Gus Hansen in Court!

Gus Hansen is one of the more interesting poker players out there. A decade or so ago he was widely considered to be one of the very best players in the game, champion of a new and exciting loose-aggressive approach to playing poker, who crushed one tournament after another. Unfortunately, that image eventually came to pass and was replaced with the notoriety that only the status of the biggest loser in the history of online poker can provide.

Whether his epic downswing was caused by variance, lack of edge over his opposition, or the combination of the two, Gus ended up donating over $20,000,000 to his fellow high stakes grinders. Turns out that Danish pro employed equally charitable approach outside of the poker table and one particular instance of said charity is now the reason for Gus's first ever court appearance. 

Recipe For Disaster

Mixing money and friends is often a recipe for disaster. People who found themselves on the wrong end of a financial transaction with former friends are usually quick to share the aforementioned insight with anyone willing to listen. If Hansen's recent social media posts are anything to go by, he's now a member of this unfortunate group:

"Standing in front of the courthouse for my first ever court appearance against my former friend. A wise woman once said, 'Don't mix money and friends', well this time she was right"

Back in 2015, Gus decided to invest 250,000 Kroner (around $40,000) in Danish music festival "Denmark the Best" that was established by his friend at the time - Rasmus Nøhr. As it often happens with business ventures of any kind, costs escalated rather quickly and Hansen ended up loaning the company 1,700,000 Kroner more. A year or so later, when Gus was no longer interested in supporting the project, he ran into some unforeseen and rather unpleasant issues. Rasmus Nøhr refused to freeze Gus's account, and by the time the financial balances were settled, Nøhr walked away from the whole rigamarole 200,000 Kroner richer.

According to Hansen, Rasmus transferred the money to himself and justified this by saying that he needed a wage plus some rent money seeing as he "played 22 concerts and worked 16 hours a day". Gus wasn't particularly happy with this explanation and after some mediation followed by "much screaming and shouting", former friends are now forced to settle their dispute in court.

Making Light Out of a Bad Situation

The thing that many poker fans enjoy about Hansen is his fairly unique personality. He always gives the impression of someone who treats himself rather seriously (or too seriously as some would no doubt argue) but he's not beyond shattering that impression with the occasional well-timed bit of levity. Battling former friend in court is far from a pleasant experience and yet Hansen looks unmoved by the whole situation.

In one of his Instagram posts he compared his court visit to an episode of "Law and Order" and while we're on the subject of comparisons, he also claims that as far as lying is concerned, Rasmus Nøhr would certainly give the current US president Donald Trump a run for his money. Or perhaps - as Hansen's story seem to allege -  he would take some of his money and make a run for it. 

The court will rule on Hansen-Rasmus debacle in around six weeks from now.