Monday, December 3, 2007

Tony G wins Moscow Millions, donates prize money to orphanages

Russia’s biggest poker tournament ever, the Moscow Millions, has ended, and winner Tony Guoga of Melbourne has won $205,000, two titles, and a gold bracelet. He’s keeping the bracelet, and “Russia’s National Poker Champion” and “RSPF’s Grand Champion of Russia,” but has already donated his winnings to Russian orphanages.

Guoga blogged about the event, saying, “I feel good just being in a position where I can give away money that I win in poker tourneys.”

After showing up three hours late due to a pressing dental appointment, Guoga dealt with the resulting 1k loss and beat out the 52 other players who had ponied up the $10,500 buy-in to compete for their share of the $500,000+ pot. There were originally going to be 150 more players, but those evaporated when Full Tilt Poker pulled out of its sponsorship, taking a much lower buy-in with it.

Speaking of the final table, Guoga commented:

I did not know the rest of the players that well but the standard of poker was really good. The final table was going to last 13 hours so we all had to be set for a grueling test. I was ready and really wanted to win. I think I was able to string together some really good plays and got players to lay down the best hands many, many times.

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