Tony G (born Antanas Guoga on December 17th, 1973 in Kaunas, Lithuania) is a professional poker player, entrepreneur, and politician.
As a child, he was the Rubik's Cube champion of Lithuania before moving to Melbourne, Australia at the age of 11. He has played since the age of 18, and is known for his outlandish table talk and aggressive play. Despite this, many poker professionals and dealers have pointed out that away from the table, Tony is quite personable and easygoing.
Beyond his endeavors at the tables, Tony has also made a reputation for himself in the world of business, having started several high-profile enterprises. In the world of politics, he has held several legislative positions.
Poker Career[]
Although Tony began playing poker at the age of 18, it was only in 2002 at the age of 28 that he began posting results in major live tournaments. Tony had a fifth place finish in the World Poker Tour Euro Finals of Poker 2003, where Howard Lederer refused to shake his hand due to his aggressive table talk during play.[1]
In June 2003, he won back-to-back tournaments in Russia, winning nearly $20,000.
He finished in the money twice at the 2004 World Series of Poker in Seven-card stud and Pot Limit Texas hold 'em tournaments and three months later earned his then biggest tournament money finish in the WPT Grand Prix de Paris 2004 where his second place finish to England's Surinder Sunar earned him $414,478. He finished on the bubble later in the same month at the WPT 2004 Mirage Poker Showdown.
On August 7, 2005 he won the $5,000 No Limit Hold-Em Main Event of the European Poker Championships, earning £260,000 ($456,822.) Later in 2005 he made the final table of the World Speed Poker Open.
In 2006 he won the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II event when his Template:Cards outdrew Mike Matusow's Template:Cards on a board of Template:Cards. He wore a kimono throughout the event to promote poker in Japan. Also in 2006 he finished second to Yosh Nakano while representing Australia in the inaugural Intercontinental Poker Championship, taking down $150,000. True to his reputation, Tony G launched many verbal assaults against his opponents, most notably when he eliminated Russian Ralph Perry in fourth place. Tony's comments were so scathing that it prompted commentator Gabe Kaplan to quip "I think Tony G is speaking more like a Lithuanian than an Australian".[2] Guoga, however, was more respectful of some players, such as Doyle Brunson when he called Doyle his idol after eliminating him.
On 17 November 2006, he won the Betfair Asian Poker Tour event held in Singapore, walking away with $451,700 half of which he indicated he will give to Asian and Australian charities to be nominated by Betfair.
In February 2007, he appeared on the NBC television program Poker After Dark, coming in third place behind winner Phil Ivey. In November of the same year, he won a tournament in Moscow, earning $205,000. In his blog, he says that he left all of his prize money with the officials to give to Russian orphanages, having been inspired to do so by Barry Greenstein's habit of donating all his poker tournament winnings to charity[3].
In 2009, Tony began competing in more high-stakes poker tournaments, like the €25,000 + €500 European Poker Tour High Roller Championship in Monte Carlo in May where he took third place for €420,000. Other large-buyin events where he has experienced success include the August 2021 PokerGo Tour Short Deck $100,000 Super High Roller Bowl in Kyrenia, which he won for $1,196,000, and the Triton Poker Series May 2022 Madrid €100,000 Short Deck Hold'em tourney, where he was the runner-up and collected a prize of €1,305,000.
As of December 2023, Tony G's total live tournament winnings exceed $11.2 million.[4] More than $1.8 million of this total came from 20 cashes in World Series of Poker tournaments, but Tony has not yet earned a WSOP gold bracelet.
Business Dealings[]
Guoga is also the principal owner of a network of high traffic poker information sites, including Pokernews.com, Pokeraffiliateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.[5] He started his own online betting site, known as TonyBet, in 2009 and added poker to the menu in 2013. However, the Betsson Group bought TonyBet in 2016, and the poker room was closed in July 2020[6].
Tony G was involved in the creation of crypto-only poker site Coin Poker in 2017[7], but he has since stepped back from any leadership role in the organization. Nevertheless, he still sometimes plays in big CoinPoker tournaments and cash games.
In 2018, Tony founded the Blockchain Center in Vilnius, Lithuania. In August 2020, he became the CEO of Cypherpunk Holdings, a Toronto-based investment firm that's involved with blockchain technologies.
Political Career[]
Antanas Guoga won a seat in European Parliament in 2014 as part of the Liberal Movement of Lithuania[8]. Though he ran for re-election in 2019, he failed to secure enough of the vote and lost his seat.
In 2020, Tony G ran for the Lithuanian national parliament, the Seimas, as a member of the Liberal Party. He won the election and is now Deputy Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Group for Interparliamentary Relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Notes[]
- ↑ Youtube: Howard Lederer refuses to shake Tony G's hand by Tarik Samman
- ↑ Tony G's blog: Intercontinental Poker Championship
- ↑ Tony G's blog: 2007 Moscow Millions Main Event
- ↑ Hendon Mob tournament results: Tony Guoga
- ↑ SimilarWeb: PokerNews Search and Traffic Analysis
- ↑ ProfessionalRakeback: About TonyBet Poker's closure
- ↑ CoinPoker blog: Tony G backs pre-ICO
- ↑ Mirror: Tony G elected to European Parliament