Magazine Feature -- Patrik Antonius Completes Amazing Poker ComebackFinnish Pro Has Had Remarkable First Half to 2010 |
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Less than two months ago, Patrik Antonius was down more than $3.6 million on the year in high-stakes cash games online, according to various poker-tracking sites. Nothing was going right, and one of the world’s greatest players seemed to be in freefall.
Fast forward two months later, and life is sunny and rosy again for Mr. Antonius. The Finnish pro has completed a remarkable turnaround, winning back all of his losses from earlier in the year and now even posting a small profit.
Check out the current issue of Card Player magazine, which features Antonius on the comeback trail.
If the poker world were like the NBA and handed out individual awards, Antonius would be the front-runner for Comeback Player of the Year just one year after winning MVP for his online performance in 2009 (when he was up $9 million for the year, easily the most of all online players).
Card Player has followed Antonius’ tumultuous year closely. In February, while he was fighting unsuccessfully to break out of his downswing, he accepted an interview request and openly talked about his struggles. At that point, he was down about $1.8 million in 2010, and the worst had yet to come.
He referenced his painful physical condition, and talked glumly about how nothing seemed to be going right.
“My life always goes like this. Things go bad or good. I hate these moments when everything just goes bad,” he said at the time.
In early April, Card Player reached out to the high-stakes pro once more to interview him for a feature for the magazine. At this point, Antonius had just started to mount his comeback. After going down over $3.6 million, he had fought back and won a few hundred thousand back. But he still had millions more to go to get back to even.
Even so, Antonius was surprisingly optimistic and seemed to know the tides were turning.
“I just need a couple of good days and I’ll be back to even this year. It’s not that big a deal,” said Antonius.
A month and more than $3 million later, Antonius’ words ring true. As Antonius’ cover story hits poker rooms around the country, he is now actually back in the black.
Check out Antonius’ Card Player cover story, with the first few paragraphs copied below:
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.
Read the rest of the feature here.
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