In Full Tilt interview Patrik Antonius opines Isildur1 and online poker
In a podcast interview for the Full Tilt Poker Academy, Phil Gordon held a Q&A session with online poker mega-star Patrik Antonius, where the two discussed everything from the strengths and weaknesses of Isildur1 –the mystery pro who has recently showed up in the ultra-high-stakes games—to the astonishing heights the high-stakes online poker games are currently being taken.
With regards to Isildur1, Antonius believes the young player from Sweden is changing the world of high stakes online poker, with a fearlessness never before seen in the online poker world: Antonius feels Isildur1’s isn’t afraid to go down early in matches because “He wants to play deep, to force you to make difficult decisions every hand.” Antonius further explained that Isildur1’s fast, multi-tabling style adds to this effect. In one telling part of the interview Antonius said he worries about going down $1 million in a matter of minutes when playing Isildur1: Using the example of being down $200k –a single buy-in-- only to lose consecutive pots of $400k, $300k, and $200k on three different tables, and therefore you are suddenly in the hole over $1 million.
Antonius did say he felt Isildur1 has tilted for brief spans, but really had nothing but praise for the young online poker phenom. Gordon, worrying if Isildur1 would play until he was broke asked Antonius what he thought the Swede would do should his current downswing continue: Antonius felt it wouldn’t matter much since he thinks Isildur1 is a strong enough player that he could easily build his bankroll from $2,000 to $1 million in a year! High praise indeed!
When asked about the current action in the high-stakes online poker games Antonius seemed to imply that it would be unsustainable, remarking, “you would need a bankroll of around $500,000,000 to play the game comfortably.” Of course, Gordon’s jaw dropped at this figure, but Antonius further explained that, “If you can lose $3 million in an hour why can’t you lose $100 million?”
Antonius says nobody is really rolled for the game, but he uses these ultra-high-stakes games much like he would when taking a shot at higher limits, explaining, “If you have a $10 million bankroll and you take a shot and lose $3 million it’s not that big of a deal.”
Antonius also explained how really good poker players can play under-rolled, not only because their edge is higher, but because it’s easier for a superstar player to drop a few levels and rebuild their bankroll, where it would take a lesser skilled player considerably longer to recoup their losses in this manner.
