ShareGus Hansen is back! The poker legend has been away from the game for quite some time now but he made an unexpected appearance at a fans meet-up game in the run up to the WPT World Championship.
The Premier Meet-Up Game was a great success last year and there seemed no better way to kick off the highly-anticipated WPT World Championship series.
Gus Hansen is a candidate for the most popular poker player during the boom years. The way he set tables alight with his outrageously aggressive playing style was a thing to behold.
Sadly, we don’t see much of him these days but it must have been a treat to get a few hands in against him.
The lucky few must have been rewatching classic shows such as High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark to get an idea of what they would be up against.
Phil Ivey and poker vloggers Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme were also taking part.
Adam Pliska, WPT CEO, said:
“Gus is one of the original superstars of the World Poker Tour and holds a special place in WPT lore as the first ever WPT Champion. We are honoured to have him as a part of the opening activity of the WPT World Championship festival.
“With such a positive reception last year, we are pleased to once again offer the Premier Meet-Up game as our grand opening activity. The WPT ambassadors will be out in full force to welcome players to the World Championship festival.”
Andrew Neeme added:
“We’re pumped to bring the Premier MUG back to the World Championship stage with players from all different countries present. I think the fun and relaxed vibe of the event sets a great tone for the rest of the festival.”
The stakes of only $1/$3 and $2/$5 were perfect for allowing everyone who had the chance to be able to play.
Rollercoaster Career
One of the reasons Gus Hansen was such an exciting character in the game was his extreme playing style coupled with extreme results. We really never had any idea of what to expect.
HIs first three live cashes were all wins, the first two being $10,000 WPT events. All-in-all, he had cashed for around $10,000,000 by the time of Black Friday.
After then, there are only a handful of cashes, including a A$ 800,000 win for third place in the Aussie Millions, and also, rather strangely, €480 for second in a €35 event in Ireland.
Besides an appearance at the WSOP Main Event in 2019, there has been no serious tournament action.
But what about the online game? As of 2015, Hansen was down an excruciating $20.7 million on Full Tilt Poker alone. The situation in high-stakes live cash games is thought to be even worse.
However his career has turned out, Gus Hansen is one of the most loved characters that poker has ever seen and we’d love to see more of him in the future.
