Posts Tagged ‘gus hansen’
Gus Hansen Can’t Lose
October 22nd, 2010
Gus Hansen wins because Gus Hansen can see inside your soul.
Just a few short weeks ago, Danish poker pro Gus Hansen won his first World Series of Poker bracelet. It was a win that seemed to be long overdue, as he’s been one of the most feared and biggest-name players in the world for years. Much better late than never though, and that win seems to have turned Hansen’s fortunes around at the high-stakes online poker tables.
The last few years have been one long downward plunge for Hansen. But he’s been on an epic heater the last few weeks, culminating in nearly $600,000 in winnings in action last night. And that’s on top of the $723,000 he won in action last week.
Most of yesterday’s good fortune came at the hands of an online pro named Luukie21. The two battled it out at the $500/$1,000 Cap Pot Limit Omaha tables, with Luukie21 ending the session $595,000 down. Hansen made a few more bucks off a variety of other opponents, mixing it up playing everything from $200/$400 PLO to $1,000/$2,000 HORSE.
For the year so far, Gus Hansen is looking at winnings of $2.5 million dollars. Add that to his WSOP Europe bracelet in the High-Roller NLHE Heads-up Tournament, and 2010 is looking pretty sweet for the great Dane.
Watch the Final Hand of the Gus Hansen WSOPE Win
September 29th, 2010
Gus admires his new hardware. (still from YouTube video)
A couple days ago, Danish poker pro Gus Hansen won his first World Series bracelet, with a victory in the High-Roller Heads-up event at the 2010 WSOPE. It all came down to one hand, as it always does, where his pair of 4′s held up against Jim Collopy‘s K4.
An intrepid videographer caught the decisive moment and kindly uploaded it to YouTube for all our viewing pleasure.
The camera-angle may be a bit guerrilla, but it does capture the drama of the final hand, including Collopy’s somewhat overconfident throw-down of his K4. You also get to see Gus finally crack a smile as he’s fitted with his new, gold bracelet.
WSOPE: Gus Hansen Wins First Bracelet
September 26th, 2010
Gus Hansen should be able to afford a decent razor now. (photo courtesy of WSOP)
It may have taken a day or two more than it should have, but Gus Hansen won his first WSOP bracelet today. He knocked off Jim Collopy in the third and decisive match of their best-of-three series, to finish in first place in the £10,350 High-Roller No Limit Hold’em Heads Up championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe.
The event was scheduled to finish two days ago, but they were forced to finish today after the second match went much, much longer than expected. After Hansen handily won their first meeting, Collopy took down the second, with both men playing surprisingly tight poker. When things got back underway today, the action moved a little quicker, and in three hours it was over.
For his victory, the Great Dane will go home with the coveted bracelet, the first of his career, and £288,409 (the equivalent of about $451,880 in USD). As has been much discussed in the last couple days, Hansen is widely considered one of the best players alive who, until today, had never won a WSOP or WSOPE event.
And Gus got full value for his first win, overcoming one of the toughest fields in poker. He personally knocked off some serious competition, including Phil Ivey, Neil Channing and Andrew Feldman.
Gus Hansen Tied With Jim Collopy at WSOP Europe
September 24th, 2010
The Great Dane is tied 1-1 in the best-of-three WSOP Europe Higher Roller final.
Gus Hansen is within one heads-up match of his first World Series bracelet – but he had to get an extra night of sleep before getting his shot at a little WSOP hardware to match all the gold he’s won on the World Poker Tour.
The day began with four players looking to advance to the finals of the £10,350 Heads-Up High Roller event. Hansen had a relatively easy go in the semifinal, quickly jumping out to a 3-to-1 chip lead on UK nosebleed-stakes cash game pro Andrew Feldman and then wearing him down further before winning a coin flip with K-J against T-T to secure his spot in the final. Online star Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy had a much more difficult semifinal match, a back-and-forth affair with former WSOP bracelet winner Ram Vaswani that only ended when he applied pressure with K-9 at the wrong time but struck lucky with a straight to crack Vaswani’s A-J.
