ABOUT

miikka anttonen
about the author

Miikka Anttonen (born December 19, 1986 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish professional poker player with $2,400,000 in career earnings and a world championship title under his belt. Miikka is one of only three Finns who have appeared on the cover of Card Player.

Miikka has also received worldwide recognition for his writing. His blogs have been read millions of times, and his articles have been published in over 20 different magazines in several different languages. His three-part memoir, Once A Gambler, was published in 2016, and the book has frequented Amazon's bestseller lists ever since its release.

ONCE A GAMBLER
about the memoir

Miikka has played poker for a living since 2008, a lifestyle that most of us can only dream of. But below the surface he's lived a completely different life -- one plagued by addiction, turbulent relationships, insecurity, and costly mistakes. In his three-part painfully honest memoir Once A Gambler, Miikka tells the entire story for the first time.

Once A Gambler provides the reader with a unique view of both sides of the gambling world, as Miikka goes from dropping out of high school to jet-setting around the world, nights on park benches to $100,000 paydays, and from appearing on magazine covers and talk shows to becoming the black sheep of the entire poker-playing community.

part 1: the escape
THE EARLY DAYS

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Miikka Anttonen started gambling when he was ten years old, when most kids were playing with Pokémon cards and PlayStations. Throughout his teens, he spent long nights at the library analyzing sports betting odds, resulting in many large wins - but on the flip side, his "hobby" also led to him dropping out of high school. The Escape is a journal of those early days discovering gambling, awkward prom memories, growing pains, and that magical night when Miikka first found his calling, at twenty years old, in the most unlikely of places.

The Escape takes the reader to many of the most exciting cities in the world, as the narrative takes place in metropolises such as Sydney, Helsinki, Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Celebrity cameos include Paris Hilton, Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius, Nightwish, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jeff Lisandro, Jens Kyllönen, and many others.

Part 2: the drift
The downfall

It was supposed to be a year dreams are made of. Toasting with the girl of his dreams on his twenty-second birthday, Miikka is looking forward to a breakout year. He's just scored a big sponsorship deal, he writes the most successful blog in the country, and he's landed his dream job on the side. In that moment, not one person in the world could've convinced Miikka that 2009 would, in fact, be the worst year of his life. The Drift is a mesmerizing chronicle about compulsive gambling, loss, grief, heartache, and degeneracy, told through the eyes of a man on a mission to chase his dreams at all costs. The Drift might break your heart, but it's a must-read story for anyone interested in the dark side of gambling ‒ or, really, anyone who's ever regretted a choice in the past.

Celebrity cameos include Phil Galfond, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Selbst, Phil Ivey, Henna Kalinainen, Anna Abreu, The Dudesons, Peter Eastgate, Johnny Lodden, William Thorson, and many others.