Tony G borrows $100k from Negreanu!

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 19 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

Tony G checked in the dark as the dealer dealt the 5h on the river and then asked Rousso if she was “going to show some guts” or “make a weak check in the dark” as she stared him down.

Antanas Guoga, or Tony G as he is better known, recently had to borrow $100,000 from Daniel Negreanu after going bust on the PokerSTars sponsored US television show "The Big Game."

"The Big Game" is a relatively new poker show that sees a number of well-known pros and one online qualifier, known as The Loose Cannon, play in a high-stakes cash game with blinds of $200/$400. The Loose Cannon is staked for $100,000 and gets to keep any profits they make during the game, which is played pot-limit preflop and no-limit postflop.

This week's Loose Cannon was Aaron Jensen from Seattle and he wasted no time getting in on the action has he tangled with Tony G in the very first hand, though he may wish he had not as a $32,000 pot was pushed towards the Lithuanian-born Australian.

Tony G then found himself involved in a real cooler of a hand, one that would cost him dearly. The action folded around to him in the small blind and he raised to 2,000. Vanessa Rousso made the call in the big blind and both players saw a flop reading 6sJs5c. Tony G continued his aggression and lead out with a $2,000 bet, only to see "Lady Maverick" make it $5,000 in total to play. Usually this would be enough to end the hand but not this time as Tony G quickly announced he was going to raise and moved $20,000 chips into the middle of the felt.

Rousso called the extra $15,000 and the dealer put the As out on the turn. Tony G then made a feeler bet of $10,000 into the $43,000 pot, maybe to see if Rousso had hit the spade flush and he must have been worried when she called pretty quickly. Tony G checked in the dark as the dealer dealt the 5h on the river and then asked Rousso if she was "going to show some guts" or "make a weak check in the dark" as she stared him down. Rousso then went all-in and Tony G made an insta-call before showing 6c5s for a full house but Rousso held AhAs for a better full house, enough to win the $192,000 pot!

Then on hand 21 disaster stuck for the loud-mouthed pro when he almost all of his chips. Rousso started the action by limping in for $400 with KcJs, Negreanu then made it $1,600 to play with 7d6d, Scott Seiver called with a pair of red eights, Tony G also called with Ks5s before Rousso made a very easy call of an extra $1,200 chips.

All four players saw a flop reading 8s3s7s. Tony G fired out a $4,000 bet, which was enough to get Rousso out of the way but Negreanu called with second pair. The action passed to Seiver who counted out $21,000 chips and made the bet but as soon as he did Tony G announced he was all-in! Negreanu quickly folded and Seiver called and showed his set, a 70% favourite over Tony G's hand, and the two players agreed to run it just the once. The turn card was the 9d and the river the 3d and Tony G congratulated his opponent and left the table.

However, he failed to realise that it was actually Seiver who was all-in and Tony G had him covered, albeit it by $4,000, or ten big blinds. He returned after a commercial break and nursed his short stack for a while before taking a $100,000 loan from Daniel Negreanu, despite vowing to go home if he busted out at any stage.

By the time filming had finished for the day, Tony G found himself with losses of $177,000 whilst at the other end of the spectrum Vanessa Rousso found herself with a very tidy profit of around $110,000.

Many people fail to realise that Tony G is a very talented poker player under his brash, often quite rude, demeanour. He has over $4,000,000 in live tournament winnings, despite never cashing for $1,000,000 or more and he is a regular in some of the biggest cash games around the world, particularly in Russia, so he should have no problem paying back Negreanu's loan!

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