Model Citizen
Finnish poker god Patrik Antonius took time out from some eye-watering cash games to speak to gambling.com
Patrik Antonius is late. In the foyer of London’s Paddington Hilton, I’m kept waiting like I’m waiting to interview Brad Pitt or someone. And he walks in, dressed in t-shirt and a pair of loud Bermuda shorts and casually flops down on the sofa next to me. Not the sharp-suited bloke I was expecting. Lucky I forgot my camera.
But he oozes natural charm. Reminiscent of a young Val Kilmer, 26 year old Patrik is in London for the Ladbrokes Million semis (he went out first–let’s not mention that perhaps) and he’ll be returning to these shores again in September for the WSOPE.
Born on December 13, 1980 in Helsinki, Finland, Patrik grew up playing soccer, tennis, and hockey. Spotting in himself a touch of the Bjorn Borgs, at 13 he decided he wanted to be a professional tennis player and started to focus only on tennis. After a stint in National Service (presumably preparing for any sneak attacks by them Russkies) Patrik was ready to start playing tennis professionally. But just before his first professional tournament, he suffered a terrible back injury, which effectively ended early any tennis aspirations. Does he ever sit in front of the telly during Wimbledon and think, “What if?”
“I would have been, by my own admission, somewhere in the 3-400s in the world if I’d taken up the game professionally” Patrik assures me.
It was about this time that the young Fin discovered poker. In no time at all the tennis disappointments were behind him. And in the short space of 5 years, Patrik has become one of the biggest poker players in the world. Significant cashes in EPT and WPT events and a 3rd place at this year’s World Series of Poker in the $10,000 Omaha event (after which the media gave him a new nickname–The Black Lotus) plus another two cashes cemented his reputation for consistency. “I did OK in Vegas, just nothing big!”
It’s a far cry from those early gambling days in Helsinki. “I started to play poker when I was probably 11, a kind of 5-card Stud game that doesn’t exist any more. I played more when I was 15, in the tennis club, at home, I usually beat my friends. My friend discovered Omaha when we were about 17. I went to the casino in Helsinki and played my first ever tournament and won it. That gave me inspiration–I never even knew you could play poker professionally. But 2 years from then I started to make money. Since then, I’ve never been broke.”
5 years since he turned pro, is he mindful of the volatility of poker players’ bankrolls? “Usually, what happens with a lot of poker players is that they invest their cash but leave themselves too short for poker. If they run bad for a little while, it is very easy for them to go broke. I’m quite proud of the way I manage my money. I invest, but I have no debts at all, and a few people owe me some money as well!”
It’s this financial prudence that sets Patrik apart from many of his peers. There seems to be a more professional approach to ‘business matters’, rather than the ‘boom and bust’ attitude still adopted by many of the older (and lots of younger) poker professionals. Now represented by Stephen Pearson’s management company (whose fingers delve into many assorted pies, including My Private Dance, a personal stripper mobile subscription service). Now there’s an official website out, www.patrikantonius.com. Included among the usual galleries and tournament reports is a personal blog. Stephen Pearson, keeping a watchful eye on the sofa next to me, says “we’re going to use it as a commercial tool. Patrik has a MySpace page, and we’re going to develop a Facebook page for him and offer things like free photos.” Is this the way other poker players will go in the future, I ask. “There aren’t many players out there with the same commercial potential as Patrik.”
‘Commercial potential’–welcome to poker in the 21st Century.
It helps, I imagine, that Patrik is slightly more photogenic than your average poker player. With poker players all over the TV now, it obviously makes televisual sense (from the viewpoint of a TV exec) to have players of the ‘kinder on the eye’ playing your televised tournaments. And then there are the modelling jobs. Does he see himself as the pin-up boy of poker? “To be honest, I get mad when people ask me about that. I think it was WPT who listed my hobby as ‘modelling’! I did a fair bit of modelling when I turned pro, but the money was great. A couple of jobs and you could make the same as you could playing a couple of tournaments. But these days there’s a lot of media about. There are a lot of poker players who don’t look after themselves, and that’s surprising these days when there is so much media attention in the game. If I can be more marketable, I’ll take the benefits. Poker is going to be big in the future–it’s big now, but it’ll get bigger.”
