Tony G

Everyone knows this tell it like it is kind of guy as Tony G, but he was born Antanas Guoga, December 17, 1973 in Kaunas, Lithuania. Known throughout the poker community as one of the brightest crayons in the poker player box, Tony G has managed to amass himself over four million dollars in poker tournament winnings.

Although his passion for poker is great, it wasn’t always his game of choice. When he was just a little boy, he played chess in a gifted school for chess players in the Soviet Union. Tony has always been an incredibly smart person proving that at a young age by earning himself the Rubik’s Cube championship in his hometown of Lithuania. If anyone has tried to solve one of these puzzles, you’ll know how brain racking that can be.

At the age of 11, he and his family moved from Soviet ruled Lithuania, to Australia where he picked up basketball. After playing ball for a while, Tony stumbled upon the game of poker and from there, it was history. He began playing in high stakes games at the young age of 15 and began to improve his skills at the table. Soon, he was better than many of the other players and earned the respect of all he played with. When he got a little older, Tony moved to Hong Kong for a short time where he made a living as a dealer.

Before he was of legal age to gamble in Vegas, Tony has built a massive $200k plus bankroll and decided to head to the US where he would take on Las Vegas. There was just one tiny problem- he wasn’t of legal age to gamble. So off he went with a fake I.D. and pure determination to hit Sin City. When he got there, he soon realized after losing his entire bankroll that he needed to take his game to the next level. He headed back to Australia with one thing in mind- to better his game.

Tony moved around a bit for a little while ending up in London for a short time before moving on to Vienna, Austria. That is where he began to really blossom as a professional poker player and also where he got his nickname, Tony G. When listing himself on the poker waiting lists, he wrote Tony G and the name just stuck. After playing for a while, he got so good that no one wanted to play with him because they knew he would take their money. That’s when he discovered online poker as an alternative to live cash games.

Without having to visit the casinos and wait on a long list where no one wanted him, he could still play the high stakes games he loved. With the new millennia came his newfound love of poker and he stuck with it to become one of the best. While playing online, Tony decided to utilize the internet to form poker related networks that would make him money. He started the websites PokerNews.com, Pokeraffiliateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.

After mastering the skill of poker, Tony decided it was time to try out the tournament scene. His first live tournament was in 2001 during the first ever European World Series of Poker. During that event he suffered one of the worst bad beats he’d ever had. After going heads up for the championship title, the deciding hand had Tony holding pocket queens. His opponent held Q-5. The flop came and all was well until the turn and river brought fives to the table effectively costing him the very first WSOPE title ever awarded.

 He ultimately recovered from the astonishing bad beat in 2002, when he went on to claim victory at the World Heads Up Omaha Championship beating Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott for the title. Although his poker websites kept him busy, Tony managed to make it to 10 final tables in 2003 alone including the Aviation Club stop of the World Poker Tour, the European Championship and the Five Diamond Poker Classic.

Since then Tony has accomplished many other feats in poker tournaments all over the world including a fifth place finish at the 2010 Aussie Millions. He even has his own poker room called Tony G Poker. He is a member of Team Party for PartyPoker.com and is looking forward to a bright future as a poker pro which includes his site merging with PartyPoker’s network.