As We See It

FullTiltPoker hopes Gus Hansen will erase past misdeeds

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Gus Hansen at One Drop’s The Big One announcement at the Rio on June 2, 2011.
Photo: Jacob Kepler/WSOP

You think winning high-stakes poker tournaments is hard? Ha! That’s nothing—at least, not compared to poker pro Gus Hansen’s new gig: FullTiltPoker Brand Ambassador.

You might remember FullTiltPoker as the website that had its URL seized and its license revoked by the FBI. As the website whose owners and employees were charged with money laundering and other crimes. As the website that stopped offering real money play to U.S. customers on April 15, 2011—a date that players have come to call “Black Friday.”

Well, it’s back. On November 6, FullTiltPoker plans to re-hang its virtual shingle, this time on Gus Hansen’s good name.

It’s hard to find anything bad to say about Hansen. He’s a great player (more than $11 million in tournament wins); he’s a good guy (the one time I saw him at Bellagio, he was giving a cocktail waitress a huge tip); and he was voted by People as one of our 50 Sexiest Men.

But is that enough? So far, Hansen is saying some of the right things: (e.g., “I’m very excited to represent the industry’s most authentic poker brand”), but it’s hard not to pick those things apart. (So, FullTilt is an authentic poker brand because it takes everyone’s money?) What players really want to hear is a deep, profound apology and a promise that nothing like this will ever happen again.

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