Patrik Antonius is the Finnish poker pro that few players dare to play against at the moment. He grew up in a poor family and went on to become a model a tennis player and later on one of the most respected poker players online. In a Swedish poker magazine he is telling the story about his life, how he went from poor to rich and living the good life.
Today Patrik Antonius is a very wealthy guy with a house in Monaco, a flat in Las Vegas, an Aston Martin and more money that you can ever dream of. It happens that he is making six figure bets just for the thrill of gambling.
Not many people know that he grew up in a very poor family in Finland.
It was a really odd place to grow up in he says. I was very poor and my parents were making a lot less than the average wage at that time. To stay in Finland once he grew up was never an option. Instead he decided to move to Gran Canaria when he turned 19 and become a male model.
Today he does not have the same money problems, in fact money is no longer an issue to this Finnish poker player.
He goes on to tell the magazine that the money means a lot to him but he would not be able to play on the high stakes as he is doing now if it was bothering him too much. "I have had a lot of up and down swings in my carrier and I have been very close to going broke on several occasions". The closest he ever was to going broke was when he lost $1.2 Million during two days playing "The Big Game".
Today he is playing on the highest stakes possible with the best poker players in the world and he is a highly respected player. He started playing poker only five years ago when he found a $1/$2 PLO cash game running at a live casino in Helsinki. One of the players at the table introduced him to the world of online poker and he started spending his time playing online instead of live and the rest is history.
Another thing that the regular railbirds are not aware of is the fact that Antonius has a really bad temper. He goes on to tell the poker magazine:
"I have broken so many mice and keyboards that I have lost count. When I play live I am better at controlling my temper but I feel that one day I will just lose it in a live tournament as well. I don't know anyone who has a temper that is worse than mine".
Even though he is one of the most respected poker players out there he has never read a single book about poker and he claims to have learnt the game all by himself. He does not like the way the poker books are written, they are all telling you to play a certain way and Antonius prefers to keep other options open.
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