Antanas Guoga

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.

Later, Guoga started working as an assistant to Australian Mortgage Brokers chief Bill Buchanan. 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 managing their investment portfolios.

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 an international betting company, TonyResort a recreation and amusement park in Anupriškės, and TonySports, TonyStreets 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.

Family

Since 2014, Guoga has been married to Aistė Šlapokaitė, a former psychology student and a photo model for clothing brands like Armani Jeans, Prada and Max Mara. Guoga and Šlapokaitė met during her 30th birthday celebrations in a Vilnius night club. Together they have a son (born in 2015 in Brussels) and are expecting a second child in 2016. Guoga also has a son and two daughters from previous relationships.

Politics

Guoga was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group in the European Parliament until 4 October 2016. He became a member of the European People's Party which is the biggest party in the Parliament. He works on a range of digital policies in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO). 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.

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."

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.

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

In 2016, Guoga was named Chief Investment Officer to the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius.

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.

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". Guoga was more respectful of some other players, such as Doyle Brunson, calling Doyle his idol after eliminating 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. 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 telling his opponents that he has a "big heart", 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. In January 2008, Tony received the Shining World Leadership Award in Melbourne Australia. As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $4,000,000. His 14 cashes at the WSOP account for $429,897 of those winnings. 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.

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

Other sports

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. 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.

Achievements