Antanas Guoga

Antanas "Tony G" Guoga
Antanas (Tony) Guoga at #SWITCH! 2015
Member of the European Parliament
for Lithuania, ALDE Group
Assumed office
July 1, 2014
Preceded by Leonidas Donskis
Personal details
Born (1973-12-17) December 17, 1973
Kaunas, Lithuania
Nationality Lithuanian
Political party Lithuanian Liberal Movement
Residence Kaunas, Lithuania
Profession Poker Player, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
Website

Antanas Guoga (born December 17, 1973 in Kaunas, Lithuania), more commonly known as Tony G, is a Lithuanian-Australian politician, businessman, professional poker player, and philanthropist. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Movement,[1] as well as Public CIO to the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius.

Biography

Guoga spent his childhood in Kaunas and in the Alytus district (Kalesninkai) in Lithuania. When he was 11 years old, he moved to Australia. Guoga lived in Melbourne where he graduated from school, and had various jobs, including repairing sewing machines and washing cars.[2]

Later, Guoga started working as an assistant to Australian Mortgage Brokers chief Bill Buchanan. Guoga has good logical thinking and aptitude for mathematics. Because of this, he studied accounting and finance at college.

In 1993 he was employed by an investment bank in Hong Kong managed by CitiBank. His responsibilities included attracting new customers and their investment portfolio management.

Following that, Guoga successfully invested in a news portal, and in Rate Detective life insurance company in Australia. In addition, he developed a trading business in London.

In Lithuania he invested in real estate and internet projects, TonyBet[3] an international betting company, TonyResort[4] a recreation and amusement park in Anupriškės, and TonySports,[5] TonyStreets[6] an online sports and leisure store. Guoga also owns an insurance business in Australia. Today, more than 500 jobs have been created in the companies in which he has invested. Over 300 of them are in Lithuania.

Guoga is married to Lithuanian model Aistė Šlapokaitė.[7]

Politics

Guoga is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group in the European Parliament. He works on a range of digital policies in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).[8] Guoga is actively involved in a number of Digital Single Market topics. Being an entrepreneur himself, Guoga works for better conditions for European businesses, especially in the technology sector. These conditions include smarter regulations, less red tape, and policies that encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.[9]

In 2015 Guoga was chosen as the Lithuanian representative in the POLITICO 28 list. The European affairs weekly newspaper chose one person from each of the European Union's 28 member-states who is "shaping, shaking and stirring Europe."[10]

Guoga has been elected as the vice-chairman of the European Parliament delegation to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, appointed as a member of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, a substitute member of the delegation for relations with Switzerland and Norway in the EU-Iceland Joint Parliamentary Committee and in the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. He is also a substitute member in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL).

Guoga is Coder Dojo and entrepreneurship education ambassador in Lithuania. In 2016 he plans to launch Coder Dojo movement in Lithuania and to organise more than 30 programming clubs for 7–17 years old youth in the country.[11]

In 2015 he organized #SWITCH, the biggest ICT and entrepreneurship event in the Baltics. This event attracted approximately 6000 participants, including 120 speakers from 16 countries. Among them was Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip and representatives of tech leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Allegro. In total, more than 21 European and international companies took part at the two-day event, which featured dedicated parts for youth, professionals, young entrepreneurs, as well as a technology zone. www.switchit.lt[12]

One of the companies that attended #SWITCH in 2015 was international transportation brand Uber (company), whose representatives were so impressed by the business environment in Lithuania that only a month after the event, with Guoga's guidance, the company started a new branch located in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city.

In 2016, Guoga was named Chief Investment Officer to the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius. His job will be to use his experiences such as working in IMCO and developing #SWITCH to build relationships with companies and have them invest in Vilnius. The goal is to help Lithuania thrive economically and have Vilnius become an investment capital of Europe.[13]

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.

