Patrik Antonius, the greatest to player to hail from Finland, took down the PAPC €10,000 Championship Event, which happened to be named the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge (PAPC). The Olympic Park Casino in Tallin, Estonia hosted the event, which attracted 20 runners. Antonius outlasted them all to win €78,100 or approximately $88K USD. Antonus picked off Joni Jouhkimainen heads up for the title.
File this one under man bites dog. Patrik Antonius won a poker tournament, but not just any tournament. It was a specialized Patrik Antonius tournament otherwise known as the PAPC. The Olpympic Park Casino in Tallin, Estonia hosted the Patrik Antonus Challenge, which featured a couple of events including a Main Event, a High Roller, and a Championship affair. Antonius won the €10K Championship Event in his own series.
The €10,200 buy-in Championship event included 20 total runners. Only the top four places paid out. India's Rahul Byrraju finished in fourth and locked up a min cash. Holland's Joris Ruijs finished in third place. Finland went first/second in the PAPC Championship affair.
Antonius defeated Joni Jouhkimainen heads-up for the win and the title. Jouhkimainen banked €50K for second place. Not too shabby, eh? Antonius won €78,100 for taking down his own championship series.
Antonius is back to peak form and as sharp as he's ever been. The young Patrick Antonius took the poker world by storm almost 14 years ago when he pivoted from tennis into poker. Antonius first made an apperance at the final table of the EPT Barcelona back in the summer of 2005. He would win his first EPT title in Baden a couple months later. The rest is history.
At the 2006 WSOP, Antonius, Erik Lindgren, and Phil Ivey had backed a significant amount of the field in the $50,000 HORSE Championship. Three major stables of players were vying for the title and mixed-game supremacy, including a bunch of Europeans trying to take down the big dogs in Vegas.
Last year at this time, Antonius made a huge splash with the biggest cash of his career. He took second place at the Super High Roller Bowl China in Macau for a $3.1 million score. Antonius lost heads up to Justin Bonomo, who banked $4.8 million for the win. A month before going to Macau, Antonius binked a High Roller in RozVegas. He took down the partypoker MILLIONS Germany Super High Roller for $502K.
Last summer, Antonius made a couple of final tables in High Roller events at the partypoker MILLIONS Russia in Sochi. He took second place and a fourth place for approximately $420K.
Antonius won over $11.8 million in his career with three seven-figure cashes. He was a bridesmaid in several events with notable runner-up finishes over the years.
Back in December 2005, he was the runner up at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. which paid out $1 million. He lost to a Scandi too, a Danish player named Rehne Pedersen. At the 2012 Aussie Millions, he took second in the $250,000 Challenge, which paid out $1.2 million.
No one else has won more money from Finland than Patrik Anotnius, and that country has no shortage of kick-ass players (e.g. Juha Helppi, Joni Jouhkimainen, Kimmo Kurko, Jani Sointula, Jens Kyllonen, Illari Sahamies, Ville Wahlbeck, and Thomas Whalroos), but most of the Fins focus on nosebleed cash games. Oh, my... some of those Fins get super crazy in those games. Talk about action.
Until most recently, Antonius was in the Top 50 all-time money winners. He's inching closer to $12 million.
