Poker Pro Miika Anttonen: Looks Do Count

Finland’s Miika Anttonen is an online poker pro from Helsinki with $312,940 in online tournament winnings to his credit under the screen name ‘Chuck Bass.’
The young pro has also been cashing in at live tournaments since 2009, and has already amassed an impressive $254,924 in winnings, including a 1st place finish at the €2,850 Helsinki Freezeout this year for €76,326 ($100,030).
Therefore, it was interesting reading him describe the “stereotyping” part of his game on Cardplayer recently, which he says is key for a player to gain information on his opponents.
Unlike playing online, where up to 100 hands are dealt per hour and a pro may soon notice how everyone plays, the live game demands a more urgent approach as only around 20 hands are dealt each hour. As Miika Anttonen explains:
“When a 25-year-old Italian wearing a Gucci shirt and expensive watch sits down, I immediately expect him to be splashy and running stupid bluffs. When an older gentleman sits down, I already have a plan for his open limps before he’s even made one. And when some Swedish guy wearing a hoodie sits down casually listening to his iPod, I’m getting ready for the battle of three-, four-, five- and 6-bets.”
However, the part of the “stereotyping” game that Anttonen describes having difficulty with is that being a Scandanavian combined with his boyish looks means he’s finding it increasingly difficult to run bluffs past his opponents, who never want to fold against him.
Aware of the problem, Miika Anttonen decided recently to try and limit his  so-called “stupid bluffs,” by reigning-in his four-bet shoves, his flat-calls out of position with unplayable hands, as well as a whole load of other “crazy stuff.” Nonetheless, as his confidence of reading players around the table grew, he soon abandoned his original plan of playing solid poker, leading to his losing €20,000 worth of buy-ins in Prague over the period of just one week. As Miika Anttonen elaborates:
“I busted both the WPT and the EPT mains with Q-5o against A-A, the GSOP main with K-To against A-A, and the EPT 2k with K-Qo against K-K…In none of those hands I was particularly short and none of them were anywhere near necessary. I just spazzed out hardcore and that’s about it.
Analysing his play, the Finnish pro conceded that his opponent’s were never going to fold to someone with his looks and reputation enough time to make his move profitable.
Going forward, Anttonen said he was lookng forward to playing the Aussie Millions $10k in January, and that he would once again try not to do anything “stupid” that he would lose sleep over. Besides, “Aussies are known to be incapable of folding anything at all,” concluded Miikka Anttonen.