Rui Cao Takes $330k From Antonius At Start Of Their $1m Challenge

A while back Patrik Antonius took high-stakes cash pro Rui Cao to the cleaners whilst playing a Triple Draw match online. Despite the French-Chinese pro being upset at his losses, he reacted in a surprising way by announcing to the poker world that he considered Antonius to be a monumental “nit” and that he would not be welcome in Macau’s high stakes ‘Big Game.’
Patrik Antonius vehemently denied the label accusing Cao of being a sore loser and before long, following some online discussions, the duo decided to launch their very own $1 million challenge. Their heads-up battle would subsequently be fought over the three different poker disciplines of 2-7 triple draw ($300,000), PLO ($350,000) and NLHE ($350,000), and only concluded when one of the players had won all the others stake money.
Now, the first of their challenges has been played with the Finnish pro losing his initial $15k buy-in on the very first hand of their session. Things never seemed to improve thereafter for Antonius and eventually, after 350 hands of $1500/$3000 2-7 Triple Draw lasting three hours, Rui Cao booked a $330,000 winning start.
So far, there has been no indication as to when their next encounter will take place, but poker fans will be eagerly anticipating the next stage of their fiercely contested $1 Million Challenge at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables.
Rui Cao is showing a profit of $1,774,193 on the site since the end of 2010, but despite being one of the biggest winners at Full Tilt overall, he won’t be underestimating his dangerous opponent anytime soon. After all, Patrik Antonius is 2nd only to Phil Ivey on Full Tilt’s list of biggest poker winners, and is showing a massive $11,315,549 profit since 2008. Antonius’ most profitable year online came in 2008 when he made an astounding $8,973,946 in profits.