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The Day I Beat TonyG
TonyG Poker is a brand new website, backed by the larger than life Antanas "Tony G" Guoga. Tony
is a formidable opponent at the poker table, bringing an incredible combination of
pure aggression, intense focus, skill and a mouth that sends shivers through the spines
of mere mortals! His intimidation is legendary and has taken him to many poker championships
and millions of dollars as a professional poker player.
On the other hand I am merely an honest low limit grinder. My aggression is usually mistimed,
my focus is usually distracted by surfing the web, my skill is questionable and my mouth
usually only fires when I cop a horrendous bad beat. I have never been on TV and have no major
poker championships to my name.
One sunny Thursday morning I logged into my new favourite site, TonyG Poker. I love the dealer's choice
game to keep things interesting and I've found the low limit hold'em games relatively soft. I browsed
the lobby for the available games, and spotted a spare seat on a $2/$4 limit hold 'em game. I joined the
table, pulled out $80 and took my seat. I then browsed the table to see if I recognized any of my opponents.
None were familiar until I saw TonyG sitting four seats to my left. I did a double-take and yes it was true.
My first thought was "nah, it must be an imposter", but then I looked at his stack and I haven't seen too many
$2/$4 players with $7,400 in cash in front of them! Wow! I'm sitting in a cash game with Tony G!
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He was unusually quiet (I assume he saves the trash talk for higher limits like $3/$6) but his actions were loud! He was
virtually raising and re-raising every single pot! It didn't matter what cards he had! It was crazy! Some massive pots were being taken down, usually
with only top pair. Tony was raising with air and paying off everything! Wow, is this what it's like to play like a pro?
Of course not. A couple of cheeky comments about Tony's play received a reply of "you can come and play me at $1,000/$2,000 if
you want". Hmmm a quick thought at that proposal made me realise that I'd need to do a bit of a whiparound to even afford the
small blind! We weren't really questioning Tony's play - we knew this was small change for him - Tony was merely providing
some action for some of his low limit players, which was absolutely tremendous and hugely appreciated by the entire table.
After dropping around $150 in a matter of minutes, Tony then felt that his $7,300 stack wasn't enough to handle us and
he felt the need to reload...to a whopping $74,000!! I looked at my $81.75 and wondered whether I
needed to reload to three figures.
(click to enlarge)
Then it came, the hand where I took down Tony G. I was in the cutoff and I open raised with KQo. The button raised, and Tony
caps it from the BB. I reluctantly call and so does the button. Tony probably has trash but the button is a worry. The flop comes
AQ5 rainbow. Tony leads out, I raise, feeling that I am probably in front of Tony and hopefully scare off the button. It works, the
button folds. Tony then re-raises and I wonder if I am really behind. I call. The turn is a 7. He leads out at me and I flat call.
I feel it's 50/50 that I'm either beat or he's just raising with air, so I plan to call him down. Then the river come a K. I have two
pair. Surely I'm in front now? He leads out again, and I go for glory and put in a raise. He thinks for a while. He must have a piece
of it, but he makes the decision to fold it. I pull down a $61 pot off the one and only Tony G! Sure, it's no Rounders style Johnny Chan
high stakes bluff, but hey I can say I took a large pot off Australia's best poker professional in a cash game! Sweet!
The true moral of this story is that we were all very greatful to Tony for the action he provided us low limit players on this day. The
money meant nothing to him, but he gave us his time to provide some action, money, fun and excitement to the low limit games
on his poker site. This clearly shows that he cares for all of the players on his site, no matter what limit or level, and he only wants to bring
enjoyment and action to his games. This is just one of the reasons why we a strong supporters of Australia's Tony G and his poker
site.
If you'd like to try it out for yourself then download the TonyG Poker software and check it
out for yourself!
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