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Tony G
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Antanas Guoga (born December 17, 1973 in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR), more commonly known as Tony G, is a professional poker player.
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 poker 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.
He had a fifth place finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003, where Howard Lederer refused to shake his hand due to his aggressive table talk during play.
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.
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Encyclopedia
Antanas Guoga (born December 17, 1973 in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR), more commonly known as Tony G, is a professional poker player.
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 poker 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.
He had a fifth place finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003, where Howard Lederer refused to shake his hand due to his aggressive table talk during play.
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 outdrew Mike Matusow's on a board of . 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 G lectured Ralph Perry, specifically stated, "Look at this, look how he's doing, look how he's playing, look how ugly this is. You're a professional player and I can do this to you. You're a terrible player. This is disgraceful." 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". 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.
As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,000,000.
Guoga is also the principal owner of a network of high traffic poker information sites, including Pokernews.com, Pokeraffiliateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.
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