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