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Antanas (Tony G) Guoga At a Glance
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Residence:
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Melbourne, AU
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Birthdate: |
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December 17, 1973
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Career Highlights: |
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1st Place - 2006 Betfair Asian Poker Tour Singapore - NLHE Championship ($451,700)
1st Place - 2005 The European Poker Championships, London ($456,822)
2nd Place - 2004 Grand Prix de Paris ($424,912)
Many other major final table appearances
Well known for being a “bad boy” of poker
Considered one of the most feared players today
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Affiliated Poker Room(s): |
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Tony G Poker
Read our
Tony G Poker review
or pick up our exclusive
Tony G Coupon Code. |
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Personal Website: |
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Tony G Blog
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Products: |
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N/A
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Tony G
Antanas Guoga (better known as Tony G) is one of the most feared players on the felt today. Although he thinks himself as only “talkative” at the tables, many people can think of some other adjectives to describe his style.
The man known as Tony G was born in Kaunas, Lithuania and began playing in poker rooms before the age of 21; using fake IDs. His well known nickname started early from him putting “TONYG” on the waiting lists at poker rooms. At the age of 21, he headed for Vegas with dreams of becoming a professional poker player and winning millions. Either over-estimating himself or under-estimating his opponents he ended up losing hundreds of thousands in his first run to become a professional. He shortly returned to Europe.
Tony G hadn’t returned to give up poker, he returned to work on his game. He started by playing the smaller stake games at local casinos. Eventually, he had worked many leaks out of his game and reportedly was earning in the upwards of $7000 per month playing part time in his local casinos.
In 2001, Tony G started looking at tournaments and loved the break from the grind of cash games. In one of his first major final table appearances he took a bad beat that he, and the poker world, will remember forever. It was down to heads up in a NLHE event at the European WSOP and he looked down at QQ. He got all the chips in the middle and his opponent reluctantly turned over Q5o. The flop gave no help, but the turn and river brought running 5 5 – for one of the worst beats imaginable!
Since starting his tournament circuit run, Tony G has earned around $2,000,000 and more from minor tournaments around the world. What is this style? Fear and aggression.
As stated earlier, many people fear Tony G. Tony G has an impeccable skill of getting under other players skin in a very strong manner; some even refer to it as “verbal harassment.” Tony G’s popularity and unique style was shown to millions around the world when he took second in the televised World Poker Tour event, Grand Prize de Paris and walked away nearly a cool half million. He also has many other 6-figure pay days and is a force in the poker world today.
Even though Tony G can get out of line at times, he claims he really is a nice guy and it's all just a part of the game in his blog:
I have a great time when I play poker. And I’m known as a ‘trash talker’ by many, that is part of my game. I use my mouth as well as my poker skills to win when I’m in a competition. I’m really a soft spoken, warm hearted individual and never hold any malice or spite for anyone. Even though I’m happy to bust you out of a tournament, I’m genuinely sorry that you went broke and had to leave. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense to you but that’s how I feel about the play of the game. Because once you are out, you have to leave and wait for the next tournament. I hate waiting for the next tournament and I believe that you do too.
[From http://tonyg.pokerworks.com/]
Tony G had a love for online poker in its infancy, and had jumped in the trend starting a few of his own rooms. Most recently, he launched his own room based upon his persona, Tony G Poker. You can find him playing online at his room, and has also been spotted at Full Tilt as “Tony G” and Ultimate Bet as “wraptduck.”
Whether you like him or not, you can not deny Tony G’s results. As a man who would not give up his passion, even after going broke countless times, he has become one of the world’s best today.
Coming Misspellings: Antanna Gouga, Antanas Goga, Tony Gouga, Tony Guaga, Tony Goga
Learn more about Tony G at Tony G Poker.
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