Patrik Antonius was one of the kings of poker before Black Friday. He was a successful player before poker exploded, but it was the poker boom that really helped him rise to fame, as it did with many poker players. One of the most prolific online players of all time, his success at nose bleed stakes plus stunning good looks (and I mean that when judging on a regular attractiveness scale, not just a poker player attractiveness scale) propelled him to superstar status.
His former online poker home, Full Tilt, gone and online games tougher than ever, Patrik Antonius isn’t as active in poker as he used to be, but he is still playing and having a good time. Now living in Monaco, he is currently competing in the PokerStars Championship sponsored by Monte-Carlo Casino. It is there that PokerNews found him and asked him how things were going.
“I’ve been very good,” Antonius told PokerNews. “I’m very happy with my life situation, I can’t complain. You know, I haven’t been traveling for the events. Life changes a little bit and my lifestyle has changed as well.”
“I’ve been here in Monaco with my family, my kids are growing and I don’t really want to be months and months away from home anymore,” he added. “I wished we would have more, bigger and regular games in Europe.”
Hey, makes sense. While there are certainly places to play poker in Europe, Antonius prefers cash games and the best ones are in Las Vegas and Macau, neither of which is ever arguably convenient to Monaco. And while there are a bunch of major tourneys every year in Europe, the United States is still where it’s at.
“I can’t say that I’m a very experienced tournament player anymore,” Antonius told PokerNews. “I was playing a lot of tournaments in 2005 and 2006, but for the last eight years or so, I’ve played fewer than 10 tournaments a year.”
So, since finding a good game locally is a problem and Antonius isn’t very keen on traveling to hell and gone for one, he is doing something about it. Antonius is working on creating his own land-based poker room right there in Monaco.
“I can’t share any details yet but if we could get a nice poker room in Europe, that would be good for a lot of people,” he said.
Oh, but he did share some details. Antonius believes that Monaco could support a poker room because he knows of enough poker players who are interested in playing “decently high stakes” cash games and who would also be happy to make a short trip to Monaco, rather than, say, Las Vegas or Macau.
“People would fly here from all over the world. It would be very easy to organize good games here. We just have to get proper rake so it’s reasonable.”