Unlike the winner-take-all format of the earlier rounds, the final round was played out in a best-of-three format. In the first match, the Great Dane put in a repeat performance of his crushing of Feldman, jumping out to a quick lead and holding onto it until Collopy shoved with Q-8 and Hansen found 9-9. The nines held and the second round began in much the same way as the first, with Hansen getting out in front and holding on to his lead. It looked as if Hansen would lock up the tournament when Collopy called a four-bet all-in holding A-Q to Hansen’s pocket kings, but an ace on the flop shipped the chips in the other direction. Then, after Collopy had claimed the lead, Hansen looked good to double up with Q-Q to Collopy’s 9-9, only to have Collopy flop a full house and win the second match.
Because of the late hour, the two poker pros took the rest of the night off and will be coming back to play the third and deciding match sometime this afternoon. It’s unsure right now just when they’ll resume their matchup, since both players have entered the WSOP Europe Main Event. But one way or another, either Gus Hansen or Jim Collopy will be wearing a WSOP bracelet by the end of the night.
Gus Hansen Closes in on First Bracelet
September 23rd, 2010
Gus Hansen has his eyes on the prize at the 2010 WSOPE.
And then there were four. In World Series of Poker Europe action, day 2 of the High Roller heads-up tournament wrapped up with just four players still in the hunt. And one of those players is Gus Hansen, who’s one of the world’s top earning tournament players without a WSOP bracelet.
He has more than $7 million in career tournament earnings, but it hasn’t been a good last couple years for the Great Dane. He’s racked up an impressive series of losses in online poker action, and hasn’t sniffed a good tournament result in ages. But that could all change tomorrow when the final four compete for the crown in the £10,350 Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold’em WSOPE 2010 event.
To get to this priviliged position, Gus needed some luck along the way. Against Phil Ivey, Hansen went all in with a pair of 3′s on a board showing 10-5-4 with two spades. Ivey turned over QT for top pair. But a 3 on the turn crippled Ivey’s stack and made it just a matter of time before Hansen eliminated him.
Still standing in his way are three seasoned poker pros: Ram Vaswani, Jim Collopy and Andrew Feldman. Hansen is playing Feldman right now, in one semi-final, with the winner going on to the best-of-three final showdown.
As of three minutes ago, Hansen has about a 3-1 chip advantage over Feldman.
IPPA To Host $250,000 Poker Tournament in November
September 9th, 2010
The high rollers will get a little higher at Casino Monte Carlo later this year.
If you’re a high roller who can’t get enough action in the world’s biggest poker tournaments, you’ll want to book a trip to Monaco in November for a tournament with a higher buy-in than any other in the world.
The International Poker Players Association, an organization founded by long-time high-stakes poker player Yosh Nakano, is holding its first Monte Carlo Championship at the end of this year. Playing out in a no-limit hold’em shootout format, the tournament sports a $250,000 buy-in, easily trumping the $100,000 buy-in at the Aussie Millions High Roller event and the $50,000 buy-in at the WSOP Poker Players Championship and simply crushing the buy-ins at other “high roller” poker tournaments around the world.
The IPPA’s tournament is offering $5 million to its winner. Normally that sort of sum is reserved for tournaments like the WSOP Main Event, with thousands of players’s buy-ins making up the top prize. But the IPPA tournament is limited to just 48 players, and the winner will only have to beat a small portion of that field thanks to the shootout format. Of course, with a six-figure buy-in the field will be of the highest caliber; Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Michael Mizrachi and a dozen or so other top poker pros – and Gus Hansen – are already reported to have registered for the event.
The IPPA Monte Carlo Championship is scheduled to run from November 29 to December 2 at Casino Monte Carlo in Monaco.
WPT: 15 Remain As Legends of Poker Starts Day 4
August 24th, 2010
Jonathan Little is looking to repeat his considerable past WPT success at the Bike.
Three days of poker have reduced the 2010 Legends of Poker main event from 462 players to just 15, and today will see that field whittle down to just six for the televised final table. Holding the biggest stack when play resumes this afternoon will be Andrew Frankenberger, who holds 1,958,00 in chips. That’s more than two and a half times the average stack, so Frankenberger’s fate in this tournament is really in his own hands. The New York poker pro has five cashes this year, the last being a win in a $2,000 event at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza this summer.