A regular face on poker programmes now, he’s been seen in everything from the televised British Open, to High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark in the US. The residing image on Poker After Dark was of Patrik’s (and for that matter Phil Ivey’s) face during the legendary ‘I put you on quads’ hand where the visibly-hyperventilating Jennifer Tilly attempted (unsuccessfully) to slow-play a full house against Patrik–it didn’t pay off (hunt around on YouTube to see for yourself).
“Yes, Phil Ivey’s face was the best. It was one of the weirdest hands I’ve ever played. It was just the fact she checked the river after I hadn’t put any money in–after she’d made the full house, she got scared and didn’t want to play it. She was trying too hard and made a mistake–I’ve done it myself. It just happens. One hand doesn’t mean too much.”
Now a high roller to match the best, the tennis has resurfaced, if in a millionaire-gambler kinda way. There’s news of a big-money tennis match between Patrik and fellow Scandinavian Gus Hansen. On the cards for a while, I’m intrigued to know if it’ll go ahead. “It’s 100% going on,” says Patrik. “We have both agreed that we’re going to put in $200,000 each, but I’ve suggested bumping it up to $1 million, then you start getting the media interested. More than likely it’ll be televised. But with ourselves being so busy at the moment it’s very hard to practice.” I wonder if American tennis star (and converted poker fiend) Andy Roddick might fancy a piece of the action. Or will we see a sneaky Phil Ivey turn up to challenge the pair having secretly practiced for 6 weeks beforehand? Watch out guys…
Despite the impressive rack of tournament results over the past few years, it’s in the huge cash games where Patrik makes his bread and butter. He recently won the biggest ever no-limit pot on FullTilt (over $375,000). So what makes him such a strong online player?
“First of all, I’ve put in the hours. I have a good feeling for the game. It’s easier in some respects to read people online. If someone is loose and goes on tilt a lot, it’s easier for them to blow their bankroll.
“Online poker is a crazy world. It’s so fast, you can play 4 or 5 tables at a time. Full Tilt games can get so huge–sometimes bigger than the cash games at the Bellagio. But the swings can be insane. I’ve lost $700,000 three times in a span of 3 to 5 hours–that’s a lot of money to lose in a computer game!! You know, someone will come on and outplay me for an hour, take $100,000 off me, but in the long run they’ll make mistakes and lose it back.”
That incredible play will be put to the test in PartyPoker’s upcoming ‘The Game’, playing some seriously high-stakes cash action against a bevy of hard-playin’ Scandinavians. He must fancy his chances.
“I’m hoping we can take as much money to the table as we want. I don’t know if we’re going to play on a 6-handed TV table that isn’t rounded. On those tables it is very tough to see everyone’s faces and I have a harder time getting a feel for the game. To play really good poker, everything has to be perfect for me. My game is based on so many little things.” And is he itching to take on those aggressive Scandies at their own game? “Well, I love to play against Scandinavian players. I love action, and I’m ready to give action! There are so many good young players coming from Scandinavia, you can’t even keep track of them. But I’m always trying to raise my game to keep up.”
A relatively small country, Finland has given the poker world two world-class performers in the shape of Antonius and compatriate Juha Helppi. I wonder if the fame has trickled down to the general public? “When people like myself and Juha do well, this filters down to other Scandinavians who know us, then to people who know them and so on. Most of my old Finnish friends are professional poker players at the moment. But to be honest, there’s not much to do in the winter in Finland!
Recently becoming a father, Patrik is now firmly settled with his family in much sunnier climes, just outside Las Vegas (not the land of the midnight sun perhaps, but the land of the eternal midday sun). Juggling a poker career and a family must be tough, although committed pros manage it.
“I feel I have so much more responsibility these days. It certainly makes my life a lot more stable. I used to party a lot, now I’m in so much better shape since I left the partying and drinking behind–it’s good for the poker too.”
And living in Vegas? Surely the hyper-reality becomes too much, especially for a professional gambler? “No, it’s perfect. People always ask me what its like, but then most people who come to Vegas just stay in a hotel on the Strip. It’s a circus there. I live outside the strip, it’s very peaceful. I’m able to relax and play a lot of sports. If you’re an addict and you like to play hard and party hard, you’ll go mad, but it’s fine for me. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the US that I’d live.”
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