Patrik Antonius (Adonis)

The Scandinavian colossus has been one of poker's leading figures for more than fifteen years, during which time he has distinguished himself through countless successes and his inimitable serenity.

Patrick Antonius grew up in the suburbs of Helsinki, Finland, on 13 December 1980. The son of a working-class family, he was characterised by his boundless energy and competitive spirit, which he first experienced in the various sports he played. He played football, hockey and, above all, tennis, to the point of considering a professional career, but a back injury thwarted his plans. He would go on to do a variety of jobs: waiter, salesman, tennis coach and even model, thanks to his advantageous physique before discovering the world of casinos.

The rise of a giant

Patrick started gambling in 2003, and quickly built up a bankroll playing cash games almost seven days a week. The Finn revealed himself to the world from 2005 onwards, recording promising performances in tournaments. He narrowly missed out on the final table of the PCA in the Bahamas, won a tournament in Stockholm for $66,000, reached his first EPT final table in Barcelona and, the following month, Antonius won the Austrian leg of the prestigious European circuit in Baden Bei Wien for €288,000. He concludes the year with a 2nd place finish at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas for his first seven-figure win.

At the top of the game

This was the start of a stunning career. Patrick Antonius established himself as one of the best players of his generation in both cash games and tournaments. He takes part in the Poker After Dark programme and High Stakes Poker in the company of the legends of the game and continues to rack up staggering scores, both live and in online rooms.

He was one of the terrors of Full Tilt, a room on which he then played the biggest pots in the history of the game, notably in PLO against the famous Isildur1 for $1.3 million. In 2012, he finished 2nd in the Aussie Million High Roller in Melbourne for $1,235,000, followed up with a string of final tables at High Rollers all around the planet, with a record achieved at the Super High Roller Bowl in Macau in 2018, for $3,153,000.

Patrick still hovers

In 2019, he launched the FLOP (First Land of Poker) app, a social network dedicated to players to communicate, share events and come together around their passion. He also continues to criss-cross the Live circuit and appears in major online tournaments, such as the recent WPT Heads-Up 2021, where he finished runner-up behind Phil Ivey for $200,000.