Meanwhile, Season VI World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan Little lurks in second place with 1,314,000 in chips. He’ll be looking to make his fifth WPT final table today, which would give him a chance to tie the all-time record of three WPT wins currently held by Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen. Part of Little’s ascent to the front of the pack involved picking off a big river bluff with second pair against former chip leader Phil Collins to send the online star home in 29th place. If he makes the final table, Little will make his first appearance in front of the WPT cameras since winning the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in November 2008.
Play resumes at the Bicycle Casino at 1 p.m. PT today and will go on until the Legends of Poker TV table lineup is set; the WPT will provide live updates all day on its website.
Patrik Antonius up $332,000 in only 600 Hands
August 21st, 2010
Patrik Antonius loving life.
Sure, poker is a game of variance, but winning over $332,000 in just 600 hands counts as an amazing session for anyone. And that’s what Patrik Antonius did earlier this week, in an epic online poker session.
Antonius has proven to be one of the best high-stakes players in the game, and consistently comes out ahead no matter who the opposition. Well, except maybe when he’s playing Tom Dwan. In his short but sweet session on Wednesday, he took down Ilari Sahamies and Phil Galfond and a few others, for a third of a million dollars.
Sahamies continued his non-Antonius-esque run, dropping $149,400 to Antonius on the night, as the two played Cap Pot Limit Omaha and 7-Game. Galfond didn’t fare much better, donating $197,563 to Patrik’s retirement fund.
Though he didn’t tangle with Antonius, Gus Hansen found other ways to get into trouble. He continued his epically bad 2010, with a $266,243 loss on the evening. His running total for the year is $1.1 million in the hole. And his 2009 wasn’t so great either.
Businessman Loses $20 Million at Singapore Casino
August 19th, 2010
What a gorgeous place to lose eight figures!
If you thought Gus Hansen had it bad losing $7.7 million in three years, consider the case of a businessman from Singapore who has lost nearly $20 million this year at the Genting Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.
Amazingly, the businessman started off with a credit line of just SG $500,000 (US $370,000) back in March, just weeks after the casino opened. Repeated visits brought wins and losses, but by June the losses were far more prevalent. In a single day the man lost SG $18 million (US$13,322,484), playing baccarat for as much as SG $400,000 per hand. After two more days had passed he had lost an astounding total of SG $26.3 million (US $19.5 million) in three days, nearly 60 times the original credit limit the new Singapore casino had established for him.
The businessman, a managing director at a multimillion-dollar company, has paid off SG $10 million of his debt. He has also enlisted a law firm to help him determine whether he has a case against Genting, the casino’s owner, for promoting irresponsible gambling by continually extending his line of credit so far past his original limit. Genting is the same company that wants to open a full casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in New York City. The company posted a $397 million profit for the most recent quarter.
Gus Hansen Down $7.7 Million in Online Poker
August 16th, 2010
The Great Dane isn’t so great when it comes to online cash games.
Gus Hansen is one of the most recognizable players in poker today – and he is also a study in how deceiving some numbers can be in poker. Hansen’s live tournament winnings total nearly $7.25 million, more than all but 22 players in the entire world since poker tournaments first began being played in the 1970s. He has three World Poker Tour titles to his name, and he also won the 2008 Aussie Millions main event. Without a doubt, he is one of the most successful tournament poker players in the world.
But when it comes to playing online poker, Hansen prefers the high-stakes cash games against top competition like Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. His results in those games have been nearly the total opposite of those he’s compiled in live tournaments. He’s down $7.7 million since the beginning of 2007, making him one of the single biggest losers in the game over that time period, with about $800,000 of that total coming just in 2010. So, depending on your perspective, Gus Hansen is either a highly successful poker player, or he’s the fish who keeps the game running.
Naturally the speculation that Gus Hansen is broke is high, but there’s not nearly enough information to back that up. His online poker results are publicly available, but numbers for his live games and his outside business dealings don’t show up on databases. The only really sure thing is that the Great Dane might want to reconsider the players he takes on when he decides to play high-stakes online poker.
