Finland’s finest Patrik Antonius has been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Antonius faded competition from poker legends like Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Ted Forrest, and Barny Boatman — all fellow nominees this year — to win the only spot available in 2024.
Antonius has booked almost $23 million in gross live tournament wins, according to the Hendon Mob database. But the bulk of his winnings have surely come from online cash games, which are less easily quantifiable.
“In the modern era of poker, few have been as bold and fearless as Patrik Antonius,” said Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker. “A force both online and live, we’re thrilled to see Patrik’s high-stakes career acknowledged by legends who have added the first international player to the Poker Hall of Fame in a number of years.”
Antonius was part of the first wave of online players who demanded to be taken seriously.
Chris Moneymaker won the World Series in 2003 after qualifying via an online satellite. Subsequent fields were swollen by online qualifiers who believed they could emulate Moneymaker’s feat.
This new injection of liquidity pumped the prize pools to dizzying heights, which in turn attracted more players, kickstarting the poker boom of the mid-2000s.
However, “online player” was still a dirty word among the seasoned live pros, who understood — rightly — that Moneymaker was a stroke of luck, and — wrongly — that internet players were a flash in the pan.
Internet players like Antonius, Noah Boeken, Andrew Robl, David Benefield, Phil Galfond, Tom Dwan, and others, not only made names for themselves but began to change the very dynamics of the live game, three-betting and four-betting with far greater regularity.
Antonius — a promising tennis player until his career was cut short by injury — was arguably the leader of the pack, and his nosebleed online cash-game battles with the likes of Phil Ivey, Dwan, Viktor “Isildur” Blom, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies were the stuff of legend in the late 2000s.
Antonius remains the winner of the largest online pot of all-time. He scooped $1,356,947 in a hand against Blom in 2009.
It’s incredible to think that this new wave of young players are all now pushing 40. Antonius is 43. It’s a condition that Hall of Fame nominees must be over 40, so expect more of their ilk to be inducted in the next few years.
Another condition for prospective inductees is that they must have stood the test of time, continuously playing at the highest level while maintaining the respect of their peers.
Antonius continues to be a dominant force in live high-roller tournaments and the high-stakes games online.
“This is a very big honor to become a new Hall of Famer,” Antonius said in a statement. “The last 24-25 years with poker went pretty fast. I think I’m going to stick around for a long time.”
