Tony G Takes Down $25K HIgh Roller and 'Anonymous' Chops $50K!

It was a heart-warming sight to see Tony G back in the poker hot seat after a long absence, the Lithuanian politician taking down the $25k High Roller at the Aria in advance of the Super High Roller Bowl which kicks off Sunday.

Famous almost as much for his table-talk antics as his great play, the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for his native country scooped $353,280 and promptly donated the entire amount to charity, prompting fold friend and oft-time adversary Phil Hellmuth to tweet…

Antanas ‘TonyG’ Guoga has had many tussles at the high stakes, with his infamous ‘all-in blind’ hand with Hellmuth regularly making it into poker’s funniest or most controversial moments.

This time he saw off some of the new generation, Martin Kabhrel, David Peters, Jake Schindler and Thomas Marchese filling out the paid spots in the 32-player field.

Guoga, who as a child was Lithuania’s Rubik’s Cube champion of all things before emigrating to Australia at the age of 11, pretty much gave up professional poker when he stood and was elected to parliament in 2014, last year joining the European People’s Party with a remit which includes enhancing technology for businesses.

His $25k event victory was a warm-up for the Super High Roller Bowl which starts today (Sunday 28th) and sees 56 of the world’s leading players mixing with leading lights from the business world, each paying $300k for the privilege – with $6million up top for the eventual winner.

Anonymous and Bonomo chop

One of the seats in the $300k SHRB is yet to be announced, reserved for an ‘anonymous businessman’ – and anonymity was the order of the day in the $50k Aria High Roller when Justin Bonomo chopped top spot with an amateur who didn’t wish to be identified! Despite my best efforts, either no-one knows who it was or they simply won’t say, so perhaps there’s a decent chance that it’s our final SHRB player?

Justin Bonomo walked off with the same $779,520 as our mystery man, and for those wondering why a top pro like Bonomo would agree to a square chop with an amateur his Twitter feed reveals he’d already bought into the $50k event 4 times!

With Bonomo also taking down the $10k High Roller a few days previously, he has little cause for complaint and he must be hoping that his hot run continues in the 5-day SHRB, won last year by German Rainer Kempe and which this year is being live-streamed in its entirety by PokerGO, a new name who have also signed up the rights to the WSOP.

Whether Tony G, Bonomo or the mystery businessman can take down the SHRB is a tough question to answer – the field is replete with the game’s very best players, and also multi-billionaires for whom the buy-in is mere pocket change and can thus play without fear of losing.

My money is on Doug Polk, although the clever money suggests someone like Ike Haxton, Dan Colman or Connor Drinan, but there are so many strong players in the field it’s impossible to predict who will have the edge.