Patrik Antonius Returns To Form As Downswing Draws To An End

After winning almost $9 million at Full Tilt Poker’s cash tables throughout 2009 to become the highest earner on the site for the year, Finnish pro Patrik Antonius has been experiencing a massive downswing ever since.
This March, Antonius lost another $1 million to go almost $3 million down for the year and with no sign of a recovery in sight and an old back injury causing him problems, the Finn must surely have been drawing on his professional skills to keep his spirits up.
As Antonius explained: “I’ve been struggling a lot with my physical condition…I’m in rehab now for my back…My life always goes like this. Things go bad or good. I hate these moments when everything just goes bad. When I get better, everything usually gets better, too. It’s normal. Welcome to the poker world.”
However, it would appear that Antonius may finally have pulled himself out of his latest slump as April seems to have provided him with the green roots of recovery.
Last week alone, Antonius won almost $1 million playing mostly H.O.R.S.E. tables against such opponents as Brian Townsend, “thecranium” and Gus Hansen and is now currently showing a profit for the month of $1.4 million.
He is now not only the highest earner in April so far, but by limiting his losses for the year to around $1.6 million he has managed to pull himself off the biggest loser spot on Full Tilt Poker for 2010, with that dubious honour now belonging to Brian Townsend, currently $2.6 million in the hole.
As the saying goes, form may be fleeting but class will always be permanent and Patrik Antonius has certainly shown plenty of it over the last few difficult months. When asked to comment on how he copes with the inevitable downswings the game of poker throws at him, the ever pragmatic Antonius replied:
“It depends on a lot of things. If I have personal things going on in my life, then the downswings can affect me. And it depends how it happens. When I lose in very good games when I couldn’t have really done anything differently, then it doesn’t really bother me. But if I lose in a game where I really shouldn’t have lost, then it bothers me.”
We look forward to seeing Antonius back in action at Full Tilt’s cash tables as his upswing in April begins to gather pace.