World Series of Poker Europe -- Gus Hansen Wins Event No. 4Hansen Takes Home his First Gold Bracelet After a Lengthy Final Match Against Jim Collopy |
|
A poker player as talented as Gus Hansen without a gold bracelet might strike you as odd. Hansen has won multiple World Poker Tour titles and in doing so he became the Chris Moneymaker of Europe, inspiring scores of young players on the continent to learn the game. He has earned the respect of the best players in the world and he has the high-roller lifestyle befitting an international poker celebrity.
Hansen had it all, except for a World Series of Poker gold bracelet, but now he has that as well. Hansen won event No. 4 (£10,350 high roller heads-up no-limit hold’em) at the WSOP Europe today in London as a packed rail viewed the action. Fate is a funny thing when it takes the form of lady luck, and she wasn’t going to make it easy for Hansen to claim his first bracelet.
He had battled Jim Collopy for multiple hours a few days before, leaving the best-of-three final match tied 1-1 at 3 a.m. in the morning on Thursday. They returned Sunday to contest the third and final game and each of them began with 1.92 million in chips.
The early tone for the match was set when Collopy woke up with pocket aces against Hansen in their first confrontation and he used the windfall to take the lead with 2.8 million. Hansen slowly began to creep back into the match and the next big skirmish saw him seize control of the game.
Hansen limped on the button preflop and Collopy put in a raised from the big blind, which Hansen called. The flop fell J
J
8
and Collopy bet 78,000. Hansen made the call and the turn fell 5. Collopy checked and Hansen bet 128,000. Collopy made the call and the river delivered the 2. Collopy checked again and Hansen went into the tank for a sizable period of time. He decided to move all in and Collopy quickly called. Collopy held Q J
for trips but Hansen revealed 2 2 for the full house thanks to the river.
Hansen held the advantage with 2.54 million after the hand but Collopy pulled back to even, thanks in large part to pocket nines that rebuilt his stack. Hansen was still in control though and Collopy saw his stack shrink. The final hand came during the fifth level of play between the two finalists. Hansen raised to 91,000 preflop on the button and Collopy reraised all in for 1.2 million. Hansen made the call and they flipped over their cards:
Hansen: 4 4
Collopy: K 4
Board: J 6 5 10 3
Collopy was eliminated on the hand and he took home the runner-up prize worth £178,211. Hansen won the tournament and he was awarded the top prize of £288,409 to add to his career earnings of $7,245,975. Hansen also took home his first gold bracelet, which takes his name off the top of the best player to never win a bracelet list. The golden prize is one that he will certainly appreciate more than the prize money.
Check out Card Player TV’s interview with Gus Hansen shortly after his win:
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
