Full Tilt Poker Strikes Ambassador Deal with Gus Hansen

As the re-launch date for Full Tilt Poker draws ever closer, it is obvious the online poker room is making all of the necessary last-minute preparations. The latest announcement came on Tuesday when FTP proclaimed a stricken contract with professional poker player and former FTP Pro Gus Hansen that will see him return to the poker site as a brand Ambassador.

Gus Hansen was a long time member of the esteemed Full Tilt Pros before the operation went south last year. Now that PokerStars has acquired the domain of its historic, long-time rival, things are looking way up for FTP. Hansen declared his adoration and devotion to the Full Tilt Poker name in a statement regarding his newly autographed contract.

“I’m very excited to represent the industry’s most authentic poker brand,” expressed the Danish live and online poker phenom. “Full Tilt Poker has the best games, most innovative software and the strongest poker community; to me this feels like coming home.”

A spokesperson for Full Tilt Poker asserted that upon its re-launch, players can be “confident that they are supported by PokerStars’ history of integrity combined with Full Tilt Poker’s track record of delivering the highest quality online poker experience.” Full Tilt Poker is scheduled to re-open on or before November 6, 2012. The online poker room intends to provide the same level of high quality, real money poker games across low-limit to nose-bleed stakes cash games and a plethora of tournaments.

Full Tilt Poker will once more be a global online poker network with a few notable exceptions. Only players from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Spain and the USA will be restricted from registering a real money poker account. Residents of all other countries will be able to sign up or access their existing accounts just as they did before the Black Friday debacle of April 2011 and subsequent revocation of FTP’s former gaming license.

At 38 years of age, the ‘Great Dane’, Gus Hansen, has earned a prodigious $11.2 million in major live poker tournaments alone, spanning three WPT wins and one outright victory in the WSOP-Europe. Hansen took down the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event for AUD-$1,500,000 and another cool million for winning the 2010 Poker Million IX. Add to that his countless cash game winnings, and it’s hard to argue that Gus Hansen is one of the most prolific poker pros of our time.

“I’ve been a part of Full Tilt Poker for many years, and I have always respected Stars as a very professionally operated and well-managed competitor,” said Hansen when asked his feelings on the new ownership of his long-time home, Full Tilt Poker. “Given what’s gone on in the past 15 months, I can’t think of any better company to be re-launching Full Tilt Poker and restoring it to the brand we’ve all loved.” Hansen went on to say that he had no doubts whatsoever about linking his name back to a brand with such a precarious history and that, on the contrary, he is excited to be a part of returning what he called “the coolest poker brand: FullTiltPoker.com”, back to its former glory.

When the online poker room vanished from the world wide web 15 months ago, Gus was on a sizzling hot streak at the highest stakes cash tables. When asked his hopes and aspirations for Full Tilt Poker after the November 6 re-launch, he responded, “Crushing the high-stakes games on Full Tilt Poker is of course very high on the list.” Hansen then became more serious, referencing the past issues of the online poker room. “On a whole different level, paying back the players and giving them back the software and the online poker experience they loved is the number 1 priority.”

On a final note, Hansen did have a few tenuous comments regarding the Lederer Files; Howard Lederer’s 3-1/2 hour video interview that discussed the history, demise and eventual acquisition of the Full Tilt brand. Gus made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss the matter in too much detail, but did say that “there were many people working very hard in the past year to try to restore the players’ accounts, get them repaid and reopen the site. Some of them are still with the company, and I am really happy to be working with them. I am focused on the future and feel really positive, both personally and for other Full Tilt Poker players.”