From Brick-and- Mortar to Bandwidth: The Rise of Online Poker - Brian Rose & Tony Guoga

????Watch The Full Episode: londonreal.tv/tony-guoga
????The Investment Club: https://lr.academy/investment-club/
????Crypto & DeFi Academy: https://londonreal.tv/defi

Antanas Guoga or “Tony G” as he’s better known, is a serial entrepreneur, business leader, former member of parliament in the EU and blockchain advocate who has travelled the world, creating business opportunities and driving innovation in every city he lands.

From his early days in Lithuania to his prominence in high-stakes poker, Tony G’s journey is nothing short of remarkable. At the age of 11 he moved to Melbourne, Australia amidst the collapse of the former Soviet Union. He juggled school with various jobs, including repairing sewing machines, washing cars, and cutting grass.

Facing the challenges of many a teen before him and since, Tony found himself lacking direction before a chance opportunity at a mortgage broker lit a spark around money and finance that blazes to this day.

Tony of course most famously rose to prominence as a world-renowned poker player, captivating audiences with his outlandish table talk and strategic prowess. Throughout his illustrious career spanning 11 years at the top tables on the circuit, Tony competed in some of the biggest tournaments worldwide, earning significant victories and accolades along the way.

Tony was known as a serious trash-talker at his peak, and has been described as “not easy to deal with” at the table, but something that also made him one of the most loved and popular poker players with fans, while his bullish nature offered a clear psychological advantage against countless opponents.

Tony racked up considerable wins and huge sums of money, but always harboured interests beyond the casino floor and with an instinctive head for business put his financial spoils to good use.

Tony founded pokernews.com which quickly went on to become the largest poker media outlet in the world. Some years later he also set up cryptonews.com following the same successful template and trajectory.

Beyond this, Tony serves as the CEO of Cypherpunk Holdings, a cryptocurrency investment firm that was among the first listed companies to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Cypherpunk Holdings aims to provide investors with actively risk-managed Bitcoin and crypto investments that outperform comparable indexes of cryptocurrencies and blockchain companies. Embracing the Cypherpunk Manifesto, which advocates for privacy in the digital age, the company has positioned itself to thrive in an emerging decentralised, permissionless, and anonymised society.

Tony’s foray into the crypto space actually began around 2013 when he made a series of early investments concentrated on infrastructure and as a seasoned poker player, he found the transition to crypto and Bitcoin natural, given the prevalence of digital transactions in that realm..

As a politician, Tony was elected as a member of the European Parliament for Lithuania where he advocated for structural economic reform and championed initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and digital literacy among the youth. And in 2020, Tony was elected to the Labour Party Group in the Lithuanian National Parliament.