Patrik Antonius — Weathering the Storm

No online-poker player in the world had a better year than Patrik Antonius did in 2009.

He won in the vicinity of $9 million on the virtual felt, taking on all challengers and making significant scores in a variety of games.

But after he closed the curtains on an immensely successful 2009 campaign, he discovered that 2010 was not going to be as kind to him. Within the first three months, despite playing nearly 60,000 hands, he found himself down more than $3 million online — the largest deficit of any player so far this year.

In just a few months, online poker’s biggest winner in 2009 had become online poker’s biggest loser in 2010.

But when reached on the phone in Monaco, Antonius was upbeat and optimistic. He may have been in the midst of a downswing, but this was familiar territory for the Finnish pro. He totally believes that good times are on the horizon.

Getting Back on Track

“It hasn’t been that bad a year for me,” said Antonius, downplaying his struggles. “I lost some money and I won some money back. I just need a couple of good days and I’ll be back to even this year. It’s not that big a deal. I am happy that I’ve stopped losing, though. For a while there, I had no chance. I was running bad and playing a little bit poorly, as well.”

Part of Antonius’ confidence comes from the fact that he’s done this before. In 2009, in the midst of his huge year, he had an incredibly difficult stretch in which he lost quite a bit.

“At that time last year, I lost about $3 million in 10 days,” said Antonius. “That was probably my biggest downswing.”

He thinks a few factors are to blame for his disappointing results so far this year. Although he says that variance is partially to blame, he admits that he hasn’t always been playing his best game. Add to that the fact that he was struggling with his physical condition and wasn’t happy with where he was living for a while, and you have the recipe for disaster.

Antonius, who used to play competitive tennis, loves staying in shape, and says that it helps him in every aspect of his life.

“When I’m in shape, everything feels lighter, I breathe so much better,” said Antonius. “Overall, it’s better for my poker game.”

So, when his back starting giving him problems earlier this year and he couldn’t train as much as he wanted to, it’s no surprise that it took a toll on him. But now, he says that his physical condition has improved and that he’s able to train again.

He also spent more time in Las Vegas this year than he would’ve liked. While Sin City is a nice escape for some, the Full Tilt-sponsored pro wasn’t thrilled to be spending so much time there so early in 2010. But thanks to an invitation to play in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and the filming of a new Full Tilt commercial, he found himself stuck there. And his mood didn’t seem to help his poker game.

“I just kept losing every day when I was in the States, and I didn’t feel right,” said Antonius. “Sometimes, I just feel like I need to change something.”

So, when his commitments were finished, he got on the first plane back to Europe. Since then, winning has come much more easily. He’s cut down his deficit by nearly a million, and he looks forward to getting back in the black.

“I always know that I’ll get it back — unless I feel that I’m getting completely outplayed by everyone and don’t think that I can compete anymore, but that’s never been an issue so far,” said Antonius. “I don’t really worry about it too much.”

An Old-School Player in a New-School Game

Antonius is 29, so it’s hard to call him an old-school player. But there’s no denying that he has an old-school approach to the game.

While so many young Internet pros utilize everything in their power to gain an edge — specifically, data-mining software that helps them track the tendencies of their competitors — Antonius has made the choice to remain oblivious about that aspect of the game.

“I’ve never used Poker Tracker or anything,” he said. “I have no idea how my stats look. I believe in playing the player, and observing what’s been happening in the session. If you have a good memory, it helps a lot.”

Although most pros under 30 really started their careers online, Antonius was actually a product of the live-poker scene. While still a fierce competitor in tennis, he constantly went to the casinos whenever he could for about a two-year stretch. While he says that he won a little bit of money by the end of that period, it was an up-and-down learning process for him.

After serving six months in the military, he returned home and decided to give poker a serious shot. He deposited $100 online, and the rest is history.

It’s been about eight years since Antonius first made that decision to turn pro and start playing online. Although he says that he really didn’t know what he was doing in the first year, he was immediately successful. He says that he was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

“I’ve been extremely lucky in many ways when it comes to my poker career,” he said. “I went from a $100 deposit to $20,000 in two months, playing pot-limit Omaha. The first year that I played, I would bet just to bet. I didn’t know why. I was just pressing the buttons.”

But even after a fantastic first year as a pro that saw him earn about $115,000, Antonius wasn’t satisfied. He realized that he wasn’t really thinking too deeply about the game, so he made a conscious effort to analyze his game and the situations in which he found himself.

The results were staggering. He quickly emerged as one of the best cash-game players in the world as he dominated over a variety of different sites.

In 2007, he had one of his best years ever. Although tracking sites were not as reliable back then, he is recognized as the biggest cash-game winner ­— earning more than anyone online and constantly displaying his live-game skills in Bobby’s Room at Bellagio. That was more than enough to get recognized by Full Tilt Poker, which was anxious to add the emerging legend to its stable of players.

In 2008, he became a member of Team Full Tilt, and celebrated the accomplishment with another banner year — making approximately $3 million.

