Antonius Takes $1.1M from FTP; IPO Moves Home and PaddyPower to Offer Odds on Bitcoins

antonius-the-adonis-takes-1-1-million-from-the-table-of-ftpPatrik ‘FindddaGrind’ Antonius cleans up at the FL08 tables at Full Tilt Poker (FTP), to take over $1.15 million from the virtual felt over a period of five days.

The chiseled Fin, who makes Brad Pitt look like Joseph Merrick, is well on track to surpass the great Phil Ivey as the biggest-ever earner on FTP after taking every one to the cleaners in the past week.

The Fin booked a 267-hand session against KPR16 and PostFlopAction to emerge with a $266.6k profit to add to his previous wins of $236.2k, $237.7k, $323k and $116k according to High Stakes Database.

Those wins mean that Antonius has clocked in an impressive $16 million in profits since he started crushing the world at FTP back in Jan 2007. With the master, Phil Ivey, booking a $2.1m downswing on his “Polarizing” account, to take him to $17m in profit, over the same time period, Ivey is now firmly in the Fins sights.

The FTP player’s numbers may be dwindling, but the high stakes cash games action has never been more exciting.

ipo-moves-homeBoylepoker Move the International Poker Open (IPO) to London

In other news, one of Ireland’s favorite sons is moving to old London town. The largest independent bookmaker in Ireland has decided to move its much-loved International Poker Open (IPO) to the United Kingdom.

Aspers Casino in Stratford, which recently hosted the PartyPoker Premier League VI, will also host the first Boylepoker IPO to be held outside of the emerald isle. In 2012, Tom Brady defeated 1,147 other players to take home the $55,712 prize, rubber-stamping its place as one of the largest poker events in Europe.

Ciaran Corbett, Poker Manager at Boylepoker.com said: “Our site is very popular with UK poker players. We like the idea of putting on a full-scale professional poker tournament that the amateur poker player can afford to enter. It’s been a hugely successful formula for us in Ireland and now it’s time we brought it to the United Kingdom.”

The tournament is ideal for the low-roller looking for a chance to hit the big time. With a buy-in of just £200+25 the opportunity to land a big haul for relatively little outlay is huge. The event takes place from the 17th April to 21st April 2013 and it will be a re-entry event.

paddypower-offering-odds-on-the-popularity-of-bitcoinsPaddyPower Offering Odds on the Value of Bitcoins

The marketing enterprise of PaddyPower are at it again, this time jumping on the publicity bandwagon of the virtual currency giant Bitcoin.

The Irish bookmaker is offering 9/4 odds that the virtual currency will be worth more than $500 per throw by the end of 2013. But, that’s not all, you can also get 16/1 that Bitcoin will become legal tender in any country by the end of 2017, and a 100/1 long shot that it will become the national currency of the troubled island of Cyprus by the end of the same timeframe.

A spokesperson for PaddyPower told Finextra: “Admittedly Bitcoins are a bit confusing, but their value seems only to be heading northwards. Not sure you would put your house on it though,” a tongue in cheek shot at the breaking news story that a Canadian man put his house on the market for 5,750 Bitcoins.

Currently CNET reports that the exchange rate is one Bitcoin to every $65.05