High Rollers | Whale: Patrik Antonius

Patrik Antonius was the first person to ever win a 7-figure pot in online poker, when he won a $1,377,000 hand. He is known for his skill and aggressive style of play.

Born on February 1, 1976 in Vantaa, Finland, this handsome professional gambler splits his time between the two gambling meccas of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo. Patrik Antonius is the son of a bread delivery man and a day-care center worker, who was originally handpicked to be a tennis prodigy until he suffered a back injury. As a young man he played cards with his friends, later travelling to the casino in Helsinki for tournaments.

After starting playing poker online, Antonius went professional in 2002, moving the Las Vegas to concentrate on his game. By December 2003 Antonius was ranked one of the top online poker players in Europe, and he is now considered to be one of the best PLO players in the world.

He is known for his skill and aggressive style of play.

In November 2009, Patrik Antonius was the first person to ever win a 7-figure pot in online poker, when he won a $1,377,000 hand.

Antonius is already considered to best all time money maker in Finland, and to date his career winnings total over $4 million.

Antonius makes regular television appearances playing high stakes poker, including on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.

As well as playing poker, Patrik Antonius enjoys tennis player and golf.

Profile of Patrik Antonius, including tournament achievements
Official Website of professional gambler Patrik Antonius.  This page includes news, a profile, pictures and poker tips.

Thanks to: Worlds Greatest Gamblers

High Rollers | Whale: Alan Woods the Horse Racing Pioneer

The pioneer of computer betting syndicates, Australian Alan Woods took Hong Kong racing by storm. At the time of his death, Woods was recognized as one the top three gamblers in the world.

His Biography: Alan Woods Horse Racing Gambler
The late Alan Woods, died on January 26 2008 at age 62 in Hong Kong.  At the time of his death, and still now, Woods is regarded as one of the biggest and best gamblers in the world.
Woods was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia, in 1945.  His early gambling career, like his counterpart Bill Benter, was beating blackjack using math at his local casinos.

In the mid 1980s Woods found his way to Hong Kong, were he and Bill Benter teamed up to form a gambling syndicate that would become the most successful the horse racing industry had ever seen.

Using their mathematic skill, Benter and Woods developed a computer program, based on mathematics, to choose race winners based on formulaic consideration of track, form, weather and other factors.

Benter and Woods parted ways in the 1987, both continuing to find success.

A true mathematician, it has been said that Woods viewed racing was “nothing more than a mathematical equation to be solved”.

It may be for this reason that Woods was renowned for the fact that, in his twenty years in betting in Hong Kong, he did not once personally attend the racetrack. 
 In fact, after the split of Benter and Wood, Woods betting syndicate operated successfully in Hong Kong while Woods was in Manila. 

The annual turnover by Woods and his syndicate was estimated at about 2% of the Jockey Club’s annual betting turnover. While he never set up charitable organizations like his betting counterpart Benter, Woods was known to give generously to the Filipino community, also donating portions of his wealth to mental health research and Australian bridge.

At the time of his death, professional gambler Woods was estimated to have amassed a fortune of AUD$670 million.

Thanks to: Worlds Greatest Gamblers

High Rollers | Whale: Scotty Nguyen - Poker winner

Scotty Nguyen, one of the top five poker winners in the world

Born in Vietnam, on October 28, 1962, Scotty started playing professional poker in 1985. He started of as a bus boy in Las Vegas before going to dealers school to become a poker dealer and then eventually a poker player. In his time of playing poker he has managed to win five world poker championships with his main winning in the 1998 World Series of Poker. He has also obtained 47 first place finishes, 3 World Poker Tournament bracelets and won several World Series of Pokers H.O.R.S.E competitions just to name a few of his achievements.

Throughout his gambling career Scotty has won and lost massive amounts of money. In his early years he had to go back to dealing poker many times in order to support himself. Although in his more recent poker days he has also lost large amounts of cash he has not had to reside back to dealing.

Scotty Nguyen is very well known for is entertaining personality and more recently has become a regular at celebrity poker events. Over his 20 plus years of gambling Scotty has managed to win over $11,250,000.00 (USD) in live tournament winnings.

Thanks to: Worlds Greatest Gamblers

High Rollers | Whale: Kerry Packer the Worlds Highest Roller

Australian Kerry Packer was a media baron and casino owner. He was also a truly high roller.

In 2004, Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was listed among the richest people in the world where his entire wealth was placed at around US$5.4 billion. Although he never started amassing wealth as a result of his horse racing professional gambling activities, he later on went into this. It is of great interest that Kerry was a school drop out despite the thorough beatings he received from his father who tried everything he could to encourage him to go back to school and finish his education.

