Patrik Antonius Says Online Poker No Longer A Fair Game

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Thursday, September 3rd, 2015 | Written by Charles Washington

Patrik Antonius is one of the most successful poker players the game has ever seen, with the 34 year-old Finnish pro having earned $6,788,791 from live tournament, and a further $11,315,548 on the internet, placing him second on iPoker’s all time money list. Since May 2011, however, Antonius has hardly played a hand online, mostly due to a costly month in which his winnings dropped from $2.82 million to $1.16 million for that year. While downswings are an inevitable part of the game no player can avoid, it was not losing the money which turned Antonius off the online game, but rather a realization that he could no longer beat it due to the prevalence of tracking software and head-up displays (HUDs). During a revealing interview with pokerlistings.com, Antonius explained:

“I lost about a million straight and then I realized that I couldn’t beat the ring-games anymore and that was largely due to tracking software.”

Overtaken By Technology

When poker first hit the internet, the game was a much more level playing field with players having to rely on their skill and wits to outmaneuver one another. Unfortunately, over the years the game has lost much of its mystique as technology savvy gamers took to the virtual felts armed with head-up displays which revealed the every playing habits of their opponents. Not only has this unfair advantage taken away much of the pleasure initially enjoyed by recreational players, but ultimately it has made the game practically impossible to beat for anyone not equipped and proficient with their own HUDs.

Not A Fair Game Anymore

Just like the original live poker room pros, Patrik Antonius says he is “a feel player who’s living in the moment”, and that he has never turned to technology or any software program to gain an edge. Lamenting on the fact that online poker has now become a “totally different game”, Antonius said:

“Nowadays players use software that gives them so much information and so much data that it has become more of a game of numbers.. the players today know what they’re doing. They are basing their play on what the software tells them to do so it feels like you’re playing against a computer these days. If you don’t use poker software it’s not a fair game anymore.”

As a result, Antonius said he has had to stop playing Hold’em and PLO online, but does still play some Mixed Games, mostly because there’s no viable tracking software yet developed specifically for these games. Nevertheless, Antonius accepts that it is just a matter of time before Stud poker or heads-up 2-7 Triple Draw, for instance, have their own dedicated HUDs, subsequently compelling him to leave the online arena altogether.

Focusing On Live Poker

These days, Antonius chooses to devote his efforts to playing live cash games all around the world, although he has been forced to cut down on those, too, as the big game scene has largely dried up outside of private games, especially in Asia. In the past, online games always represented a quick and convenient way for a player to enter a game, but Antonius refuses to be tempted back in any meaningful way, and as he explains:

“I would take my chances against any high-stakes player live but online I don’t like my chances anymore, unfortunately.”

Tracking Software To Blame

Patrik Antonius’ sentiments reflects the wider challenges facing the online poker industry as a whole, namely the use of tracking software giving online grinders an unfair advantage and ultimately dissuading recreational players from ever taking up the game. Those recreational players that do are usually parted with their money so quickly that they rarely ever bother reloading their accounts again, often turning to other online gambling games, instead.

The drastic situation has been compounded further since Black-Friday, when US players were cut off from the global online poker playing community, and the iPoker market has continued to shrink ever since. This has lead operators such as Bodog to introduce progressive measures such as restricting third-party software., and the world’s leading poker room, PokerStars, is also having to rethink its approach to the industry. As a PokerStars spokesman commented recently:

“I want to make completely clear that we are headed firmly toward further restrictions on third-party software in the future. There is a meaningful probability that within the next year or two our policies will be significantly more restrictive.”