Seat 3: Patrik Antonius (1,300,000)
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Back in 2008 when Patrik Antonius made the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship final table at the World Series of Poker, change100 wrote "Don't hate him because he's beautiful." to kick off Antonius' final table bio. Beauty doesn't win you poker tournaments though and there's a lot of people in the poker world who envy Antonius for much more than just his good looks.
Born in Finland in 1980, Antonius is one of the most recognizable faces in the game. He regularly dominates the largest cash games in the world, both live and online, and is a member of Team Full Tilt Poker. Antonius began playing poker at 12 years old with friends, but things didn't become serious for him until he stopped playing serious tennis after a back injury. He ran through the stakes and up the ranks online to soon become one of the best and most feared players in the world.
Antonius' first major deep run in a live tournament came at the beginning of 2005. He placed 12th in the World Poker Tour PCA Main Event for $34,600. A couple months later, he followed that up with a 15th-place finish in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars for $40,000. That summer he cashed three times at the WSOP before going over to Sweden and winning the Scandinavian Poker Championships for over $66,000.
His year was going great so far, but his largest scores were yet to come. In September, Antonius placed third at the EPT Barcelona Main Event for over $145,000. He then won a side event at the EPT Baden Classic for $343,366. Both of those were great, but a massive seven-figure score was in the works for December. Antonius ran second behind Rehne Pedersen in the $15,000 Main Event at the Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic. He scored himself $1,046,470 and his career earnings for the year Sky rocketed to $1,696,485.
Although 2005 was Antonius' best year for tournaments, his results haven't slacked since. He's cashed 10 more times at the WSOP and had some very nice results coming from those events. In 2006, Antonius finished ninth in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $205,920 during a year where he had five WSOP cashes. The following year, his best result was a third in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha for over $300,000. In 2008, Antonius placed seventh in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em to record another WSOP final table and lock up $124,080 more in prize money.
In the recent years, Antonius has been less of a frequenter on the tournament scene and more of a staple in the largest cash games in the world. You can often find me him online at Full Tilt Poker playing multiple tables in the largest games available. He's not playing against chumps either. Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom are common adversaries of his.
Antonius placed 13th in the Aussie Millions Main Event for AUD$90,000 back in 2007, the year his fellow Team Full Tilt Poker member Gus Hansen won the event. He's already topped that finish as he's at the final table here and will be looking to secure the title. If he can do that, it will be his largest tournament score ever and further cement his name in poker history as one of the greatest players to ever live.
Antonius resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco with his wife Maya Gellarand his baby daughter Mila. Antonius also makes frequent appearances on "Poker After Dark" and "High Stakes Poker".