News FullTilt Pro, Gus Hansen Wins $1.5 Million Crowned Aussie Millions Poker Champion
Melbourne, Australia Friday January 19 -The new king of poker was crowned this evening when, the only player to win three WPT titles, Gus Hansen (nicknamed ‘The Great Dane’) won the No-Limit Texas Holdem Main Event at the 2007 Aussie Millions Poker Championship held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
Hansen took home AUD$1.5 million, the largest prize ever awarded in a live poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.
He outlasted a record field of 747 players who anted up the AUD$10,000 buy-in for the Main Event, creating an unprecedented prize pool of AUD$7.47 Million. The Main Event at Melbourne’s Crown Casino was the culmination of the 13 individual events, which this year generated more than AUD$10
Million in total prize money.
On a flop of Q Diamonds 8 Diamonds 6 Clubs, Fricke checked, Gus Hansen bet AUD$1 Million, and Fricke check-raised all in. Hansen called instantly with A Clubs A Hearts and Fricke flipped over 9 Clubs 7 Clubs. The turn was 2 clubs, which
gave Fricke more outs. The river was 9 Spades and Fricke's run was over.
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke played amazing poker and held his own against some of the best players in
the world. He busted out in second place winning AUD$1 Million. Gus Hansen won AUD$1.5 million for
first place.
’I was behind 3 to 1 when it was heads up, so I felt that I could gamble a little. The next thing I knew I
was ahead,’ mentioned Hansen in a post victory interview with World Poker Pro Howard Lederer.
‘We congratulate Gus Hansen on his tremendous accomplishment,’ said Richard Longhurst, Chief
Operating Officer of Gaming at Crown. ‘He played superb poker over a prolonged period against a
record field that included virtually every top professional and hundreds of talented amateurs from
Australia and around the world.’
19 year old Jimmy Fricke from Mahomet, a town of 5,000 in Champaign County, Illinois USA earned
AUD$1,000,000 Million for his second-place finish.
FullTilt Pro Andrew Black finished third, collecting AUD$700,000. The remaining players at the final
table were:
4th place: Julius Colman, $500,000
5th place: Hans Martin Vogl, $400,000
6th place: Marc Karam, $300,000
7th place: Kristy Gazes, $220,000
Following on from the enormous ratings success of the US screening of the 2006 Aussie Millions Main
Event, Crown and Fox Sports Net (FSN) will be partnering up for another year that will again see the
Aussie Millions filmed for broadcast internationally from March 2007 as a 10 episode series with a reach
of over 81 Million homes.
A coup for Australian Poker, Crown’s collaboration with FSN further consolidates the prestige,
recognition and credibility of the Aussie Millions, particularly in America, the home of Texas Holdem and
a country that widely considers poker its national game.
Gus Hansen Profile
Gus was born on February 13th, 1974 just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark and grew up playing a lot of sports, especially tennis. In the locker rooms and in summer camps, somebody always had a deck of cards and, from early ages, playing cards for dimes and nickels become part of the fun. Gradually the stakes increased…
Gus has always been fascinated by numbers and math. When he was introduced to backgammon in high-school, it became a challenge and he practised intensively until he was ready to test his skills around the world. Gus ended up in New York, touring backgammon and gin rummy clubs, and hanging
out with guys like Huckleberry Seed and Phil Laak. It was during this time that Gus was introduced to various types of poker, including Stud games.
Gus played his first World Series of Poker in 1996 but, looking back, says he had absolutely no chance of winning, as he had never really played No-Limit Hold 'em before then. After being knocked out on the first day, Gus decided to start practising more, testing new plays and experimenting with different styles. Experimentation and mixing-up his style has been part of Gus' game ever since.
By 1998, Gus found himself playing more poker than backgammon, and making more frequent trips to Las Vegas. When the World Poker Tour kicked off in 2002, Gus had developed a loose, aggressive style that immediately paid off, both in terms of money and recognition.
Gus won the WPT's inaugural event, the $10,000 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Later that year, Gus took down another event, the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship at the WPT's L.A. Poker Classic.
During the WPT's second season, Gus won the invitation-only Bad Boys of Poker tournament and, in early 2004, earned his fourth WPT title at the Caribbean Adventure tournament. Gus was also in contention for another title that season, but had to settle for third place in the Bellagio Five Diamond tournament when his pocket 10s failed to hold up against his opponent's A-Q.
Gus reached yet another final table during the WPT's third season, but ended up with a third-place finish in the Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament. All in all, those four WPT wins and five final table appearances earned Gus induction into the WPT's Walk of Fame the first year they launched it. To this day, Gus remains the only player on the WPT with four titles to his credit.
In 2005, Gus decided to play fewer tournaments in order to focus on his cash game. Still, even with the reduction in tournament play, Gus made it the final table at the FullTiltPoker.Net Poker Invitational from Monaco and won the Grand Final of the inaugural Poker Superstars Invitational.
In 2006, Gus has been even more selective about his participation in tournaments and other events. Recently, he played in the second season of High Stakes Poker where he won the biggest pot in the show's history ($575,700) defeating Daniel Negreanu's 6 Clubs 6 Hearts with his 5 Diamonds 5 Clubs on a board of 9 Clubs 6 Diamonds 5 Hearts 5 Spades 8 Spades. When not playing tournament poker, Gus is a regular participant in the “Big Game” at the Bellagio battling it out in as many as 13 different poker games with players such as Phil Ivey, Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, and David Benyamine.
Online, Gus can often be found in a high-limit Pot-Limit Omaha game or an Omaha 8/B Limit game on FullTiltPoker.com. On occasion, he can also be found in low-stakes Limit Hold 'em and Razz games, along with low-limit SNGs and some of FullTiltPoker.com's larger tournaments.
If Gus isn't playing poker, there is a good chance you can find him on the golf course, the tennis court, the squash court or playing soccer with his friends, as he finds that playing sports and working out help him maintain the physical stamina he believes is needed to be a successful poker player.
Gus also finds time in his schedule to provide poker commentary for both Danish and American television shows, and is always ready to play a high-stakes backgammon match against anybody who would like to challenge him.
Gus is currently single and resides in Monte-Carlo, Monaco where he spends a lot of time with his family, including his one-year old niece Sally, who he believes will be his first poker protégé.
