Patrik Antonius v Rui Cao: The Million Dollar Challenge

Patrik Antonius and Rui Cao are to enter a million dollar challenge. The online duel will take place on PLO, NLHE and 27TD tables, probably during next week.

High stakes pros Patrik Antonius and Rui Cao agreed in a chatbox conversation to enter a heads-up challenge, betting $1 million each. The session will be in PLO, NLHE and 27TD games: the bets are $350,000 in PLO, $350,000 in NLHE and $300,000 in 2-7.

The chat log of the agreement is as follows:

Rui Cao: wanna play a challenge?
Rui Cao: lets say 1M freeezeout NL PLO and deuce?
Patrik Antonius: it depents what kind of
Patrik Antonius: this would be online?
Rui Cao: yes
Patrik Antonius: i would do that
Rui Cao: ok lets say next tuesday?
Rui Cao: so i can wire the money
Rui Cao: ok
Rui Cao: lets do 300 deuce
Rui Cao: 100 BB
Rui Cao: 400 plo
Rui Cao: 10 buy ins
Rui Cao: 200 400
Patrik Antonius: i dont know the day so far i can play but we can agee to do the challenge
Rui Cao: 300 holdem
Rui Cao: can u be sure u can do it?
Rui Cao: so i wire the money
Patrik Antonius: yes i can give you my word on it
Rui Cao: ok 300 at 200 400 nl
Rui Cao: 400 plo
Rui Cao: 300 deuce
Rui Cao: ok?
Patrik Antonius: how about 400 in holdem 300 in deuce and 300 in plo?
Rui Cao: 350 holdem 350 plo
Rui Cao: 300 DEUCE
Rui Cao: its fair i think
Patrik Antonius: ok thats fair
Rui Cao: do you have
Rui Cao: skype
Rui Cao: or whatever so we can discuss
Rui Cao: some things
Patrik Antonius: yes can you get my phone number from someone so i can give you my skype then?
Rui Cao: yep

The two pros have a record of major clashes at the online high stakes tables: their most memorable duel occurred in May, 2011, when Antonius won $800,000 from the Frenchman in a single $500/$1,000 PLO session. They later had a bit of an argument as well as Cao claimed that Antonius had no place in the live Macau high stakes games, for which he was too much of a nit. Antonius then rejected to even begin to argue with him, saying that Cao was simply unable to accept his huge loss.

While both have a huge experience in high stakes games, Antonius has considerably better stats. As an FTP pro he won a total of $11.5 million, but had been a definite winner under his former screen names, like 'Finddagrind', as well. Cao has a seven figure profit on FTP but falls short of this result on PS, where he has turned his $1.4 million profit into a $600,000 loss since mid-2011 under his 'PepperoniF' account.