You may know him as Tony G, but the poker bad boy was born Antanas Guoga in Lithuania. As a child he was a Rubik’s Cube champion before he moved to Autralia at the age of 11. Since he was 18 he has played poker and is known for his outlandish table talk and aggressive play. Despite this seemingly negative reputation, many poker pros and dealers have pointed out that Tony G is quite personable and easy-going away from the table.
Among his poker tournament finishes, Tony G had a fifth place finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003. In June of that same year he won back-to-back poker tournaments in Russia. He also finished in the money twice at the 2004 World Series of Poker in seven-card stud and pot limit Texas Hold’em. Three months later he had his biggest poker tournament money finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2004 with a second place finish over England’s Surinder Sunar. In 2006 Tony G won the World Poker Tour Bad Boys of Poker II when his 10,8 of diamonds outdrew Mike Matusow’s pocket kings.
True to his reputation, the poker pro has launched many verbal assaults against his opponents. Most notable was when he eliminated Russian Ralph Perry in fourth place at the Intercontinental Poker Championship in Australia. Among Tony G’s includes were: “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.”
However, it does seem that Tony G dumbs down his bad boy poker pro rep when he’s away from the poker table. In his blog, he says that he left all his prize money from a tournament win in Moscow to Russian orphanages, having been inspired to do so by Barry Greenstein’s habit of donating all of his poker tournament earnings to charity.
As of 2009, Tony G’s total live poker tournament winnings exceed US$3 million. His 14 cashes at the World Series of Poker account for US$439,897 of those winnings. He is also the principal owner of a network of high traffic information websites, including Pokernews.com, Pokeraffiiateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.
