VIP-Grinders.com: Hi Patrik, first of all thank you very much for taking the time. You recently had surgery. How are you feeling now?
Patrik Antonius: I had Sportsmen’s groin, which is an injury many people have, who do a lot of sports. It was very painful and stopped me from doing sports the last years.
Now I am happy that everything went well and looking forward to get really fit again.
VG: You were playing competitive tennis when you were young. Tennis legend Boris Becker was one of the big stars at the Battle of Malta 2018. How was it to play poker with him and did you know Boris before?
PA: I was a decent junior player playing in the Finnish league and that’s it. I was never playing competitive as an adult as I had a lot of injuries.
I live in Monte Carlo, which is a tennis mecca and still follow it. I knew Boris before from the time, when he was coaching Novak Djokovic, but never played poker with him, so it was fun.
Playing charity event with the legendary @patrikantonius #PinkOctober #cancerresearch #BattleOfMalta pic.twitter.com/VyR666G7e0
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) October 26, 2018
VG: There is a rumour that you wanted to open an exclusive High Stakes Poker Club in Monte Carlo. Is that true and are those plans still going on?
PA: They approached me through a friend with a project that they would like to have poker back in Monte Carlo, but they gave a very short period of time to work on it, so it didn’t come together.
At the moment there is no poker in Monte Carlo, but I believe that it will be back one day.
VG: You are known to play the biggest stakes in the world and have also recently played in the Triton Million Dollar Cash Game, which generated massive pots. Are those the best games or where are the biggest high stakes cash games on the planet right now?
PA: It is hard to say where the best games are. There are big games everywhere and they come and go. We have organized those big televised cash games during the Triton High Roller Series as most of the High Rollers are there anyway.
Patrik Antonius while playing in the Million Dollar Cash Game Jeju.
However, there are big games running everywhere around the world and some of those games people will never know about as they are private.
VG: In one of the episodes of the Triton Million Dollar Cash Game you said that No-Limit Hold’em is the best game in your opinion as you can do much more than in other formats. You used to play a lot of PLO and crushed the games for many years and I always thought Pot-Limit Omaha is your favorite game. Isn’t that true?
PA: I play all the games, but if I would have to choose a game to play against the best players in the world, then I would pick No-Limit Hold’em.
I am speaking about live poker here, there is so much you can do in No-Limit Hold’em, you can be much more creative, bluff or make decisions based simply on live reads. I don’t see that there is a better game coming anywhere in the near future. Especially for tournaments No-Limit Hold’em is the perfect game.
Patrik won the biggest pot in online poker history worth $1.3 Million vs “Isildur1”:
VG: Short Deck Poker is getting more and more popular. What do you think about it?
PA: It’s an action game. I don’t have enough experience to say too much about it, but one thing I do know is that I would like to play the cash games more deepstacked. If they modify the game a bit more and give way to postflop play, we might have a nice game.
VG: You said in an interview that it is impossible to beat the high stakes without using poker tracking software and that it is hurting online poker.
PA: It’s obvious that the technology has changed online poker a lot. Thanks to it people are playing very optimal, hardly make mistakes and we see much less recreational players, which is bad for the game.
I myself have never used any software during my online poker career. I have always played with my natural abilities and tried to take the game as far as I could with that.
How I see the online high stakes at the moment is that there is no money like back in the days and the players are really careful. If they think they don’t have an advantage they will quit immediately, so I don’t see those fun games anymore, where people are gambling and having big swings.
That’s why the high stakes games are lacking the entertainment factor and I personally don’t think that we will ever again have as big online games as we used to.
VG: You have seen a lot in your life. Is there anything you always wanted to do, what you haven’t done yet and if so would you like to share it with us?
PA: Life is a learning experience and you have to keep your passion and try to keep learning and improving. Once you stop doing that, this is when you are start dying, that’s my view of life.
I am always trying to improve and are looking for new challenges.
VG: Thank you very much for the interview!
