Gus Hansen is Partying in Vegas Rather Than Playing WSOP

16th June 2014 // Gossip, News, Op-ed

Full Tilt Professional Gus Hansen is no stranger to the World Series of Poker. He may only have a single bracelet (for the 2010 £10,350 High Roller Event held in London as the World Series of Poker Europe), but he has been cashing in the worlds biggest yearly poker series since 2004 when he picked up $15,000 for finishing 150th in the Main Event.

This year however has been different. Gus hasn’t been seen at in a World Series of Poker Event, even though he has been in Las Vegas for the past two weeks. What’s he been up to I hear you ask? I’ll let the “Great Dane” answer that for himself:

Been in Vegas for 2 weeks – partying with friends – entering my first event 10K 6 max NLH on saturday 14th – Attack attack attack!
— Gus Hansen (@GusHansen) June 14, 2014

So, Gus was due to play the $10,000 6-Max Event #32 as his first event of the year, but after scouring the player lists for his name, I was unable to find his name anywhere. It didn’t take me long to realise that Gus was still waiting to make his 2014 debut in the WSOP. That was confirmed with a tweet not long after I had come to this conclusion.

Pool party on friday nite ruined my debut at the 2014 WSOP – Maybe 5K 8 handed will be my first event?
— Gus Hansen (@GusHansen) June 15, 2014

It seems that rather than playing poker, Gus Hansen is partying hard by the pool. As I think about it, it’s not that unreasonable. According to HighStakesDB.com, Gus is $3.55 Million in the hole for this year alone, and over $18.4 Million down lifetime for his online poker career. His only 2014 so far live cash has been a €12,600 result at the PokerStars European Poker Tour stop in Vienna, and 2013 only brought 3 positive live results totalling $30,605. Poker has not been kind to the Danish legend in recent times, and as I discussed a little while ago, he doesn’t have a bottomless bankroll sitting somewhere in a Monaco bank.

Gus last played online back on the 31st of May, and during his sabbatical from the online felt, most of us thought he would be trying to recover some of his losses. The consensus amongst my poker friends was that Gus was playing live cash games, or was playing Open Face Chinese Poker for high stakes. Another theory was that he had headed back to the Backgammon boards to try and refill his rapidly emptying bankroll coffers.

The reality however seems to have been rather different, and if I’m honest, I’m happy that Gus has been able to decompress after his frankly horrible results since Full Tilt re-launched in November 2013. I will admit, my articles on Gus have been less than complimentary after analysing his play, and the pressure from the poker media on the Full Tilt Professional must have been building for a long time. It must have been oppressive situation, with Gus’s every move being questioned and critiqued, both by professionals like myself, and the sea of internet “heroes” posting on forums and social media. Very few people could have handled an onslaught of negativity on this scale without effects, and I don’t think Gus has been one of this small demographic. His outburst against High Stakes regular “SallyWoo,” claiming that the German was using illegal software in order to beat him was a significant pointer to this. This claim was never really considered true by most of us in the industry, Occam’s Razor would point us in the direction of Gus just having been outplayed by one of the best in the business. A subsequent Full Tilt Poker investigation has also concluded that this is indeed the case.

I’m hoping that a few weeks of hedonistic pleasure by a Las Vegas pool has helped Gus Hansen shed some of the pressures he has been under since re-signing as a Full Tilt Professional, because it’s been very obvious to those of us following his action that both his game, and his attitude have been negatively affected by it.

A Gus Hansen that is motivated and dedicated to playing Grade A poker could be a scary beast to unleash on the poker community. The games may have moved on since his purple patch back in the mid 2000’s, but Gus is not a stupid man, and if he decides to improve his game I don’t think he will stop until he is again one of the best.