Antanas Guoga

Antanas Guoga (born 17 December 1973), more commonly known as Tony G, is a Lithuanian-Australian businessman, poker player, politician and philanthropist.

In May 2016, Guoga was the temporary leader of the Liberal Movement following the bribery scandal that prompted Eligijus Masiulis to step down after potentially corrupt activities.

Guoga lived in Melbourne, where he graduated from school, and had various jobs, including repairing sewing machines and washing cars.

In November 2020 he was elected to the Labour Party Group in the Lithuanian national parliament: the Seimas,[3][4] Main areas of engagement: Legislation and parliamentary scrutiny Activities: Law-making, including consideration of draft legal acts, assessment of legislative proposals and submission of conclusions to the Seimas, drawing of conclusions regarding international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania and other foreign policy matters considered by the Seimas; Contribution to shaping of international trade and development cooperation policy; Debates on representation of the Seimas at international organisations, submission of recommendations concerning the activities of the Seimas delegations, co-ordination of activities of the groups for inter-parliamentary relations; parliamentary scrutiny of the ministries and other governmental agencies implementing foreign policy, submission of proposals and recommendations on the improvement of their activities; Cultivation and development of relations, in co-operation with governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Among them was Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip, Vytenis Andriukaits, EC Commissioner and representatives of tech leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber, Allegro, Dash, Dell, Oath, Nasdaq, Mastercard, Tele2[9] In 2016–2017, Guoga was Chief Investment Officer to the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius.

[10] Guoga was nominated as a candidate for the European parliamentary elections at the summer congress of the Liberal Movement in the last week of June 2013.

[15] He finished in the money twice at the 2004 World Series of Poker in Seven-card stud and Pot Limit Texas hold 'em tournaments.

[21] In 2006, he won the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II event when his 10♦ 8♦ outdrew Mike Matusow's K♠ K♥ on a board of 8♠ 10♠ 2♥ 9♥ Q♣.

True to his reputation, Tony G launched many verbal assaults against his opponents, most notably when he eliminated Russian Ralph Perry in fourth place.

[25] In February 2007, he appeared on the NBC television program Poker After Dark, coming in third place behind winner Phil Ivey.

[27] Often telling his opponents that he has a "big heart", Guoga claims 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.

[34] In October 2019, Guoga had a fourth place finish in the € 250,000 No Limit Hold'em - Super High Roller event at the 2019 WSOP Europe in Rozvadov.

[35] In August 2021, Guoga won a $100,000 No Limit Short Deck Hold'em event at the Super High Roller Bowl in Kyrenia for $1,196,000.

When the country's national team failed to directly qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and had to apply for a wild-card entry, he paid a large share of the application fee of €500,000.

[43] Since 2014, Guoga has been married to Aistė Šlapokaitė,[46] a former psychology student and a photo model for clothing brands like Armani Jeans, Prada and Max Mara.