Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom, two of its professional, sponsored players, will play a Full Tilt-hosted Heads-Up Showdown next month. September’s Heads-Up Showdown will feature Hansen and Blom (known online as “Isildur1”) in a best-of-three heads-up online poker series that will pit two great players against each other, with opportunities for players to participate in several ways and profit from it.
Meanwhile, Hansen has been on a losing streak in online poker that puts him near the $20 million mark in lifetime losses on Full Tilt alone. And Blom hasn’t exactly been the winningest player on the site of late, either. Both remain respected and strong competitors, but the $50,000 on the line wouldn’t hurt either player’s bankroll at this point.
Full Tilt Promo and Heads-Up Battle
The promotion centers around the Heads-Up Showdown between Hansen and Blom that will take place on Sunday, September 14. The winner will be awarded $50,000, and there will be three matches to determine the victor (no pun intended). The first will be in Hansen’s choice of Stud-8, and the second will be Blom’s decision to play No Limit 2-7 Triple Draw. The third game will be determined by a public vote on the Full Tilt blog, and the players will abide by that decision.
The loser of the Showdown will have a choice: to record and release a video of himself singing the winner’s national anthem, or to play 1,000 hands of $.05/$.10 Razz poker online at Full Tilt.
Players can get in on the action by depositing $20 to Full Tilt and earning at least 50 player points before September 7. Those who accomplish that task will receive a ticket for a $10K freeroll. They are allowed to choose the $10K Gus Supporters freeroll or the Viktor Supporters freeroll, and those play on September 13.
When the Showdown concludes with a winner, those in that player’s freeroll will be able to play in the $30K Heads-Up Showdown Flip Freeroll event on September 15. Even further, anyone who logs in to watch the Showdown online on September 14 will be entered to win a random prize draw for a FTOPS Main Event ticket worth $635.
Pros Need the Money
Within the past week alone, Hansen surpassed $19.5 million in losses, with a bad week in late August that resulted in $1 million in losses at the Full Tilt online poker tables. It brought his 2014 loss total close to $4.7 million.
It was just in May that Hansen surpassed $19 million in lifetime losses and then took a break to play some live poker through much of the summer. But his losing return to the online tables pushed him further behind. In the last couple days of August, he had a winning session of more than $700,000, but that doesn’t put much of a dent in the overall number.
Blom has a distinct advantage of not being nearly as far in the loss column, but he recently surpassed the $1.6 million mark in 2014 losses on Full Tilt. His year was off to a bad start when he lost close to $800,000 in February alone, and he has only added to that total since.
Both players are actively watched on Full Tilt any time they take seats at high stakes tables.
