WPT Anchor Marianela Pereyra sat down with Tony G to talk about his role in the poker world, his infamous outbursts at WPT Grand Prix de Paris while playing against eventual champion Surinder Sunar and his real thoughts on Phil Hellmuth’s skill level.
Tony G was born in Lithuania where he was a Rubik’s Cube national champion (we’ll just cite Wikipedia for that one) before moving to Australia when he was 11. Poker came early to Tony G’s life as he started playing at the age of 18, but his first major poker tournament cashes didn’t arrive until about 10 years later when the tournament cashes started pouring in all over Europe. In 2004, Tony G cashed in three different WPT events, including the aforementioned WPT Grand Prix de Paris where he racked up his highest cash to date, finishing second to England’s Surinder Sunar and berating him constantly in the process.
What has followed these breakout few years is a career peppered with some controversy (“Get on ya bike!”), a lot of success at the tables that has earned him almost $5 million in career tournament winnings, quite a bit of charity work and donations, business enterprises (including PokerNews.com) and an entrance into the sports world as a main sponsor of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation and their national team manager.
To say that Tony G is a colorful character in the poker community would be an understatement. Watch the video above to get an idea of what makes him click and make sure to tune in this Sunday at 8pm and 11pm on FSN to catch the full WPT episode as we crown a new WPT Champion.