Patrik Antonius
Name – Patrik Antonius
Birthday – December 13, 1980
Location – Las Vegas, NV
Online Screen Names – Luigi66369 (Full Tilt)
Endorses – None
Website – patrikantonius.com
Patrik Antonius was born in Vantaa, Finland and had a variety of jobs before actually settling himself well and truly at the poker table. If his current resume is anything to go by then he is quite a multi-talented guy! Before discovering poker, he was a tennis player and coach as well as earning a living modelling.
Antonius broke into the world of poker in 2004 and immediately set about making a name for himself. He had two mentors during his first years in the game, and both were renowned for their success and skill. The first was Marcel Luske and the second was Jennifer Harman. They taught him well. His first two World Poker Tour events saw him finish extremely close to the final table, with 12th place in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and 15th at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event in 2005.
He fared better in the World Series of Poker, finishing in the money in three events in 2005. However, his best finishes that year came in the European Poker Tour Main Event tables. Antonius finished third in Barcelona and then won the event in Baden bei Wien.
In his final event of 2005, the December WPT Las Vegas Five Diamond World Poker Classic, he finished second. This has to be one of the best first full years that anybody has ever had. In terms of cash, he walked away with over $1,500,000 but in terms of reputation, he walked away with far more.
2006 and 2007 turned out to be just as successful for Antonius as 2005 had been. He came ninth in the WSOP HORSE event in July 2006 and finished in third in the World Championship Pot Limit Omaha, which just happened to be his ninth cash in the WSOP. That tournament was actually the one in which he earned the nickname “The Black Lotus” after knocking Doyle Brunson out.
Away from the tournament circuit, Antonius is a household name for his TV appearances on High Stakes Poker on GSN and Poker After Dark on NBC. On the latter show, he finished second in his appearance and actually won in his second. He also regularly plays high stakes cash games in Las Vegas, usually at the Bellagio. After making such a name for himself, there is no way that Antonius is disappearing any time soon!