Antanas “Tony G” Guoga to Return to Poker?

Could Tony G’s exit from politics signify a return to Poker? Having had one of the most amazing careers in the game of poker professionally, Tony G took a step back to venture into politics, thereby making his little impact in the international political scene. Having spent a long time away from poker, is a full-time return to the game in the works? Is a return even feasible?

Political Career Ends

Antanas “Tony G” Guoga took to politics in 2016 as he ran for European Parliament, the legislative body of the European Union, and was elected. Upon completion of his first tenure (three years) in the parliament, he decided to run again for a second tenure and lost the re-election. But he ran for the Lithuanian Parliament and he won the seat as he had dual citizenship of both Lithuania and Australia. He moved over to Australia when he was 11 years of age, but he was born in Lithuania.

Guoga took to his Twitter page to reveal his decision to resign his seat at the Lithuanian Parliament citing his inadequacy to effect the much-needed change as one of the important reasons why he reached such a decision. However, rumor has it that he had a falling out with the Labor Party leadership in the Lithuanian Parliament over its direction as he was dissatisfied with their direction. Some of these dissatisfactions are related to the various comments made by the party chairman, Viktor Uspaskich, on several trending topics.

Below is the announcement made on his Twitter page.

“Yesterday, I decided to resign from the Lithuanian Parliament for a number of important reasons – I don’t think I can exact the change desperately needed in national politics. I now focus on business – maybe I may have some more time to play some poker!”

While some question Guoga’s capabilities as the game of poker have since changed from the last time he was actively part of the game. He had never entirely stopped playing poker despite his political run and has secured some of his biggest wins in the past few years.

His biggest earning year was in 2019, with over $1.1 million in winnings from European based tournaments. He earned $265,859 in prize money after winning the Party Poker MILLIONS Short Deck High Roller tournament in 2019. He recorded his biggest earning in a single tournament at the Super High Roller Main Event (€250,000) for the World Series of Poker Europe, in Rozvadov. He finished in the fourth position with earnings of over $880,000. But both winnings were done in a high roller tournament and not in a normal main event tournament with a larger field of entry. So one can argue that those wins came easy.

Another factor to consider is the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic that saw Guoga, like many other poker players, take a back seat in 2020.

While we can not guarantee if Tony G would be able to increase his over $7 million career earnings returning into space, we can surely guarantee that his personality will be a great addition to the game.