Antanas Guoga, better known as the loud-mouthed Tony G, has more than 150,000 reasons to be as obnoxious as ever after he cleaned up at the PartyPoker sponsored “Big Game V” to the tune of £150,450. Usually held in London, this edition of the Big Game was held in the Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, United Kingdom, and it was a roaring success. The Big Game is a one-of-a-kind event, a cash game that last for at least 48-hours.
A whole host of well-known names and faces made their way to Nottingham to take part in this illustrious fixture including Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Luke “Full_Flush” Schwartz, Mike Matusow and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, though it was the PartyPoker sponsored pro, Tony G who walked away with the most profits and by a long margin. Right up until the end it looked as if actress-turned-poker player Jennifer Tilly was going to take the award for the most profitable player, her £66,925 looking unassailable. However, in no-limit Hold’em games can turn completely on their heads in just a single hand and that is exactly what happened in the Big Game.
In the hand Kristijonas Andrulis opened the betting with a raise to £150 but Rob Yong, one of the owners of the DTD club, made it £700 to play holding QhQs. A couple of folds later and Martins Adeniya made the call with AdKd only to see Tony G announce he was all in, a massive overbet. The action folded to Yong and he eventually called but Adeniya needed more thinking time. Tony G constantly talked to him and whatever he was saying must have worked because Adeniya made the call, only to look disgusted when Tony G flipped over AhAs! The flop came down 9h-2s-3c, further increasing the Lithuanian’s lead and when the 9d hit the turn Adeniya was drawing dead and Yong to two remaining queens. The 8h on the river completed the hand and saw the monster pot shipped to Tony G. By the time the allotted time was up, Tony G had won a staggering £150,450, meaning he was by far the most profitable player of the 48-hours.
Tony G is a larger-than-life character who has the opinion of the poker world split into two camps, those who believe he is a top player and the other thinking he is just a rich fish. I am of the elk that he is a good player, after all he has won more than $4,300,000 from live poker tournaments despite never cashing for more than $1,000,000 in a single one of them and is well respected in the large buy-in cash games around the world.
