WSOP Poker Hall of Fame Inducts Patrik Antonius
The Poker Hall of Fame added a new member on Sunday, July 14. At the start of the Poker Hall of Fame Bounty tournament (Event 95) at the World Series of Poker, one of ten nominees for 2024 induction earned the right to be a bounty in that tournament. That one was Patrik Antonius.
Hall of Fame Voting
The process of narrowing down the nominees for the WSOP Hall of Fame each year starts with an open voting process on June 5 and allows the public to submit names for consideration. The top ten people with the most submissions move on to the next step, which is a private vote by the living members of the WSOP Poker Hall of Fame.
The HOF voters must consider the worthiness for a place in the Hall of Fame and disperse each of their 10 votes (per HOF member) in any way they choose. The nominees were already vetted by a private group of Hall of Fame overseers (Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council) to ensure that they met the following criteria:
- Person must be at least 40 years old at the time of nomination.
- Person must have played poker against acknowledged top competition.
- Person must have played high-stakes poker consistently well, standing the test of time and gaining the respect of peers.
And for those with primarily non-player roles in the poker industry, there is one primary requirement:
- Person much have contributed to the overall growth and success of poker with indelible positive and lasting results.
From a List of 10 Finalists…
At this point in time, the WSOP is permitting only one name to be chosen each year. That meant that only one of the following would be inducted in 2024:
- Mike Matusow
- Matt Savage
- Ted Forrest
- Isai Scheinberg
- Kathy Liebert
- Josh Arieh
- Patrik Antonius
- Bill Smith
- Barny Boatman
- John Cernuto
Most of the people on the list had been nominated in prior years but never inducted. The 2024 nomination was the tenth for Matusow, ninth for Savage, seventh for Forrest, and fifth for Scheinberg, for example.
This year’s bid for Patrik Antonius wasn’t his first but only his second, though he only became eligible in late 2000 when he turned 40.
Antonius Inducted
Before the start of the Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No Limit Hold’em tournament on July 14, the WSOP’s Jack Effel announced that the nominee and newest bounty in the event was Antonius.
The one-time model and tennis player ventured into poker online and live, becoming a force at the tables during the poker boom in the mid-2000s. Antonius hails from Finland and rose to fame during a time when poker was on television consistently, and poker’s popularity was growing around the world. He spent time as a member of Team Full Tilt when Full Tilt Poker was in its prime, and he traveled the world to play poker tournaments and cash games.
Some of Antonius’ earliest live tournament scores were at the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour, though his first recorded win was at the Ladbrokes Scandinavian Poker Championships in Stockholm in 2005, after which he final tabled the EPT Barcelona and won the EPT Baden Main Event. In the decades that followed, he captured titles across the globe, most recently at Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Cyprus and at the EPT Monte Carlo just this year.
In live poker tournaments alone, Antonius has accumulated nearly $23M in earnings, and that does not include the millions won online.
Currently living in Monte Carlo, he still travels for tournaments and high-stakes cash games. He also launched and operates FLOP (First Land of Poker), which hosts cash games and tournaments, the latter as a part of the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge.
Antonius became the 63rd member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
Congratulations to Patrik Antonius, the newest inductee into the 2024 Poker Hall of Fame! 🎉
— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 14, 2024
Don't miss his heartfelt acceptance speech a quick look at Patrik's new Poker Hall of Fame trophy! 🏆 #WSOP2024 pic.twitter.com/Io2wlJAUQ2
