Patrik Antonius wins largest ever poker pot broadcast on U.S. live stream

Kieran Francis

Patrik Antonius wins largest ever poker pot broadcast on U.S. live stream image

Poker legend Patrik Antonius has won the largest poker pot in U.S. live stream history, scooping nearly USD$2 million after an epic hand against Eric Persson.

The hand occurred on the third and final day of PokerGO's No Gamble, No Future cash game with Antonius collecting USD$1.978m (AUD$2.894m) after incredibly having Persson drawing dead on the turn.

The Sporting News explains all the details about the hand and the cash game format.

The hand - Antonius vs Persson

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With blinds at $1000/$2000 and a $2000 big blind ante, Persson opened the action with a $7,000 raise - holding queen-nine of hearts (Q9hh).

Rob Yong called on the button with ace-two of clubs (A2cc), before Antonius squeezed to $30,000 with ace-king of hearts (AKhh) in the small blind.

Both Persson and Yong made the call.

With $94,000 in the pot, the flop came eight of hearts, three of hearts, three of clubs (8h3h3c) - an action flop with both Antonius and Persson holding hearts.

Antonius continuation bets for $40,000 and Persson snap raises to $140,000, with Yong folding.

Persson is banking on the fact Antonius can only have three hands with a better draw than his heart draw in this situation that would squeeze preflop - AKhh, AJhh and AThh.

With Antonius having one of those hands, the Finn re-raises Persson's flop raise to $250,000 - and gets a call making the pot $594,000.

The turn brings the ace of spades (8h3h3cAs), which now has Persson drawing dead against Antonius, with his queen and nine no longer live outs to a pair and his flush draw beat.

Antonius leads the river with a small $150,000 bet and Persson snap jams his remaining $692,000 despite having no chance of winning if the Finn calls.

Antonius knows he is only behind a minimal combination of hands - one combo of pocket threes and two combos of pocket eights, with Persson extremely unlikely to play pocket aces this way.

The Finn calls and has a shattered Persson drawing dead - scooping in the $1.978m pot.

It surpassed the previous record on a U.S. live stream of $1.158m on Hustler Casino Live.

The cash game - No Gamble, No Future

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The Antonius-Persson hand occurred at No Gamble, No Future's 'Clash of the Titans' cash game, which was streamed live on PokerGO.

It involved six players - Patrik Antonius, Eric Persson, Rob Yong, Andrew Robl, Markus Gonsalves, and Matthew "MJ" Gonzales - with a $1m buy-in and $100,000 posted on the side.

Players had the choice to spread their buy-in into two $500,000 bullets or just put the $1m on the table straight away.

Blinds started at $500/$500 but gradually rose over the three days to $1000/$2000 with a $2000 big blind ante - which was the status during Antonius and Persson's famous battle.

The $100,000 posted on the side by the six players created a $600,000 jackpot that was awarded to the biggest winner in the game at its conclusion.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.