Patrik Antonius Biography
Patrik Antonius was born in Vantaa, Finland on the 13th of December, 1980. Ever since he was a young boy Patrik was very competitive and excelled in many sports including hockey, soccer and tennis. When Patrik turned 13 his tennis coach felt he was good enough to turn pro if he focussed solely on tennis. Patrik decided to do just this and spent the rest of his teenage years playing tennis. It was at the tennis club that Patrik learnt how to play poker. Many of the players would play cards on their training breaks. As fate would have it Patrik would get a long break to practice his poker playing when he fell injured from a bulging disc in his back.
When Patrik turned 18 he decided to see how his skills from the tennis club faired in a real casino. Patrik entered a small buy-in hold’em tourney and won on his first attempt. This was the start of things to come for Patrik Antonius.
After his initial injury Patrik hit the courts hard and regained his skill and promise, but it seems Patrik was destined to be a poker player, not a tennis star. Just before his first professional match Patrik reinjured his back and was forced out of the tournament. During this break from the game Patrik did many things to get by including modelling, coaching tennis and serving. But none of these things really quenched Patrik’s thirst for competition. He instead started to hit the Helsinki casino and build up his poker bankroll.
Patrik was beating the live games consistently, but it was when he made his first deposit online that the money really started to roll in. Patrik was able to turn a $200 deposit into $20,000 in just two short months and then turned that $20K into $80,000 within the year. Patrik loved the fact that he could multi-table online because this greatly increased his hourly ROI.
Patrik made his way to the States on a tennis scholarship after his back had healed. He made a trip out to Las Vegas after the year of school and played the game with many top pro’s. He didn’t fair too well on this trip, but the professional players told him he had what it takes to succeed when he headed back to Finland he had the drive to improve.
Patrik is most well known for playing in the biggest cash games around both live and online, but his tournament record is also quite good. Patrik went on a three month tear winning $70,000 in a Scandinavian poker tournament, then won $145,000 for a 3rd place finish in Barcelona and capped it all off with a $343,000 win at EPT Baden.
After these wins Antonius decided to move to Vegas to take the poker world head on. Antonius has more than $2,000,000 in tournament winnings, but his real money comes from cash games. In fact since the beginning of 2009, Antonius is by far the biggest winner online with a profit of $4.87 Million since January. Not only does Patrik have the skills, but he also has the looks. The camera loves him and for this reason he has been showcased on a ton of poker television shows.
Patrik Antonius is a full member of team Full Tilt and you can often find him playing the highest limits online and swapping $500,000 pots with fellow high stake players. Antonius is currently playing in the Durrrr Challenge against Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan in what was a big challenge in the online poker world.
