Patrik Antonius Wins European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €100,000 High Roller

Patrik Antonius bested a record-setting field of 72 entries in the 2024 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €100,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller event, earning $2,124,835 as the champion.

This was the third multi-million-dollar tournament score on the Finnish poker pro’s resume. This narrowly edged out the $2,100,00 he earned as the third-place finisher in a $200,000 buy-in Triton Charity Invitational event last spring to become his second-largest payday behind the $3,151,734 he secured as the runner-up in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl China.

The 43-year-old now has nearly $21.5 million in career earnings on the circuit to go along with his haul from decades atop the live and online cash game scene.

In addition to the title and the money, Antonius also earned 840 Card Player Player of the Year for this win in Monaco. This was his third final-table finish of the year. With 2,034 total points, he has climbed into 27th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This event was officially the largest EPT Monte Carlo super high roller yet, in terms of field size. It topped the previous record of 71 entries set in 2015 by one, with the resulting prize pool of $7,544,275 being split among the top 11 finishers.

All-time money leader Justin Bonomo ($65,725,782 in career earnings) added $188,568 with an 11th place showing late on day 2, with two-time bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo soon following in 10th ($188,568). The final day began with nine players remaining and Antonius in the lead.

Early eliminations included high-stakes stars like 2023 champion of this event Alex Kulev (9th – $235,764) and top POY contender Stephen Chidwick (8th – $294,624). Chidwick, a two-time POY winner, now sits in fifth place in the points race with 13 final-table finishes and three titles earned so far in 2024.

Antonius scored his first knockout of the day with A-Q suited holding against the A-9 of David Yan (7th – $368,496). Jean Noel Thorel secured his fourth final-table finish of the year with a sixth-place showing in this event. The Frenchman is now inside the top 20 in the POY rankings as a result. Juan Pardo’s A-10 held against Thorel’s K-Q suited to narrow the field to five.

Bracelet winner Ben Heath’s run ended in fifth place when his pocket tens lost a preflop race against the K-J suited of Antonius. Heath earned $579,420 for his efforts, increasing his lifetime earnings to nearly $22.3 million. Antonius then held with A-J suited agains the A-8 of Byron Kaverman (4th – $753,300) to enter three-handed play with the largest stack. The American bracelet winner increased his career hail to $19.9 with this result.

Pardo’s pocket queens were outflopped by the Q-6 suited of Christoph Vogelsang, who hit trip sixes. Vogelsang shoved after the river and Pardo called to finish third for $979,236. The Spaniard now has mroe than $10.8 million in total tournament earnings.

Heads-up play began with Antonius holding roughly a 4:3 chip lead. Vogelsang was able to move in front after taking down the first hand, but Antonius doubled back into a big lead when he flopped a set of queens against top pair of aces for the German high-stakes star. The final hand saw Vogelsang limp-call with A5 from the button. Antonius shoved for 30 big blinds with A9. The board ran out KQ4Q9 and Antonius’ queens and nines earned him the title.

Vogelsang walked away with $1,370,844 as the runner-up. The 2017 Super High Roller Bowl champion now has more than $34 million in lifetime earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell.