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See Tony The Tiger (disambiguation). For the article about the cartoon mascot, see Tony The Tiger. This is a userspace page not an article in the main namespace.

Antonio "Tony The Tiger" Vernón @ the Kukkiwon Stone
June 14, 2002 Visting the Kukkiwon in Seoul, Korea.

Deluxe (Lightscribe) version of Summer 2006 Highlight CD production.

Antonio Miguel Rafael Vernón, a.k.a. Tony The Tiger or El Tigre (born June 24, 1965 in New Orleans, LA) is a prominent Chicago martial artist and was a standout collegiate powerlifter. He is a Kukkiwon certified Tae Kwon Do Black Belt. He is known for his proficiency with several non-projectile implements, that are commonly classified as weapons. As a result of his proficency with these implements and proclivity for public practice he has become a low-stakes freedom fighter who fights for the freedom of expression when and where the audience exists. He continues to await response on his case with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in regard to this freedom. Low-stakes in this case refers to the fact that he has never felt his life was in danger in his confrontations about his freedoms. Tony's case with the University of Chicago regarding his "Freedom of Inquiry" (The freedom to inquire without penalty or retribution in the academic community) is under pre-appeal reconsideration in the trial court. Tony also plays online poker under the username "ElT007" and refers to himself as the Terrell Owens of (microstakes) Pokerstars. With all the work Tony has done on wikipedia, you might classify him as a citizen journalist.

[edit] Summer 2006

"T" from Tony The Tiger autograph on promo of standard version.

"T" from El Tigre autograph.

The Summer 2006 highlight video CD is available in deluxe (pictured left) and standard CD format has a production length of about 12.5 minutes. The CD includes approximately 75 clips from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Ontario beaches and parks, including his solo debut performance on July 3, 2006.

[edit] Academics

Antonio Vernon was raised in suburban Buffalo, NY. He attended the public schools in Amherst, NY, including Amherst Central High School (mascot Tigers), after brief residences in Norman, OK, Fredonia, NY, and Orchard Park, NY.

Tony Vernon was a scholar as a youth. He excelled in the sciences and mathematics. As a junior and a senior he earned scholarships from the NAACP ACTSO Olympics in both Physics and Mathematics. He was one of the outstanding mathletes in the nation and after representing his league's All-star team at the New York State Mathematics League competition, he served as captain of the Upstate New York team composed of three players from each of five regions outside of New York City and Long Island at the American Regions Mathematics League Competition held at Penn State University. He received admissions offers from MIT (early action), Harvard, Yale, Brown, University of Texas-Austin, and SUNY-Buffalo as well as Princeton University (mascot Tigers). Oddly, Tony matriculated to Princeton because of personal relationships with students there. He had no close friends at any of the other out of town schools. At Princeton, Tony became a standout powerlifter in the 75kg. (middleweight) and 67.5kg weight classes. He recorded personal bests of 600lbs deadlift, 310lbs. bench press, and 470lbs. squat. He was the first collegiate middleweight to deadlift 600lbs without using steroids. At the time the national collegiate record was 585lbs, but national collegiate records must be set at the national collegiate championship meet.

After spending most of his undergraduate career at Princeton, Tony graduated from SUNY-Buffalo with a B.A. in Economics. He went on to receive an M.B.A., with distinction, from the Ross School of Business (then named the Michigan Business School), and a M.A. in Statistics from Washington University. He was attempting to become the first Afro-American to obtain a Finance Ph.D. from one of the top 5 Finance Ph.D. Programs (MIT Sloan School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania). However, he is currently in court with the University of Chicago over a breach of contract with respect to his scholarship and related matters.[1]

[edit] Family

Tony's father Carlos Vernón, a former world class sprinter from the City of Colón, Panama, in the Colón Province, was 1957 Athlete of the Year of the Republic of Panama. Tony's mother was born and raised in uptown New Orleans, LA.

[edit] Martial Arts

TonyTheTiger with Nate Parker at Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, the county's only early voting location at 7:03 PM after the 7PM close of the last night of early voting on November 3, 2008

Tony's weapons proficiency includes including nunchucks, sais, bo staff, escrima, butterfly knife, short and long chains, manriki/Surujin, cane, poi balls, jo staff, sword, and knives. He has also studied Uechi Ryu Karate. He has trained with West Side Tae Kwon Do and New York City Uechi Ryu in New York City, World Martial Arts Academy in St. Louis, MO and U.S Tae Kwon Do College in Washington, DC. Tony has instructed at East Sea Martial Arts in Chicago. Tony has been seen performing formally at the Taste of Chicago and the Wilmette Parks District Independence Day celebration. You can often see Tony performing informally in the summer along the beaches of the Milwaukee-Chicago-Gary corridor on the weekend. Most summer days Tony practices or performs in the Chicago Park District. In addition to being known for his non-projectile weapons exhibitions, Tony is known for his catchphrase "Have nunchucks. Will travel," which is a take off on the old gunslinger motto "Have gun. Will travel." Additionally, Tony is known for performing using the nickname "Tony The Tiger". Tony's Junior and Senior High School Mascots were the Tigers. Princeton University's mascot was the Tigers. The Tiger is an important animal representing stealth, grace, cunning and power to martial arts and eastern cultures. Additionally, Tony's Business school alma mater, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, is just down the road from the home of the most prominent Tony The Tiger, the cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in Battle Creek, MI.

Tony is also involved in ongoing litigation with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources regarding the use and display of martial arts devices in public places. The case has been remanded for a third trial. You can follow along with the case at his press release page.

[edit] Online Poker

Real money TonyTheTigrr career summary spreadsheet

Original December 2005 Pokerstars cashout check

Tony has enjoyed online poker at Pokerstars. He exclusively plays Texas hold 'em and plays only in poker tournaments rather than ring games while gaining experience because of the limited downside and the number of hands one can see for a fixed price. He initially joined as TonyTheTigrr on 6/3/2005 at 12:25:17 PM EST. He played exclusively play money tournaments until he began to have success. He twice won tournaments (T18664 with 117 entrants and T24536 with 142 entrants). He also placed quite high in some larger play money multi-table tournaments (MTT) (T10123375 - 40 of 2322 and T11805055 - 12 of 2000). On 2005/11/09 at 20:19:27, he debuted in this account in real money games. He mostly played $5 and $10 tournaments and was a profitable player at $5. He won three 5-table $5+.50 Sit and Go (SNG)s (T14958363, T15499587, T15777782), placed second in three and third in three. His best MTT finishes were 72 of 1878 at $3+.3 (T15700985) and 78 of 1339 at $5+.5 (T16033237). He played approximately 11,000 hands for real money in a total of 145 tournaments. He started with $50 and played the account up to about $271. He then started losing regularly and played the account down to $150.67 as of 2005/12/19 at 02:11:34. At that point, he cashed out for $150 and stopped playing for over three years. He has since lost the remaining .67 cents that was in the account and he resumed play in April of 2009 under the name ElT007 (again with an intial $50 deposit).

Upon his 2009 return, he has was not initially able to succeed at the low level ($5–19) buyins and has pursued micro level (below $5) buyins while he attempts to refine his game there instead of with play money as he did before. He currently uses a daily budget of the greatest integer of 1/30th of his account balance. At the micro level, had several successful days. He has placed at the final table of 2 of 55 40-table (nine players to a table) $.10 turbo SNG (T185042177 - 2nd and T191943672 - 8th). He later ventured to $1+.1 turbo and won his sixteenth 10-table contest (T203716176). By the way, turbo is somewhat like a poker analogue to speed chess.

At the $.25 buyin level (not turbo style), he reached a final table by placing 6th in a 2699-entrant MTT (T169962161). He has also won several 10-table and 5-table $.25 Sit and Gos (SNGs) as shown in the chart to the right. At the $.50 level, he has placed in the top 2% of several large contests (T167555517 19th of 2085, T169961734 21st of 1794, and T171738948 34th of 1766). For tournaments with buyins of at least $1, Pokerstars charges a commission. At the $1+.10 level, he has placed in the top 3% (T181767959 12th of 7163, T180540157 77th of 6912, T181768323 113th of 4936, T178348472 172nd of 7246 and T171772416 129th of 4482). Tony tweets about his play under the name Tony_The_Tiger. In addition to the wins and high placements listed above, Tony had a few hot streaks at the lower micro levels: he has finished in the money six consecutive times (T179291636-4th/45, T179359277-8th/90, T179508476-1st/45, T178348475-567th/6650, T178356260-215th/1275, T178348476-357th/5972 between July 14 and July 16) and he has finished at the final table of four consecutive 90-entrant tournaments (T175444688-9th, T175597824-2nd, T175821665-4th, T176092928-7th between June 28 and July 1).

[edit] Higher micro levels

In 84 $2+.20 contests, he has twice won these 90-person events (T193752546 and T198902289). His 26.19% ITM finishes, 87.21% return on investment (ROI) and 31.26 average finish in his first 84 $2 events trails his 30.53% ITM finishes, 119% ROI and 25.34 average finish in 131 $.25 10-table events. However, through his first 41 $2 contests between July 28 — September 6, 2009, he had had a negative 23.07% ROI.

On Septmeber 8, 2009, Tony played his first $2.5 + .25 MTT tournament (T193236559) and finished 364th of 6718, making it his fifth consecutive in the money finish (T193262720, 16th of 360; T191370318, 721st of 5530; T193456764, 2 of 90; and T193752546, 1 of 90). The next day he embarked on a return to the $3+.40 SNGs that he had first attempted in the early days of his comeback and placed in the money for a sixth consecutive time (T194007147 3 of 27). After extending his streak with his seventh consecutive in the money finish (T194136099 $2 + $0.20 - 6th of 90) between September 6 and September 9 and third consecutive $2 10-table event final table, he finished out of the money (59 of 180) at a $4+.40 20-table event and in a $2+.20 10-table event (33 of 90). Although Tony's highest percentile finish in his first twelve $2.5 MTTs was 174 of 5841 (T219010691), his Tony's best payout came when he finished 262 of 7916 (T196490068, where his bustout hand was A♣ A♠ allin preflop against K♦ Q♠ on a board that came up K♥ Q♥ 3♠ K♣ 6♠). T219010691 marked Tony's fourth consecutive $2.5 MTT ITM finish although two were in November and two were in September (T219010691, T209010697, T196490068 and T196490059). This marked the third event type Tony has had a four consecutive ITM streak ($.25 10-table SNG, $.50 MTT). Tony has finished in the top 10% of the field (ranging from 5481 to 7931 entrants) in six of twelve $2.5 MTTs, which are deeper stacked (3000 chips) than most of the events he competes in which contestants start with 1500 or 2000 chips. Tony has won two $3+.40 3-table SNGs (T200262288 and T203396677) in twenty-three times.

During his first 67 $4+.40 20-table events he has finished in the top quarter of the field (top 45) 36 times, but he has only made final table four times 2nd-T214315900, 4th-T202839443 & T209645956, 5th-T203753507, 8th-T208539076. A total of 79 final tablists were among the 394 players he was seated with at the time he busted out of the 54 tournaments that he did not finish in the money in, meaning he was busted out sitting with many of the best players in the tournament. Although based on the number of players at his table and the number of players remaining in the tournament when he busted out, you would have expected that he busted out among 70.43 final tablists. Note that this statistic is not calculated for events where Tony finished better than 19th place because without table breaks that necessitate his bustout tablemates to vie with other players for final table position this statistic is not meaningful.

Since Tony feels like he is being double an triple teamed at the table with two and three times the normal number of good players at his table he describes himself as the Terrell Owens of Pokerstars and if he can start winning at this level, he will refer to himself as the Michael Jordan of Pokerstars. Recently, however, Pokerstars has been seating him with approximately the proper number of final tablists, which is taking a bit of the fun out of his nicknames. These nicknames do not mean Tony believes himself to be a world class poker player, but rather a poker player who pokerstars starts out competitions in a double team and eventually ends up in a triple team. Keep in mind that some high school athletes are double-teamed and some professional athletes are not. Being double-teamed is a function of skill relative to level of play. Tony is only making a point about his $4 games so he is really just the Terrell Owens of microstakes Pokerstars. This nickname connotes no disrespect to those players who have accomplished high rankings in the pokerstars Mars Division Battle of the Planets. Tony does not qualify as a high orbit (100 $3-4.99 tournaments/week) or low orbit (20 $3-4.99 tournaments/week) player with his below the radar dozen or so contests a week. The nickname makes no claim that he would qualify for the battle of the planets even if he played 20 tournaments in a week that qualified.

In 42 10-table $3+.25 turbo events he placed in sixth in his second and fourth 10-table contests (T203957675 and 204262404), but he placed out of the money in 16 of 17 attempts at this level of turbo until finishing first in T210455517, but eventually his ROI returned to negative. At this level, he has gotten a poor distribution of cards. He has only received 86 pairs in 2094 $3 turbo hands (bottom 0.018%), with an notable scarcity of 28 AA-TT combinations (bottom 0.150%), including only 3 AA. In general, he is receiving his share of high card combinations, but they have been unpaired and unsuited. 147 A-J offsuit combinations is in the 99.91 percentile, but 33 A-J suited combinations is only in the 23.92 percentile.

Tony played his 60,000th hand on November 9, 2009 and most professionals say that it takes over 100,000 hands before you are ready for serious competitive play. Tony hopes to at least be playing $5 buyins within sometime this month.

[edit] Low stakes

After 63,496 hands played almost exclusively at microstakes, Tony returned to low stakes play on November 21. On November 22, in his fourth low stakes event after his return from microstakes, he won a $5+.50 5-table event (T214988953).

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Tony on Twitter
• Tony @ Myspace