It doesn't come as much of a surprise that ESPN chose his as the feature table on Day 3. He is, after all, Gus Hansen, one of the bona fide icons of poker. His face was one of the first to become synonymous with poker amongst the general public in America, and he was one of the central figures in the scene as poker reached mainstream maturity.
After his perfectly-timed and well-received arrival on the tournament scene, Gus has managed to maintain his popularity and keep himself in the public eye despite a lackluster streak in which he went almost two years without a single notable finish in an open tournament. If one considers the size of tournament fields in the new age of poker, two years is certainly a reasonable period of time for a talented player to go without appearing at a big televised final table, but people have come to expect great things from Hansen. He is The Great Dane; the man that other players pray they won't see at their table. His hyper-aggressive and unpredictable style of play is so well reputed that, after his dry spell in '05 and '06, people wondered whether it had become less effective in the big tournaments. His game has always been a favorite topic of discussion in the Internet poker forums, and his cold streak evoked posters to label him as lucky, or "too aggressive for his own good."
In January of this year, Gus silenced the skeptics once again with a masterful performance in the 2007 Aussie Millions. Gus won the tournament, beating 746 other players, including a final table that featured, among others, Marc Karam, Andrew Black, and acclaimed newcomer Jimmy Fricke. The tournament drew one of the toughest fields of the year and Gus' victory once again reminded people that he is one of the games truly great players.
The tournament title and $1.5 million under his belt, Hansen left Australia and five months later came to the 2007 World Series of Poker looking to do something he has been unable to do on poker's biggest stage: Anything. To say Hansen has had a cold run at the WSOP is an understatement. He has been playing at the WSOP for years and has managed to rack up a total of one money finish. Just one. And it wasn't a bracelet, nor a final table. In fact, the only time Hansen has ever reached the money in a WSOP event was in the 2004 Main Event, and he finished in 150th place. This lack of WSOP success is unheard of in players of Gus' pedigree. Sure, fans like to point out that Erick Lindgren is one of the great poker players without a Bracelet, which is true; but that doesn't mean Lindgren hasn't given himself a few chances. Lindgren cashed four times at this year's WSOP, four times at last year's WSOP, and has made a final table every year dating back to 2003. Although Lindgren is missing the hardware, his WSOP track record is pretty impressive. Gus', on the other hand, is anything but.
Hansen, however, is The Great Dane, and people expect great things from him. Despite his poor WSOP track record, one of the most popular sports books listed Gus as one of the odds-on favorites to win the Main Event. The only players given better odds were Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth Jr., and Chris Ferguson.
Hansen has already outlasted the five players who had better odds to win, and as the remaining players leave the Amazon Room and head out into the Rio for the dinner break on Day 3, he is sitting with a monster stack and is listed near the top of the 550-player leaderboard. He's already secured his second WSOP cash in this event (the bubble burst an hour before dinner), and now Gus turns to his ten years of professional poker experience as he wades his way deeper into the tournament. All eyes will be on Hansen as he continues his run in the Main Event, and although he still has a very long way to go en route to the title, if you walk into the Amazon Room right now and ask one of the fans or media crowding the rail if there's anyone big left, the first reply will probably be, "yeah, Gus Hansen."