Patrik Antonius

Poker player biography of Patrik Antonius

Patrik Antonius is a professional poker player who has gained fame and fortune through both online and live games. Poker has not only helped Antonius build up a fat bankroll, but the game has also helped him deal with the heartache of a broken dream. Still, Patrik is living a dream with a successful poker career, a home in Monte Carlo, his baby girl, and his Israeli fiancé. Read on to find out more about how Patrik Antonius became a poker player and how he climbed the ranks to become one of the best online poker players in the world.

Patrik Antonius: a broken dream

Antonius was born on December 13, 1980, in Helsinki, Finland. The competitive streak needed to succeed as a professional poker player began to form at an early age in Patrik. He would be an active boy, playing numerous sports, like tennis, hockey, and soccer. At around the age of 13, Patrik would drop the other sports to focus on tennis. Coaches saw Wimbledon potential in the young boy. Unfortunately, he would suffer a bad back injury two years later.

For around 18 months, Antonius had to stop training. While recovering, Patrik would still go to the tennis club to practice a less strenuous activity: poker. He and his friends would play over $50 dollar pots. It was by no means Antonius' first time to play poker. When he was only 11, Antonius would already be betting for candy money in poker games with his friends. Throughout the years, Antonius would find himself in bigger games with tougher competitors.

Antonius would continue his tennis and poker careers as the years passed. He went on to get a degree from Helsinki Business College and he also did six months of mandatory military service in Finland. Later, he would suffer from another back injury, forcing him to quit tennis just before his first professional tennis tournament. With tennis out of the question, Patrik would go into a number of different careers, like being a model, a door-to-door salesman, and a tennis coach. None of the professions would interest Patrik as much as poker would.

Patrik Antonius: the silver lining

Although Antonius' tennis career came to a sudden and unexpected halt, he would soon find out that being a poker player is the right profession for him. Patrik Antonius first gained recognition when he nearly reached the final tables of two different World Poker Tour (WPT) events in 2005. Later that year, he had three money finishes at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). He also made the final table at the 2005 European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event. In October 2005, one month after the EPT Main Event, he won nearly €200,000 with a first place finish in the Baden bei Wien EPT event. Here is a look at Antonius' statistics in some of the world's most prestigious live tournament series:
* WSOP – 12 money finishes
* WPT – one final table appearance and seven money finishes
* EPT – one EPT title, two final table finishes, and two money finishes
* Total winnings in live tournaments – over $2.8 million

Patrik Antonius is one of the strongest competitors in online poker and he has appeared in numerous poker-based television shows.