Anton Wigg is one of those blokes that other bloke’s look at and secretly wish they were him. Stick him in a boy band and he will sell records and be stuck on the walls of teenage girls all over the world, stick him in the chair on Mastermind and he walks away with the trophy without a bead of sweat hitting his chiseled face, stick him a European Poker Tour (EPT) event and he will go on and win it…I mean the man is dating a Royal Flush Girl for Christ sakes.
So what does the man who seemingly has everything do with his life? We caught up with him during the Prague Poker Festival to find out.
How was your final week of the Prague Poker Festival?
Extremely busy to say the least. It started during the last days of EPT-Prague, where – after busting the EPT-Main Event – I jumped in the €10k High Roller. I wasn’t even planning on playing it, but the tournament was filled with fairly “soft” players so I changed my mind. I started at a pretty good table but got moved right away to probably the worst table in the tournament. I played really well and managed to get my chips in as a favourite against Benny Spindler. The river wasn’t in my favour though…out I went.
wham, bam thank you Mam
The next day I played four tournaments. I started at lunch with a €2k turbo where I pretty much got to play AA and KK and wham, bam thank you Mam I was out. I then registered for the €1k NLHU where I met a fairly inexperienced player. But after the dust settled he was the winner and I was standing there feeling a bit robbed after outplaying him for the entire match. I grabbed a bite to eat with a friend and registered for a €1k where I got off to a good start but couldn’t keep it up in the later stages of the tournament. The last tournament of the day was a €1k turbo, I won’t bore you with another tale of woe.
Cash Before Bed? Yes Please!
Still feeling fresh, and playing well, I decided to play some cash-games before bed. As I walked up they just started a 500/1k CZK (€20/40) PLO game with some ok – but not great – players. The first hand I play I stack a guy for a full 100k buy-in. The second hand I play I stack another guy for 150k and a couple of hours later I find myself up 625k. I then played a hand I wasn’t really happy with and the game is starting to get a bit worse so I decide to take my profit and go to bed. That was one of the craziest days of poker I’ve ever had, nice to end on a high-note!
Show Some Support
The next day was the last day of the EPT-Prague festival and one of the guys I lived with – Ramzi Jelassi – was the chip leader with eight players left! I slept in and went down to support him. Some other friends joined in, but you can only watch one table of live poker for so long. There was a €2k turbo-6-max running right next to the final table. I hopped in that and a few hours later I ended up in 3rd place for €18k!
I went up to grab some dinner at the restaurant and met up with a big group of Swedes that were on their way to watch Ramzi’s final table. I joined up with them, had a few beers, a few laughs and played a bit of 6-cards while watching the FT play out. It was all over at 3a.m. and we were all knackered – especially Ramzi who had won the thing. I waited for him to finish up with the photos, interviews etc. and then we went back to our place for bed and an early flight home to Stockholm on Sunday.
Did you squeeze any online poker in?
I arrived home from Prague on the Sunday and after grabbing a bite to eat got straight into the tournament grind. I think I played pretty well. Not my A-game perhaps, but still a solid, winning game. However, I had one of my worst Sundays ever with just a few cashes and nothing big at all. That’s just the way it goes sometimes, but it really hurts the ego to play a full Sunday schedule and just not do anything in any tournament. In the next few days I played three tournament sessions and one two-hour PLO cash game.
Coming Up In Part Two
In Part Two we find out if Anton’s week was a profitable one or not, and also hear him dissect a hand he played against Benny Spindler and Steve O’Dwyer.
Lee Davy is a writer from Ogmore Vale in South Wales. You can follow his views and opinions through his blog at or on Twitter