Tony G! What a guy!

I yesterday saw the WPT video "Bad Boys of poker II" with Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth and others.. But the winner and the most interesting guy of all was Tony G from Australia! Unbelievable guy! Mike the mouth was a little scared boy in front of him.. He speaks almost in every hand, make the others getting nervous but he is always concentrated to his game and plays great offensive poker... I really enjoyed him! Great guy and poker player as well..

Definately.

Despite all his chat and his aggresive play, he is perhaps surprising a very solid player. I've seen him lay down some monster hands (at the right time), that other lesser players would struggle to put down.

Glad he made a WSOP final table. He deserves it.

Welly

He won the European championship last September $250,000 in London and is (or was, haven't been for a while) involved with Pokerchamps site - where i happened to play him one day on a .25/.50c limit ring game.

Saw the name and thought 'yeah sure' but it really was him!! - proof? well he said everyone on the table would get $25 in their account - and so it appeared lol

He talks as much on line as he does at the tables as well, seems an ok guy but does get carried away sometimes and did overstep the line i think in series 2 of the WPT when in France.

Can play anything, does play anything and has done quite well from it.

IanT

I didn't know that was involved with Pokerchamps but i know for sure that he has his own poker room TonyGpoker!! I have seen it and it is actually pretty good. I don't know if i can give the link but pokernews has a preview.. I think he plays twice a day online over there.. I would really like to meet him at a table!

The only time I've seen him was at the WPT in France awhile back, and I thought he was an ass. Skilled player? Sure. Rude jerk? Absolutely. IMO the kind of behavior he displayed at the game is deplorable. You could see he was putting a few on tilt though...which must have been his game plan.

He must of tilted thousands of guys with his patter. Always amusing to see a guy return from a break with earplugs in

Hmm, I guess he's a pretty good player but I can't stand him insulting people especially with the damn british accent a grade A asshat in my book.

I like his banter which isn't wrong but he does step over the line quite a bit with the insults, no need to insult people to get thier goat(that is just down right rude).

Saw him on the telly a week or so ago playing headsup & he was suprisingly gracious when he lost a hand or in the end the match. One of the commentators mentioned that he was an arrogant ass only when he won. Maybe we could get Rob to work with him on losing with style.

Isn't his accent a mix of greek/cypriot and australian?

This guy makes Americans look good. And that's a damn hard thing to do!

He was way too rude in WPT France. Biggest jackass I've seen in a long time.

His accent i would say is Australian -

He was born in Lithuania (an old part of Russia) but was brought up in Australia.

Which would explain the confident / competitive / arrogance (delete where applicable } you see on the tables.

IanT

I can't believe there are those of you who actually like Tony G. He is just a bad player in all respects. Yes he puts the guys off at the table. He is a loony. He insults everyone.

To what cause...

How many great players are there out there. Hundreds right. How many act like Tony G? Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth...not really. I would guess to say there is only one G.

You can be a great player without the loser mentallity of G. He just brings the game down.

Enjoy the game, play hard and be yourself...but don't envy a guy like Tony G. The game is doomed if you do.

Really guys, who cares what kind of accent he has?? A jerk is a jerk no matter where they're from.

I AGREE, i dont like him either,, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. buck

I've heard he's the coolest guy away from the table. As far as I can tell, he has no symptoms that cause his rudeness like ADHD or inflated ego (IE: Matusow & Hellmuth).

So I was thinking. If someone said "OK. In order to win this half-million dollar tournament, you have to be a total jerk because your opponents' skill is about equal to yours and you have try to tilt them.", would you do it?

I think I might. The possible $500K just might turn me into an ass at the table. So Tony G. may be a jerk, but I think he's pretty smart.

Lol... Sounds greek to you? Cause i am Greek and when i am hearing Tony G think is Japanese/Scotish..

Id say hes got the biggest mouth out of all, bigger than Hellmuth or Matusow. Tough player, but bigger mouth

The impression I get of him is that he's a solid player, with an annoying table talk act to give him an advantage... sure, we like to have a pleasant game at the tables, but in reality at a major tournament, particularly the later stages, people are there to win money, and so long as its within the rules, you can be as much of an ass as you like.
It does mean that he's less likely to have lots of people wanting to buy branded merchandise off him, and he's less likely to get commentating deals or the like, so he'll lose out away from the table. I'd rather see someone like Greenstein come out ahead any day, but you still have to give some respect to a good poker player, especially when they're able to tilt highly experienced pros.

My wife watched him on tv and her exact words were if i was ever at a table with him i would either throw my drinkl at him or kick him in the.......I will let you figure that one out. He is the most unreal player and cnt believe that he is not constantly penalized t the tables.

