A new Finnish documentary series on YouTube (with English subtitles) lets it be known that Finnish poker is about more than Patrik Antonius, but still credits him for putting Finnish poker on the map. Patrik Antonius is more famous in the US than he is in Finland, the makers of Last Call pokeridokumentti contend. (Image: YouTube/Pokersiviut) The four-episode docuseries, “Last Call,” travels around Europe to reveal a pulse of poker shifting away from American soil. Already the show has captured nearly 100,000 views. CardsChat spoke with Miika Anntonen, one of four executive producers on the project (and the lone screenwriter) to learn about the untold story this series is trying to capture.
Filmed on location in Estonia, France, Monaco, Ireland, and, of course, Finland, Last Call lets viewers into the world of high-stakes European poker.
While a decade ago it might have been unthinkable to exclude Las Vegas from any serious poker story, original plans to film in the US were scrapped due to COVID travel restrictions, and Anntonen said he believes it worked out for the better, as not many poker fans know what it takes to make it as a high-stakes European pro.
Working with a five-figure budget, the production isn’t just someone posting an interview recorded on their phone to YouTube.
“We felt like if we’re going to have people like Antonius and Jens Kyllönen (aka “Jeans89″) tell their stories for the first time, we had better do it right,” Antonnen said. “We used three different cameras to shoot every scene and didn’t take any shortcuts.”
(He credits cinematographer Matti Harju for the production value.) What the Finnish started
Though not the first place that comes to mind when people think of poker hotspots, Finland has been home to high-stakes crushers since the early days of the internet. “If you look at the 20-year history of online poker, there’s always been at least one Finn, usually more, at the very top of the food chain,” Anttonen said. “The Negreanus and Hellmuths of the world get most of the media attention, but at the absolute toughest games in the world — […]
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