Great Dane weathers November swings

Gus Hansen may be forging a new name for himself on the Full Tilt tables as king of the downswing and subsequent phoenix-like recovery.

Up until Peter Eastgate's run to the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event title, Hansen was the toast of the Danish poker world. He carried the flag for that nation by winning three World Poker Tour titles as well as the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event.

Through it all, he's left both fans and opponents scratching their heads.

The fact is Hansen is one of the most confounding players in the world. He's been described as lucky, reckless, genius and downright crazy. However, none of that bothers him one bit.

"I love that they think I'm lucky," Hansen is on record as having said. "I don't mind at all. I mean ... let them just think I'm lucky. I think it helps me if people think I'm a little bit crazy because there's definitely rationale behind a lot of things I do. They might seem wacky, but I'm not totally crazy, just a little bit."

This month has been no exception to Hansen's frenetic style of play, with the Great Dane bouncing around the MarketPulse stats like silly putty in an earthquake.

In fact, at one point Hansen was listed as one of the week's biggest losers. Two hours later Hansen was off that list because he won two of the week's biggest pots.

One example came on Nov. 19, when the volatile Danish poker pro started his session with nearly $50k in losses, dropping two significant Pot-Limit Omaha hands in less than 30 minutes.

Little more than an hour later, he won two monster pots of more than $50k each in less than three minutes!

It's no surprise then that Hansen kicked off November in a wild Omaha session with Isaac Baron, regista8, John Juanda and Patrik Antonius. In one hand Hansen pulled out a miracle ace to take more than $175k.

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You can watch how the hand played out with the hand replayer, or read the text version below.

Game: $200/$400 - Omaha Table: Acres (deep-six) Players: Isaac Baron, regista8, John Juanda, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen Date: Nov. 1, 2008 5:23 a.m. ET Hand ID: 8756807006

Table Setup

Isaac Baron: Seat 1 - Stack size: $17,284. regista8: Seat 2 - Stack size: $40,337. John Juanda: Seat 3 - Stack size: $13,328. Patrik Antonius: Seat 5 - Stack size: $95,585. Gus Hansen: Seat 6 - Stack size: $78,492. John Juanda posts small blind of $200. Patrik Antonius posts big blind of $400.

Pre-Flop

Dealing down cards. Gus Hansen raises $800. Isaac Baron calls $800. regista8 calls $800. John Juanda calls $600. Patrik Antonius raises $4,400. Gus Hansen calls $4,000. Isaac Baron folds. regista8 calls $4,000. John Juanda raises $12,528. Patrik Antonius raises $45,584. Gus Hansen raises $73,692. regista8 folds. Patrik Antonius calls $28,108. Gus Hansen shows A♦ 8♣ 3♥ A♠. John Juanda shows 7♦ 9♥ 5♥ T♥. Patrik Antonius shows Q♣ Q♥ 2♣ 2♥.

Flop [T♣ Q♦ J♠]

Turn T♣ Q♦ J♠ [J♥]

River T♣ Q♦ J♠ J♥ [A♥]

Gus Hansen wins $130,328. Gus Hansen wins $45,582.

The action got hot and heavy early in the hand as Antonius, Hansen and Juanda all ended up all-in. Antonius appeared to have the upper hand after the flop and turn, but one of the two cards that could beat Antonius did beat Antonius when the A♥ appeared on the river.

In that same session, however, Hansen showed why he's the equivalent of a poker ping-pong ball.

Although ActionJeff replaced regista8, it was nearly the same cast of characters at the table. ActionJeff raised pre-flop to $1,400 with Gus Hansen reraising to $2,400. With all of the others at the table folding, ActionJeff reraised again to $6,400, and Hansen quickly called.

The flop came A♣ A♥ Q♦ - good enough for ActionJeff to bet $8,000, with Hansen again calling right behind him.

The turn produced the 3♥, prompting ActionJeff to bet $11,200. Hansen then reraised to $61,990, only to have ActionJeff call $50,790.

Hansen showed 5♣ A♦ 3♦ 5♠ for aces full of threes, but it wasn't good enough to beat ActionJeff's aces full of queens.

With no more river miracles to be had, Hansen lost more than $156k. You can also watch how this hand played out in the hand replayer.

And that's how it goes with the Danish dynamo. He's up, he's down, he's all around. He's Gus Hansen.

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