Guoga was second in the list of the Lithuanian Liberal Movement in the elections to the European Parliament 2014, and was elected as the MEP with 97,907 votes ending on top of the list.[14]

Poker

As a child, Guoga 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 frequent intimidation of his opponents. He had a fifth-place finish in the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003. 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 10♦ 8♦ outdrew Mike Matusow's K♠ K♥ on a board of 8♠ 10♠ 2♥ 9♥ Q♣. 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 started to provoke Perry when he was deciding how to play his hand before the flop. When Perry called Tony G's all-in with a worse hand, Tony G proceeded to ridicule and lecture him. 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" and "Tony G could singlehandedly reignite the Cold War".[15] Guoga was more respectful of some other players, such as Doyle Brunson, wtom Guoghe calledhing him.

In November 2006, he won the 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.[16] 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. Often suggesting to his opponents that he has a "Big Heart", in his blog he stays true to this assertion. Tony 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.[17] In January 2008, Tony received the Shining World Leadership Award in Melbourne Australia.[18] As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $4,000,000.[19] His 14 cashes at the WSOP account for $429,897 of those winnings.[20] Guoga is also the principal owner of a network of high traffic poker information sites, including Pokernews.com, Pokeraffiliateworld.com and Pokerworks.com.

On February 23, 2010, in Vilnius Guoga established the Lithuanian Poker Federation.[21]

In 2014, Guoga confirmed that he will not be returning to professional poker.[22]

Other sports

Guoga with Lithuania men's national basketball team

Guoga is currently a major sponsor of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. 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. The team was chosen for the tournament, and won the bronze medal with TONYBET printed on their jerseys.[23] He was the national basketball team's manager from 2010 until 2012 and served as the vice-president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. He was also the main sponsor of BC Prienai, a professional basketball club.

In 2014, Guoga became the vice-president of the Lithuanian Rowing Federation.[24]

Achievements

References

  1. ↑ Giovanni Angioni. "Tony G Elected To European Parliament: "Today We Made History!"". pokernews.com.
  2. ↑ "Antanas Guoga neslepia: "Buvau blogas mokinys"". lrytas.lt. 2 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Statymai ir Sporto Lažybos Internetu, gyvai - TonyBet,". TonyBet.
  4. ↑ "Home - Tony Resort". tonyresort.lt.
  5. ↑ "SIL.lt". SportClothes.
  6. ↑ "TonyStreets - Titulinis". tonystreets.lt.
  7. ↑ "Antanas Guoga savo mylimąją Aistę nusivedė ir prie altoriaus". lrytas.lt. 17 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Antanas GUOGA". europa.eu.
  9. ↑ European Voice interview with Antanas Guoga MEP. Vimeo.
  10. ↑ http://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28/antanas-guoga/
  11. ↑ https://www.siliconrepublic.com/portfolio/2015/12/01/coderdojo-europe-mep-ambassadors
  12. ↑ "Antanas Guoga SWITCH atidaryme: arba išnyksime, arba tapsime pažangiausia valstybe". Mokslas.it. 8 October 2015.
  13. ↑ http://www.antanasguoga.lt/naujienos/naujienos/antanas-guoga-will-help-attract-new-investments-to-vilnius-1296.htm
  14. ↑ Jurgita Lapienytė (26 May 2014). "Liberalų sąjūdžio pirmininkas Eligijus Masiulis: švenčiame istorinę pergalę". 15min.lt.
  15. ↑ Tony G's Blog: Intercontinental Poker Championship
  16. ↑ Betfair Asian Poker Tour: Tony Guoga wins Betfair Asian Poker Tour Main Event
  17. ↑ Tony G's blog: 2007 Moscow Millions Main Event
  18. ↑ Mr. Tony Guoga - An Accomplished Poker Player with a Big Heart
  19. ↑ "Antanas Guoga: Hendon Mob Poker Database". The Hendon Mob Poker Database.
  20. ↑ World Series of Poker Earnings, worldseriesofpoker.com
  21. ↑ "LSPF veiklos strategija - LSPF – Lietuvos sportinio pokerio federacija". lspf.lt.
  22. ↑ "Europarlamentaro kėdę iškovojęs Antanas Guoga profesionaliai pokerio tikrai nebežais". 15min.lt. 27 May 2014.
  23. ↑ Winn, Luke (August 15, 2011). "Lithuania Calling". Sports Illustrated 115 (6): 52–56.
  24. ↑ "Antanas Guoga tapo Lietuvos irklavimo federacijos viceprezidentu". 15min.lt/sportas. 28 March 2014.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 15, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.