And, of course, his 2009 was unlike any year that any online poker player has ever had. While he says that he gave back some of his $9 million in winnings due to sports betting and golf wagers, it became undeniable that he was one of the best.

In 2010, he ironically is on a quest to become poker’s version of the comeback player of the year, trying not only to scrape back to even, but to complete another successful year.

Antonius’ arrival to Team Full Tilt, along with the inclusion of fellow high-stakes regulars Tom Dwan last year and Gus Hansen in 2006, marks an interesting transition of focus for the popular poker site. While the site’s other 11 team members are stacked with a combined 37 World Series of Poker bracelets (only Phil Gordon and Andy Bloch have failed to win a WSOP event out of that group), the three recent additions have exactly zero WSOP bracelets among them.

Hansen can claim incredible tournament success, as he’s the only player ever to win four World Poker Tour titles, but both Antonius and Dwan are unabashedly cash-game players, and are not afraid to admit that not having won a WSOP bracelet isn’t exactly something they’re losing sleep over.

Even without the jewelry, all three are now considered to be among the biggest stars in the game. What was once a “must” for the resume of any serious pro is now considered just another piece of tournament hardware, thanks to Full Tilt’s creative marketing and the public’s changing perception of what greatness in poker has become.

The Changing Face of Online Cash Games

With eight dedicated years in the online-poker world, Antonius has seen the game go through more than a few changes. He remembers when the biggest games around were limit hold’em, and the action in no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha was still quite modest.

But even when those games grew, the cash-game landscape was dramatically different than it is today. PokerStars and Full Tilt have now distinguished themselves as the two big kids on the block, and Full Tilt especially gets the nod as the site that all of the major high-stakes regulars (and railbirds who can’t get enough of it) call home.

But just a few years ago, there was a great amount of action on a number of sites. Before signing with Full Tilt, Antonius played on no fewer than half a dozen sites against a variety of opponents. He played on a site that he described as 99 percent Scandinavian, on another site that he described as a “gold mine,” and even on Full Tilt’s rival PokerStars, a site on which he said he’s down lifetime because the games back then were so much more difficult than on all of the other sites.

“I had money on many different sites,” he said. “I would open up four sites and a bunch of tables, and I never had to wait long for someone to play me.”

That, of course, has changed.

Now, few sites have much significant cash-game action, and even fewer have players with the bankrolls and the courage to go up against Antonius.

When describing his well-known peers, Antonius is almost entirely complimentary. He credits them for their hard work and talented play, and points out areas in which he believes he is inferior to them (such as multitabling). But with the vast majority of them, he does acknowledge that he wishes they would play him more.

Antonius has achieved an almost Phil Ivey-like mystique, whereby even top pros seem to revere him and few people give him the action that he so desperately craves.

“You can’t blame people for not playing if they feel like they’re underdogs in some games,” said Antonius. “But all of these top players, if they are rested and focused, will probably bring their A-games. And everybody has occasional bad days, myself included.”

Although he says that he doesn’t blame these players, it is clear that Antonius doesn’t share the mindset of strict game selection. Fully admitting that Ivey is a better H.O.R.S.E. player, he says that he enjoys playing those games with him quite a bit, because it enables him to grow as a player.

“I like to play Phil Ivey in H.O.R.S.E. because I think he is the greatest in those games, and it helps keep my game very sharp,” said Antonius. “Almost every time I play a long session with him, I learn something.”

Part of Antonius’ critique of other high-stakes players is that they are too comfortable with where they are in terms of skill level. In many people, he doesn’t see much of a desire to get better. He sees them just wanting to scoop up easy money from inferior opponents. It may be fine for them, but it’s clearly a concept that the intensely competitive former athlete has trouble understanding.

“A lot of players have no goals of getting better,” said Antonius. “They just hope their opponents don’t get any better.”

While he occasionally may have trouble drumming up action, the site that he represents has little trouble in that regard. Thanks to him and other high-stakes regulars like Ivey, Dwan, and Hansen, Full Tilt has become synonymous with high-stakes cash games. No site runs them as frequently or as high as Full Tilt does.

“All of the big action is on Full Tilt now,” said Antonius, which is a notable change from a few years ago, when tons of sites offered big games.

Although some players — like the infamous Isildur1, who made the rounds at Full Tilt’s nosebleed tables in late 2009 — are assumed to have built their bankrolls from European-based sites, Antonius just doesn’t think there is as much action on those sites these days.

The Future of Cash Games

While many sites had trouble competing with Full Tilt and PokerStars, and eventually had to limit their cash-game offerings, there is no doubt that the popularity of cash games continues to grow.

While poker exploded after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker main event on ESPN, most casual players looked toward tournaments as the primary way to earn their riches. Cash games weren’t even on the radar of the many dreamers.

But as time went on, even the casual players began to see just how much luck is involved in any given tournament. And slowly but surely, a craving for cash games grew.

While ESPN has yet to show any consistent cash games, preferring instead the tested and drama-filled tournament offerings, cash-game shows are growing.

