Antoine Saout
Not very long ago, the world’s newest poker phenom was just another young engineering student who thought poker might be a fun game to play.
Today, Antoine Saout is a sponsored Team Everest player and one of poker’s rising superstars, finishing 3rd in the 2009 WSOP Main Event ($3,479,485). Proving his success in Las Vegas was not “beginner’s luck”, Antoine also final tabled at the 2009 WSOP Europe, taking home €114,228 and finishing in 7th place.
Antoine’s journey to poker fame and fortune began in the spring of 2007. He was intrigued when he saw the game played on TV, and his sister had recently begun playing for free online at Everest Poker.
Antoine followed her lead and opened an Everest account under the screen name tonio292. He played for free over the next few months, concentrating entirely on learning the essentials and developing his basic strategy.
Once Antoine made his initial deposit, he began playing tournaments with buy-ins of $5–10, eventually entering satellites to live events. He soon posted consistent, in-the-money finishes, winning games and ranking among the top players on Everest Poker’s MTT Leaderboard.
From bad beat...
After several months of building his skills, strategy and bankroll, Antoine decided it was time to start qualifying for live events.
"The Spanish Poker Tour was where I learned to play live tournament poker. The 2008 SPT Aranjuez was a great experience. At the end of Day 2, I only had 8000 chips. The average was 20,000. The next day, I got good hands and started doubling up, all the way to 52,000 chips."
"After a couple of very bad beats, I was knocked out right on the bubble, but the entire SPT experience made me hungry to play more live poker."
Antoine decided his main goal of 2009 would be to gain more live poker experience. He began playing €2/€4 cash games in a local casino as preparation for the Dublin Deep Stack. He qualified for the SPT Castelleon and SPT Sevilla.
He climbed the WSOP Steps online at Everest Poker and secured his entry into not only WSOP Side Event #54, but also the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.
For a young man from Brittany, France with little live poker experience, qualifying for poker’s biggest and most celebrated event is a major accomplishment. The former department and regional pétanque champion, however, took it a bit further.
... to glory
At his very first WSOP, Antoine Saout outlasted 6,400 players—including the biggest names in professional poker— to make the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.
"I do not think I ever saw it coming, at least not in the beginning. I took it all day by day. My main goal was just to be one of 3–4 Everest players to finish in the money, especially because of the $1 Million Match."
As the tournament went on, Antoine’s goals continued to progress.
"Once I was in the money, it became about finishing in the top 200. Then when I had made it, my goal became the top 100. When there were a few tables remaining, it was a matter of thinking, okay, 23 left, 22, 21 and so on," says Antoine.
"It is difficult for me to describe what it felt like, making the Final Table. It was such a feeling of accomplishment. And then the other players, the nine of us, we just kept congratulating one another."
"There can be a real feeling of togetherness in poker, even among competitors."
One of only two European players to make the November Nine, Antoine was one of 19 French players to cash at the 2009 WSOP Main Event. Not only was he the first French player to Final Table since 1998, he is now the most successful Frenchman in Main Event history.
"We now have more and more players with international recognition, and there were many French players who finished in the Top 100–200 of the Main Event," says Antoine.
"The popularity of French poker is moving up not only in France, but all over the world."
