By Sean Chaffin
Playing poker with friends as a teenager has become a common tale among poker players. Maybe a few buddies meet up in a garage and play some dime poker or everyone chips in five bucks for a tournament. Anton Wigg has a similar story, but with a few key differences.
Wigg played soccer and his team had a regular game. A local semi-pro player was also a regular in the game and just seemed to keep winning. Determined to improve, the 32-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden, kept watching this other player – observing his raises, folds, and other intricacies that seemed to have him head and shoulders above Wigg and his teammates.
The more he learned, the more he incorporated some of those skills at the table himself.
“I’m very competitive and I always liked beating games,” he says. “I eventually started almost beating him in the game and he got a little bit pissed since it was his game. So I went to him and asked him if he could actually teach me to play poker and I could see what he was doing. That’s how I learned.”
After receiving a business degree and a brief career in health care, Wigg moved on to poker full time. More than a decade later, he now has $2.9 million in live tournament winnings including several nice wins. The biggest win of his career came in 2010 when he won the EPT Copenhagen Main Event for $672,818.
Wigg added a bit more to his career earnings just a few days ago after winning a $1,100 No Limit Hold’em event here at the LAPC for $25,476, in which he was heads-up with WPT regular Ari Engel. Wigg was among those in the field on Day 1 at the L.A. Poker Classic. Like many players, Wigg was not only excited about the cash but also the trophy that came with the accomplishment.
Smoked him fam ???#LAPC pic.twitter.com/YLdeVq6GFD
— Anton Wigg (@Anton_Wigg) February 27, 2020
“That was really sweet,” he says. “That thing is going to get me laid sooner or later – the trophy itself. It’s sick. It’s really nice looking. I’m going to put it on the mantle. I was actually more thrilled about the trophy than the money I think.”
When not traveling for poker, Vienna, Austria, is now home for Wigg. He chose to leave Sweden about a year ago after the government tightened regulations on online poker.
On the WPT, Wigg has three cashes for $39,695 and is hoping to improve on that this season. In recent months he’s been playing more WPT events, allowing him to see different parts of the U.S. and Canada.
“I think the action is really good,” he says of the WPT. “There’s also a lack of big tournaments in Europe. I don’t think there are that many big tournaments at locations where I want to be. I like people here [in the U.S.], good action, and big prize pools.”
When not moving chips around at a poker table, a fishing rod can often be found in his hands instead – especially a fly rod. His time on the WPT may lead to another nice fishing trip soon.
“I’m a big outdoors guy,” he says. “I’m actually going bass fishing with Jason Koon this summer. “That’s going to be sweet.”
With one trophy already in the U.S. a trophy bass might be fitting as well.
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.
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