While I don't condone many of his antics, he isn't much worse than a lot of other televised final table players. Once you get past the comments and goading, he is acutally a very solid player. He makes some great reads on people, fold huge hands when he is beaten, and pulls off huge bluffs. And he is obnoxious enough to get people to call him when he has monster hands.

So even if I don't like what he does, he exploits the pyschology of poker to his advantage and profits from it. Can't fault him for that.

I honestly don't think TonyG is a jerk and that he just wants to get inside of player's heads. Back when he played on pokerchamps I played a sit n' go with him and he was actually very nice and congratulated the person who knocked him out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvCn_KbLpLY

yeah what an awesome guy lolol

His show of intimidation was meant more for his remaining opponents than for the poor loser. I think it was brilliant.

FYP?

Seriously, when people start describing stuff like that as 'brilliant', I really despair.

Yeah, exactly my point. I'm surprised that guy didn't punch him in the mouth. Kudos to the Russian guy. I think I would have stabses his eyeses out.

Well as long as we are going to crucify people for acting ways at the poker table that we don't like, maybe it would be better to start a thread dedicated to that.

Here to start the list.
1. Josh Arieh
2. Phil Hellmuth
3. Mike Matusow (sp?)
And don't forget, this is a list of people that we are simply bashing because of our personal beliefs of how they are and who they are.
4. Mike Sexton
5. Phil Ivey
6. Johnny Chan (he makes the list because of that damn orange)
7. Doyle Brunson
8. Amarillo Slim

Everyone on that list is on there for a reason in my own mind. We are all going to have different lists. Some are longer, some are shorter but we all have them.

I realize this thread started about Tony G so that's why he is getting bashed specifically, but the bashing centers on his table image only. Yeah, he's an asshole at the table. But, you know what, he's a very successful asshole. So, in response to a previous post, if I was sitting at a table with someone and I thought that I could rattle them and throw them off their game by acting like that, damn right I would. As long as I'm within the rules, it's fair game. Do I act that outrageous normally at the table? No. But it IS about winning, so I would if I thought it bought me an edge.

**JD steps down off soapbox. (by the way, where the hell did I get this soapbox anyway. That's like twice today I gone off. Weird. It's like the monkey's paw or something.)

The thing is, do you necessarily think the 'showmanship' is to his advantage?

I've only seen it two times, admittedly.

#1 - That vid I just posted - he limp-pushed with A2 sooted. Awesome play!

#2 - WPT Paris - didn't he call all his chips off with J5 sooted or suchlike after his hours of rambling at Surinder Sunar?

Perhaps if he shut the hell up and played poker he'd find a better player in there somewhere. That sort of outburst wouldn't be acceptable in any other sport, so why should it be in poker?

Don't you think it's hilarious a person can get a 10 min penalty for dropping the 'f-bomb', but no penalty for completely going off like Tony G there or Hellmuth in last year's WSOP?

Edit:

Awesome play right here!

Tony G reminds me a bit of the golfer Colin Montgomerie. He's pretty good elsewhere but can't do squat in the US. He's pompous and everyone hates him, but if he was doing well, they'd probably root for him a bit.

Tony G has no bracelets. Only made his first ever WSOP Final Table this year and only has 6 career WSOP cashes. He's not that good.

I saw him once where he had something like J-8 off-suit. He guaranteed to win the pot and he did. I've also seen him do it with slightly better (but still bad) hands. He has an awesome read and he knows the exact words to either get someone to call or fold. Sure maybe he's a bit crude but he does what he has to to win.

First time I've seen that particular footage, and I agree it isnt particularly pleasant.

I seen him play quite alot and normally it is just alot of talking about random rubbish. In fact that footage is the first time I've actually seen him like that.

In terms of the hand itself, I think it is a good bit of poker. He gives the old overconfident talk (giving a deliberate slight aire of false underconfidence), sees a raise come at him, and then without hesitation is moving all in. The Russian cant really call, but does, and in the brief second he calls you see Tony is gutted as he flips them over. If we forget the rudeness and the talk I wouldnt call this a bad play by Tony at all. I'm assuming it was a final table.

Point taken on the rudeness though

Equally amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-4GDyHhEC4&NR

I love the commentator's comment,

"That's not what you call winning with class, folks."

But that's exactly the point. I'm sure no one would argue that he is not a skillful player, but actions like that, in my opinion, are completely reprehensible. It's like Mike Sexton says, he needs to work on having some class.

I've had a 30 minute phone conversation with Tony G and I thought he was a really nice guy.

Bit shocked to see that video now heh