Gus Hansen Says He Lost $600K Poker Hand To Controversial Czech Casino Owner

After a hiatus from the high-stakes poker world, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Gus Hansen seems to be slowly but surely returning to more of the publicized nosebleed action that made him one of the legends of the game in the 2000s and early 2010s.

Hansen said Saturday on his Instagram that he recently made a trip to the King’s Casino in the Czech city Rozvadov. Hansen was playing high-stakes Chinese poker with Leon Tsoukernik, owner of the gambling den, among other competitors. Poker players stateside will recall the ongoing litigation pitting Tsoukernik against Australian poker pro Matt Kirk, which centers on claims from Tsoukernik that he was taken advantage of by Kirk and a casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Kirk claims that Tsoukernik owes $2 million from their booze-fueled poker session last year.

According to Hansen, he spent about 14 days gambling at Tsoukernik’s casino, and he ended up finishing the gambling trip up about €100,000. Despite the profits, Hansen said he was on the losing end of the trip’s largest hand—a pot worth about US$615,000.

Hansen didn’t reveal any details on what the hands were. He also didn’t explicitly state that the hand happened in Chinese poker, but his Instagram account suggests it did. It’s not clear what other games or variants Hansen played on his recent casino trip.

“Back in Denmark after two weeks of gambling in Rozvadov,” Hansen said in the very brief video posted over the weekend. “Lost the biggest hand, [€500,000] to casino owner Leon, but fortunately I ended up winning [€100,000] on the trip. Back in Vienna in three days for some more gambling. It’s going to be a great year.”

Hansen hasn’t cashed in a tournament since 2014. Late last year at a tournament in Las Vegas, Hansen told the WPT there’s “a chance” he plays more tournaments in 2018, now that he’s “getting into a rhythm” at the tables. “I have to re-discover and re-invent things,” Hansen said.

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