While in School he contracted a disease known as infantile paralysis which caused him to stay away from school for a quite a considerable amount of time. A man who was born on December 17, 1937 his stage in youth was spent in loneliness and lots of disruptions primarily due to the ill health he suffered. However, this did not hinder him from being an excellent sportsman especially in sports such as cricket, golf and boxing. Other sports that he also excelled in included rugby and swimming.

Kerry's father never had such a high opinion of him and appeared to prefer his other brother called Clyde. All initial indications were that Clyde was being groomed to take over from his father though when they fell out, things changed. At one point Kerry had turned completely to gambling and smoking in addition to heavy drinking. During the time when he was actively involved in professional gambling, Kerry had a reputation that was quite incomparable to that of most of his peers.

At one point when he had traveled to Las Vegas, he embarked on a three week unbroken losing streak where he lost close to $28 million. On the other hand it was the same Kerry who would also win close to Australian $33 million during the MGM Grand Casino. This was in Las Vegas as well. Every year Kerry Packer would travel to the UK once and participate in several professional gamblers events where he would constantly win no less than $7 million after each event. He dished most of these to charities.

Kerry Packer eventually died in the year 2005 as a result of kidney failure. He has suffered from some kind of kidney problems which had proved to be quite chronic for a very long time. One of his longest serving pilots even donated one of his kidneys to Packer for transplantation. However, even this worked for sometime but eventually he lost the fight and passed away. Way back in 1990 he had been reported to have died for close to eight minutes before he was successfully revived.
Kerry Packer's indulgence in professional gambling may not have been for as long as others but there is no denying the fact that it was quite eventful. He lost and won millions of dollars in equal measure. Rather than spend it on his own needs, he chose to share it with others. Until the time of his death, he was listed as one of the most influential and respected Australians ever. He had been the owner of several print and electronic media houses while he was alive.

Thanks to: Worlds Greatest Gamblers

High Rollers | Whale: William Benter the Horse Racing Legend

American gambler William Benter developed arguably the most successful computer software in the world to attack the giant Hong Kong horse racing market, where the pools routinely reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. During the 2010 racing season alone the betting turnover reached HK$71.65 billion, on just two racetracks! By comparison, all the thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. combined take in just over $12 billion.

William Benter's software reportedly assesses hundreds of individual variables for each horse, jockey, trainer and track. Using the results, Benter and his team create their own prices and probabilities, and use these to bet against the general public. With amazing success. The rumours are wild, but estimates are that Bill Benter earns something around US$10,000,000 annually from Hong Kong horse racing.

More than any other industry, Horse Racing is based on emotion and feelings, people place bets based on everything from the horse's name to tips from a friend. Nowhere more than the notoriously supersticious Hong Kong race-tracks. William Benter used computer logic to beat the system, and make millions!

His Biography:
William Benter (Bill Benter), Horse Racing Legend Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, William Benter began using his mathematics skills to count cards.  Legend has it that in the mid 1970s Benter came across the book “Beat the Dealer”, memorized it’s strategies and began his professional gambling career at the blackjack tables of Las Vegas.

At the same time Bill Benter was being banned from most of the Vegas’ strip’s casinos (for winning too much money), he met fellow card counter Alan Woods, and the pair decided to have a shot at horse racing.

In 1984, Benter and Woods went Hong Kong, starting with a mere $150,000.  The pair relied on their mathematic skill to create a formula for choosing race winners.

When Woods and Benter parted ways, in 1987, Benter refined his computerised probability model.  William Benter is now known as having the best statistical handicap method, assigning numerical values to estimate a horse’s probability of winning.

Benter has acknowledged that the increase in computer technology have helped his team’s workload over the years, while greater experience has also allowed this professional punter more accurate betting.  For example, while Benter started out examining only 16 variables for each horse in a race, it is now alleged that his team score horses on120 different handicapping factors.

William Benter’s pioneering work with computerized betting, his mathematical skill and knowledge, all have made him one of the most successful gamblers the horse racing industry had ever seen.
Benter is generous with his fortune, donating to charitable causes both in Hong Kong and America.  His has even served as president of his Hong Kong Rotary Club.

Thanks to: Worlds Greatest Gamblers

“Never say 'no' to adventures"

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.”

~ Colonel Pott (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

Ian Fleming, the man who created James Bond was a late bloomer who died young.
He finished his first book, Casino Royale, at 44 and succumbed to a heart attack twelve years — and twelve books — later. But what a legacy!

Casino Royal trailer

Read more about Ian Fleming


Thanks to: Laterbloomer

10 Ways to walk the walk

How to walk the walk:

• Learn typical High Roller games like Baccarat, Blackjack and Poker
• Join the best bonus casino.
• Play High Limit or No Limit games. High Stakes count
• Become a VIP member. Enjoy the special treatments
• Wear sunglasses and your best suit. Always

If you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk..