There’s a reason why you’ve been seeing Patrik Antonious on just about every major poker show around right now: not only does he mix up his game between extreme gambling and extreme solid play as much if not more than the great Gus Hansen, Antonious also has a willingness to put all his money on the line in spots when he could get called, if he believes he can make his opponent lay down. This man simply has no fear, and if he can smell yours he’s going to use it against you, and unfortunately for you, he can smell most fear.
Antonious has had a pretty colorful career in his 28 years (yeah, the guy’s 28). He’s been a model, a pro tennis player and he plays some of the biggest pots in the biggest cash games in the world. If you didn’t see it, it was Antonious who played a hand with Sam Farha on the High Stakes Poker that is the biggest the show has ever seen: $1200 short of a million dollar pot. One hand:
As described on wikipedia:
in the largest ever pot on High Stakes Poker. It totaled 998,800 dollars. The flop came 6♦ 3♣ 9♦, Antonius held J♥ 9♥ giving him top pair, and Farha held K♦ Q♦ giving him two over cards and a flush draw. After the betting raising and all-in were done, the two decided to run the turn and the river, not twice or three times but four times. Patrik's hand held up for three of the four times even though Farha was the mathematical favourite in the hand. Patrik collected $749,100 in that hand.
If you don’t notice here, Antonious gets all his money in with a pair of 9’s, and it’s the best hand. He knows his opponent well enough to be willing to put all that money in when something as simple as a pair of pocket 10’s could have him crushed.
Antonious seems to work as much on what his opponent isn’t willing to do, or what they are afraid of, as he is anything else. In most of the games I’ve watched Antonious playing, even with the best in the world, he mixes up his game in the same style as Hansen, but then tends to use pure aggression and well-timed moves to get opponent to lay down or get bowled over by his huge hands when he does hit them.
It doesn’t always work out his way, of course. Here he is on the wrong side of the coin in another pot worth over $800k against Phil Ivey:
But that’s another part of what makes the man so scary. He’s willing to get all that money in with less than made hands. He’s willing to put it out there on the line. Sniffing weakness and obliterating it is as much a part of Antonius’s game as picking up the cards. A style of this nature becomes pretty much indefensible as long as you have a big enough bankroll to keep it moving, which Antonius clearly does.
Antonius logged $2.7 million in tournaments alone last year.
More big pots, you want? It’s pretty easy to find. Here are just a few that comes up when searching his name:
There’s a reason why you’ve been seeing Patrik Antonious on just about every major poker show around right now: not only does he mix up his game between extreme gambling and extreme solid play as much if not more than the great Gus Hansen, Antonious also has a willingness to put all his money on the line in spots when he could get called, if he believes he can make his opponent lay down. This man simply has no fear, and if he can smell yours he’s going to use it against you, and unfortunately for you, he can smell most fear.
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