Patrik Antonius is a professional poker player from Helsinki, Finland, currently living in Monte Carlo. He is known for winning the European Poker Tour Baden Main Event in 2005 as well as scoring numerous World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour money finishes. Antonius is also considered one of the best high-stakes online poker players in the world.
Born in 1980, Antonius started playing poker at a very young age with his friends. He was also a very promising tennis player, but suffered a severe back injury as a teenager and was out of the training for a year and a half. It was at that time when 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 coaching tennis, but nothing caught up to him. Nothing except poker.
Antonius cashed in three European Poker Tour events one of which brought him the EPT title. In 2005 Antonius took down the EPT Baden €4,000 Main Event for the €288,180 first-place prize. He finished third at the EPT Barcelona Main Event that very same year collecting €117,000. His third EPT cash came only seven years later when Antonius finished fourth in the €98,500 8 Max Super High Roller Reload event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo for €443,000.
The first time Antonius finished in the money at the World Series of Poker was in 2005. He cashed in 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 ninth-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 begins today’s tournament as the short stack and will likely need to pick his spots carefully as the chip leader is seated to his direct left.