Patrik Antonius (born 1980) is a Finnish poker player and model.
Short facts about Patrik Antonius
Nicknames: Black Lotus, The Finn, PA
Born: 13 December 1980 in Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland
Current residence: Monte Carlo
Family: Wife Maya Geller, two children
Background
Before becoming a professional poker player, Antonius was a tennis player and tennis coach.
Early in his poker career, he was mentored by the Dutch poker pro Marcel Lüske (“The Flying Dutchman”) as a part of Lüske’s “Circle of Outlaws”. Antonius has also been coached by Jennifer Harman.
Aliases
Examples of poker aliases used by Antonius:
- Luigi66369 (on Full Tilt Poker)
- Finddagrind (on Full Tilt Poker)
- CryMeRiver9 (on Full Tilt Poker)
- try_hrdr_fish
- I_knockout_U
- -ANTONIUS-
Affiliations
Early on, he was associated with Martinspoker.com, before becoming a sponsored Full Tilt Poker pro. After becoming a member of Team Full Tilt, he started playing under his real name at FTP.
Cash games
Patrik Antonius is high-stakes heads-up cash game specialist. In November 2009, he won one of the largest and most famous pots in the history of online poker: $1,356,946 against Viktor “Isildur1” Blom at Full Tilt Poker.
Antonius plays cash games both online and offline, and is for instance a regular at the Big Game at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Tournament poker
Although chiefly known for his heads-up cash games, Antonius also plays tournament poker, both online and live.
He began to garner attention in the world of live tournament poker in the mid-2000s. Among other things, he finnished 12th at an EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, in September 2005 he finnished 3rd at EPT Barcelona, and just a month later he won the EPT Baden bei Wien. Before the year was over, Antonius also made it to second place in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, bringing home a runner-up prize of $1,046,470.
Other examples of Antonius achievements in poker tournaments:
- 9th place in 2006 WSOP $50k 8-handed H.O.R.S.E, a place worth $205,920.
- 3rd place in a Pot Limit Omaha event at the 2007 WSOP, winning $311,394.
- 2nd place in the Full Tilt Poker $25k Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha Championship, winning $320,000.
- 9th place in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event, winning €90,000.
- 3rd place in the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event, winning $600,000.
As of 2016, Antonius had brought in more than $6,775,000 in prize money from live tournaments, including 14 WSOP cashes worth $900,000+.
TV-show appearances
High Stakes Poker
Antonius appeared on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth season of GSN’s TV-show High Stakes Poker. Along with Sammy Farha, he was involved in the largest pot in the history of the show: $998,800. Due to a deal between Farha and Antonius, the Finn got $749,100 of the pot and Farha the rest.
Poker After Dark
Antonius has appeared in NBC’s TV-show Poker After Dark. One of his more notable pots there was one containing almost $600,000 and which he lost to Tom Dwan. This was the largest pot in the history of the TV-show.
At his very first appearance at the show, Antonius finished as runner-up, with Jennifer Harman winning. At his next appearance, he won, with Brad Booth as runner-up. For his third appearance, he became runner-up again, this time against Johnny Chan.