a familiar face in Melbourne, returning in 2013 to finish third in the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$600,000 and final-tabling the A$100,000 Challenge in 2014 for A$700,000.

One of the largest cashes of Antonius' entire career came in March 2018, with a runner-up finishing the Super High Roller Bowl China in Macau. He took home HK$24,735,000 — approximately $3,150,000 — after losing out to Justin Bonomo heads-up.

Following the resumption of live poker after the coronavirus pandemic, Antonius regularly frequented the Triton Poker Series, cashing in stops in Madrid and Cyprus. He had four top-ten finishes in Madrid, won an event in Cyprus for $825,000, and finished third in a $210,000 buy-in Super High Roller for $2,100,000 in May 2023.

Antonius started strongly in 2024, cashing for more than $2.2 million at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, South Korea, then coming out on top in the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller at EPT Monte Carlo for a cool €1,967,440 ($2,107,934).

Antonius had his biggest career cash just months after his Poker Hall of Fame induction as he took down the $200,000 Special Triton Invitational for $5.1 million.

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