Antonius believes that cash games should focus on poker

4 May 2023

The best Finnish player, Patrik Antonius, recently appeared on the PokerNews podcast, where he talked about how High Stakes Poker affected his career, about winning the Triton Poker series and plans for the near future. He was also asked what he thinks about the new seasons of HSP. Antonius believes that cash games should focus on poker, not on player conversations.

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“When you’re not in the hand, you can have conversations, but I like to focus on the game. Poker is the main thing you want to watch when you watch the game, and not all these conversations between players. Let’s focus on poker, I think it’s the best way to save the game. The commentators are very good now, and they are only getting better. Although Gabe Kaplan was also damn good,” Antonius said.

Antonius’ words seem especially relevant after the recent release of High Stakes Poker, which was attended by Nik “Nik Airball” Arcot, Doug Polk and Matt Berkey. The game was widely criticized for the fact that the players focused not on the game, but on conversations.

Many poker fans know Antonius from his performances at High Stakes Poker in the mid-2000s, where the young Finn played against Sam Farha, Jamie Gold and Barry Greenstein. Decades later, Antonius still appears in cash games. Last year, he appeared in the 9th season of the relaunched High Stakes Poker. He was accompanied by Jean-Robert Bellande, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu and others. In the podcast, Antonius said that he prefers cash games, not tournaments.

“I think it was very important to me because people recognized me through HSD, not tournament poker. This show made me famous because it was shown on television. And yes, I managed to play a lot of big pots there. I always felt confident in front of the cameras,” Antonius added.

Triton Poker Series

Despite his love of cash games, Antonius performs well at tournaments. For more than 20 years, he managed to win 14.4 million USD. He became an EPT champion, won Aussie Millions tournaments, and recently won a 25,000 USD event at the Triton Poker Series.

“It was nice. It’s always nice to win the missing title. Obviously, I want to win more. Everyone who has ever won a tournament knows this feeling when you realize that you have reached the top,” Antonius said.

When there were only three poker players left in the game at Triton Poker, Antonius made the most important call and won against Fahredin Mustafov with the bottom pair. The Finnish player told how it was:

“Before River, everything went standard. Obviously, I can’t fold on the turn when I have a flush draw. And I just tried to read the opponent. If I understand that my opponent is not bluffing, then I fold, but I perfectly assessed the situation and was right.”

Also in the podcast, Antonius talked about his plans. Right now he is playing at the EPT Monte Carlo, then he plans to play in the Triton Poker Series, and only then he will go to Las Vegas for the WSOP.