End Of An Era As Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom Leave Full Tilt

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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 | Written by Stephen Smith

The Full Tilt debacle which occurred post-Black Friday threatened to see the once popular internet poker site permanently shut down, but after PokerStars’ parent company, the Rational Group, rescued the operation in 2012 the site was relaunched together with a streamlined sponsored player roster which included three of the biggest draws in the game, namely Tom ‘durrr’ Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom.

Contrary to the Rational Group’s original intention, however, “The Professionals,” instead, drew all the wrong type of publicity and following Tom Dwan’s departure earlier this year, Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom have now failed to have their contracts renewed by Full Tilt. Commenting on their exit, a Full Tilt spokesperson, said:

“We can confirm that Full Tilt’s sponsorship of Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen has expired. We would like to wish Viktor and Gus all the best in their future endeavors. This follows a year-long review of the Full Tilt brand and a decision to move away from pro-centric advertising to focus on the experiences and stories of the vast majority of our players.”

Full Tilt’s Two Biggest Pros Can’t Win

In its heyday, Full Tilt Poker was the premier site for online high-stakes cash games and so after the site relaunched Gus Hansen and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom were seen as the ideal choice of players to represent the brand. Hansen and Blom are not only two of the most recognizable faces in the poker world, but they are also noted for an exciting loose, aggressive style of play which regularly had legions of poker fans flocking to the site to rail their action.

Unfortunately, instead of inspiring a new generation of players to take up the game of skill, their results have served more to highlight the darker side of the game where addiction and mounting losses at the tables can make for an altogether more harrowing gaming experience.

Hansen Biggest Loser In Online Poker History

Gus Hansen, 40, may have won an impressive $11,258,052 playing live tournaments, but online cash games requires a different set of poker skills which the Danish poker legend has failed at spectacularly. In fact, Hansen’s stint playing at Full Tilt has seen the ‘Great Dane’ saddled with around $20 million in losses and labelled ‘the biggest loser in online poker history.’

Throughout his tenure at Full Tilt, Hansen has regularly featured in numerous media stories more concerned about his relative weakness compared to other online pros, and where he was able to find so such money to lose, rather than concentrating on any excitement he created at the tables. Poker enthusiasts also wondered what kind of example Hansen was setting others, especially as he admits to not using any HUD or tracking software, and having “just about the worst game selection in the world,” all deemed necessary requirements for the top pros of today.

In addition, even the games very best cannot hoard their initial advantages for long, and commenting on how the game has changed over the years, Hansen said:

“You just have to be better than the others at your table. Of course, people have been getting better and better. This is not 2003 anymore, and it sure isn’t 1995.”

The Ups And Downs Of Viktor Blom

Viktor Blom, on the other hand, has long been considered one of the best online no-limit Texas hold ’em players in the world, with the Swede first coming to prominence in late 2009 when he won $6 million from some of the game’s most well-known pros, such as Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend, Cole South, and Patrik Antonius.

Fast forward to the present day, and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom is currently showing around $3.5 million in total online losses, with his results presenting a cautionary tale to players as to the volatility and pitfalls of playing high stakes cash games.

Needless to say, Full Tilt having two of online poker’s biggest losers as sponsored pros doesn’t exactly shine a favorable light on the game, and as one perplexed poster named Ben4 noted on cardplayer.com:

“Funny that FullTilts 2 biggest sponsored pros cant win. You’d think from a marketing perspective they would dump these guys and go a different direction.”

Poker rooms cutting sponsorship deals

In addition to Hansen’s and Blom’s lackluster poker results, their exit from Full Tilt also marks a wider strategy by the industry to streamline their operations and drastically cut back on their roster of sponsored players. Therefore in many respects the players’ departure is similar to that of a number of other high-profile pros who in recent months have also lost their lucrative sponsorship deals, including the likes of Joe Cada, Marcel Luske, Alex Kravchenko, Humberto Brenes, and Jose Barbero, to name but a few.

New Direction For Full Tilt

In addition, Full Tilt has recently added casino style games to its gambling mix and releasing Hansen and Blom would now seem to fit into the site’s new strategy of focusing less on poker and more on other gambling games. Commenting on its new shift in direction, a Full Tilt company statement explained that the site was looking to “move away from pro-centric advertising,” and added:

“Full Tilt will celebrate the excitement, fun, and intrinsic enjoyment of playing our poker, blackjack, roulette, and slots games. A new TV campaign will launch imminently, representing this new approach. There will be more news on this later in the week.”