Texas Holdem Poker

The Poker Styles of Patrik Antonius

Ever since the “poker boom” that took the world by storm, there have been amazing players popping up from places all over the globe. One of those great players is the young man from Vantaa Finland named Patrik Antonius. After bursting onto the scene in the 2005 World Series of Poker, Patrik Antonius has made a name for himself as not only one of the best European players in the game, but one of the best players in all of the world.

One of his most crowning achievements as a pro came in the 2005 European Poker Tour event in Baden bei Wien as he earned first place honors and a prize of nearly 300,000 Euros. There is nothing quite like winning a major poker tournament, but Antonius might be most happy with his 2nd place finish in the 2005 World Poker Tour event called the Diamond World Poker Classic. His efforts earned him just over $1 million, not too shabby for finishing runner up.

Those tournaments in 2005 no doubt gave him a great deal of confidence as he moved further in his career. Through the end of 2009, Antonius is reported to have earned approximately $2.8 million in all of his live tournaments with almost $800,000 of that money coming on the biggest stage in the World Series of Poker events.

It is true that Antonius is a dominant force in the high stakes tournament arena, but he has also made a killing playing in cash games. Both online and live, Patrik Antonius has been making it a habit to rake in massive pots. He is no stranger to the hit TV show “High Stakes Poker” where he regularly plays against the fiercest competition in the game. One of the best aspects of Antonius is his demeanor at the table. He rarely shows emotions even after he lost a poker pot worth over three quarters of a million dollars to the animated Jamie Gold. That loss did anything but deter Patrik because he continued to play the richest cash games in the world and he has the distinct honor of winning the biggest single pot ever recorded in the history of internet poker, $1,356,946.

Even though he has quite a lustrous past playing in high stakes cash games and huge buy-in live tournaments, his passion remains heads up poker. The thrill of playing against a single opponent and the massive amounts of money that is up for grabs seems to really make his poker clock tick. His confidence is so high that he is willing to play for almost any amount of money at any time. He even agreed to play against fellow poker star Tom Dwan in a heads up battle for $1 million dollars. The marathon poker challenge has not been finished yet, but one thing is for sure, whether Antonius wins or loses, we will remain one of the best and richest players in the world.

Fresh young faces at the poker table have been a reoccurring theme in the past 5 to 10 years. With the boom of internet poker and televised live tournaments, there has been an ever-growing amount of people wanting to take a shot at stardom. Enter Tom Dwan: the 23 year old internet poker sensation turned high stakes live tournament player. For 6 years, Tom has been playing poker as much as possible and really mastering the game.

His dream began when he was just 17 years old with a modest $50 initial investment. It was a gift from his father placed on an internet poker room that gave Tom the start he needed. Amazingly, he lost over half of his $50 and was ready to write off his possible talents. But Tom was not satisfied with giving up so easily. He pushed on and turned a meager $15 into a promising career.

Play Online Poker

As Tom Dwan, aka “durrrr” – his internet poker nickname, started to build his bank roll, he experimented with many different games. Sit n Go tournaments, cash games and multi-table tournaments until he found his favorite. That favorite game was heads up no limit poker. Tom was not afraid to go up against the big guns either. He regularly battled against some of the top pros both from the internet and from the pro circuits. With Tom’s newfound confidence and his impressive knack for the game, it was not wonder that he showed up at the World Series of Poker to try and make a name for himself. With 2 cashes at the World Series including one final table, Tom has really brought some attention his way.

One of the most interesting aspects of Tom Dwan is his fearlessness. Amazingly, Dwan reports that he has lost huge amounts of money in very little time periods. It is believed that Tom lost of about $2.5 million in a just four month’s time. What is even more remarkable is that Dwan has managed to gain it all back. He is even challenging huge name players to go heads up for $1 million. It seems like the kid has ice in his veins. If there is one thing we can count on from Tom Dwan, it is that he is not going anywhere for a while. Look for Dwan to make a lot of noise through his heads up challenges and he might even be a threat to win some events at the World Series of Poker this year.

Doyle Brunson Reaches Round 2 in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship

One of the poker players in contention is Doyle Brunson in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas. The tournament is unique and there was a lot of speculation if Brunson would be able to play as he had a dental surgery after the Super Bowl which took place last month. Doyle Brunson not only played in the tournament but also reached the Round 2. He defeated Brock “t soprano” Parker to qualify to this round.

In the final hand Brunson had A-Q of diamonds whereas on the other hand Parker had wired pair of eights. His had truly had created a tight spot. Brunson did not need to look back as soon as the queen came in the form of window card. In the round of 32 Brunson will now play Don Cheadle. Cheadle reached the second round by defeating J.P.Kelly.

The first round of the game truly saw the clash of the titans, when Howard Lederer played against Phil Hellmuth. This match was also very interesting like the match between Brunson and Parker. There was a race situation and Hellmuth finally won. In the 2nd round will have to play against Annette Obrestad who is another giant in the industry. He is the winner of the World Series of Poker in 2007 and he reached the second round by beating Orel Hershiser on Friday.

Davin Moon is the other player who qualified to the second round. He was the runner up in the World Series of Poker in 2009. The table on which he played along with Bill Huntress was the ‘quietest table on the set’. Moon held the best hand and showed a K-10 which included ten of clubs. The game also was very interesting and after a point there was no hope for Huntress, the Caesars qualifier to qualify to the second round. In the second round Davin Moon will play against Annie Duke who is a guest columnist in the Poker News Daily.

There were seven players who entered and out of these one was eliminated in the first round. These are the updates on the second round of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship for the year 2010. The action is taking place at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It starts at 1:00pm PT. The winner of the championship will be declared on Sunday after the final match happens that day.