Patrik Antonius Poker Strategy

Patrik Antonius, "Brad Pitt" of the poker world. Professional tennis player and coach turned model turned professional poker player. He's a man of few words but he sure knows how to play some great poker and he's considered one of the all-time greats by most poker enthusiast. At the same time, not that much is known about his approach to poker.

Patrik rarely talks about his poker strategy and in order to figure out what made it so successful we're going to take a look at some interesting hands from Antonius's career.

Cool, Calm and Collected

The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Patrik Antonius is his commanding table presence. While it's not impossible to hear him chatting or even joking - especially in the company of good high stakes poker friends - most of the time Antonius is quiet, intimidating and almost unapproachable.

While there's no meanness to his demeanor it's not hard to imagine that the way he handles himself at a poker table combined with his fame and amazing results allowed him to see some free cards and cause some mistakes that other players wouldn't enjoy. In the context of a live game, the ice-man persona can be a real asset and greatly supplement to quality betting patterns.

Medium Strength Hands - The Key to Long-Term Profit

While we all tend to get excited about the biggest pots in poker history where players usually end up comparing the top portions of their range, medium and small pots are the real win rate builders. It's not that hard to play poker when you flop the goods, but it's much harder to ensure that you're not adding too many hands to the bottom of your range in certain spots (which is pretty much the worst thing you can do in poker from a game theory standpoint).

In this particular hand against Tony G, Patrik shows exactly how to play a medium strength hand. He skips a thin value bet - which would put him in many awkward spots by the river - instead going for a check/call ensuring that the opponent's range stays reasonably air-heavy. Turn call is much more difficult but since it doesn't make a lot of sense for Tony G to bet TX combos on the flop (other than ATs) Patrik avoids adding KQ to the bottom of his range and makes a very good call.

Protecting the Investment

Antonius is one of the players who like to use the straddle, but unlike many other live pros, he's perfectly aware of the dynamic that straddle creates. In this particular hand, Patrik correctly adjusts to the fact that a large amount of dead money combined with a perfect run out for a triple barrel makes Phil Laak much more likely to bluff than in similar spots unaffected by the straddle mechanic.

The call is even more impressive given the fact that the hand was 3-way on the flop which in theory should dissuade Laak from making a move, but Antonius was perfectly aware that in the context of a live game where players rarely get the opportunity to make a big play a pot that's inflated by the straddle is a perfect occasion for a bluff that few players can resist.

Punishing Heavily Unbalanced Plays

In this little gem of a hand Patrik once again avoids adding too many hands to the bottom of his range in the spot that many other players would recognize as a trivial fold. Antonious has enough discipline not to make a random stab on the flop and turn with a marginal showdown value hand against multiple opponents.

Once the river hits and Patrik faces a strangely sized bet, instead of quickly releasing a marginal hand he figures out that thin value bets are practically impossible due to the sizing, regular value bets like Ax or even Kx would show aggression on one of the previous streets, there are no possible draws and therefore the only hand that makes sense for value is an unlikely pair of sixes. Assuming villain is capable of a bluff in this spot his range has to be heavily unbalanced towards air and therefore a very thin hero call with Q-high becomes a correct play in this unusual spot.

Omaha - The Biggest Game in Town

Lastly, when we talk about the strategy and success of Patrik Antonius it's impossible not to mention the game that allowed him to make copious amounts of money at the online tables and participate in many of the biggest pots ever played (staying on top of those more often than not).

While this iconic hand against Isildur1 simply boiled down to shipping the flop with second nuts plus backdoor redraw, what's more important is the fact that Patrik gave himself the opportunity to participate in such a monumental hand with his fearless yet highly intelligent game selection. Contrary to the approach that made Isildur1 high stakes story a flash in the pan Antonius wasn't blindly seating every other player imaginable and played against other greats of the game only when it made sense from the EV standpoint.

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