American viewers are familiar with two of those shows, High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network and Poker After Dark on NBC. High Stakes Poker is one of GSN’s highest-rated original shows, and while Poker After Dark started off with and still features primarily a sit-and-go structure, the Full Tilt-sponsored show has shown more special weeks of cash games in the past two seasons than ever before.

Now, FOX will also get in on the action and televise The Big Game, a $100,000-minimum buy-in cash-game show that will be sponsored by PokerStars. Besides Poker After Dark, Full Tilt sponsors a number of international cash-game shows.

With an increased presence on TV and an acknowledgement from many pros that cash games might indeed require more skill than tournaments, don’t be surprised to see the popularity of cash games continue to grow.

And, of course, that would be good news for Antonius. With a larger pool of players, maybe a few more competitors would be willing to challenge him. But until then, he will just continue to grind it out against those fearless enough to play him.

There are still about 17,000 hands remaining of the 50,000 in the “Durrrr Challenge,” where Antonius is down nearly $2 million overall, as of press time. He says that he has no inclination of waving the white flag, promising to finish the competition and hoping to win back some of his losses.

He is complimentary of his opponent Dwan, saying simply, “Overall, he’s just made better decisions on the river. I’ve been outplayed. Tom has made better decisions in calling me down. I’ve been bluffing too much and I’ve made some bad calls. That’s the biggest reason why the situation is what it is.”

While the losses to Dwan might sting, Antonius’ resolve to improve and his acknowledgement of his mistakes and poor play are not the norm in a game that is often ego-driven. Most players usually bemoan their bad luck, but Antonius just makes the solemn promise to continue to analyze his play and to get better. And that’s part of the reason why he can afford to be down nearly $3 million in just a few months. He knows that he will improve, and he fully believes that he will win it all back — and then some.

“Luck is part of the game. That’s why the same people don’t win day in and day out. But overall, it’s still a question of skill, even in the highest games,” said Antonius. “I’m not worried.”

Patrik Antonius’ Advice for Dealing With a Downswing

1. Analyze your game. “That’s the first thing that comes to my mind,” said Antonius. “If you have gotten unlucky and lost because of that, you don’t need to worry. But if you could’ve made better decisions here and there, you need to re-evaluate your game.”

He says that too many people just stop analyzing their game, especially in the midst of a downswing. He recommends that you take a moment to rethink your game, instead of just continually staying on auto-pilot.

2. Get back your confidence. Whether that means taking a step down in limits or just battling through to get a win (if you can do so without going on tilt), Antonius says that he can’t emphasize enough how important confidence is for your game.

“Confidence is a big thing in poker. It’s all about pulling the trigger at the right time. There are people who are very smart, but they can’t pull the trigger. They know the right play, but they cannot execute it. They can’t call when they know that they should probably call,” said Antonius. “Booking wins will breed confidence.”

3. Find a way to relieve your stress. For Antonius, exercise is his escape. No matter how many bad beats he may take, working out will alleviate the stress. “I train,” said Antonius. “That’s my getaway to forget any kind of tension or pressure. And I spend more time with my family.”

But Antonius knows that everyone is different. While he takes solace in exercising, each person needs to find something that works for him. “Different things work for different people,” said Antonius.

Top Competition
Here, Patrik Antonius shares his thoughts on some of the players most often recognized as his top competition.

Phil Ivey: “The most talented player in the world, maybe the most talented there has ever been. I have the most trouble with him out of all the players in the world.”

Tom “durrrr” Dwan: “A very smart player, one of the hard workers in the game. He has changed the way the game is played. He has a unique style, and he’s very tough. One of the few guys I really have a tremendous amount of respect for.”

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies: “One of the players I’ve had the most trouble against. A very tough player.”

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond: “I think Phil Galfond is very talented. He doesn’t play that much, but when he plays, he plays very well.”

Brian Hastings: “You have to really respect someone who can play for millions of dollars and go to school at the same time. He’s a hard worker and a smart player. I wouldn’t want to play him four tables at the same time, but I would like to play him more, in general.”

Di “urindanger” Dang: “I just don’t like the way he chats to people. I just don’t understand him. I don’t really respect his game as much as the other guys’ games, but he is a winning player. He beats the lower limits, for sure. I just don’t like his way of doing things. He’s not respectful. I don’t really care for him.”

Hac “trex313” Dang: “I’ve played with him less than with urindanger. He’s a class act compared to his brother. But he doesn’t play as much these days. The Dangs have been keeping a low profile for a long time.”

Cole South: “The same thoughts as for Brian Hastings. He can play four to six tables very well. I think I would lose to them if I were playing four to six tables at the same time with them. They play very fast and they’re talented. But I would like to see them play more.”

Brian Townsend: “I respect Brian Townsend. He gets better and better. He’s willing to play everyone, and I think that’s why he keeps getting better. I have the same opinion of all of the CardRunners guys, but I think he’s a little more well-rounded.”