This past Wednesday saw poker legend Gus Hanson lose it on his Twitter. The comments he tweeted caused people to react swiftly and a wave of comments followed after tweets that said “Never underestimate stupid people in large groups – explanation will follow!” followed by “If the We hate Howard Lederer group would hate on banks and insurance companies, I would have some sympathy- as it is- get a fu**ing grip,”
These comments came after a long silence in which the Full Tilt poker site was re-launched by PokerStars who paid more than $250 million to the U.S department of Justice to take over the site. Gus Hanson is the new face of Full Tilt Poker which still has a very large amount of players who saw millions in last payments due to the confiscation last year and subsequent closure. Howard Lederer was a director at Full Tilt and is seen as one of those who is responsible for the millions in missing payments.
One must question Gus Hanson’s comments and defense of Lederer and wonder if it has to do with trying to build up Full Tilt again when in reality it should be forgotten and put behind us all. Hanson has lost a substantial amount of respect for agreeing to be the new face of Full Tilt. Some of the tweets in response to Hanson’s comments were “Do people defend Howard because they are his friends and he made them rich or because they believe he behaved ethically?” , “I don’t agree with Gus…I understand why people hate on Howard.”
Time will tell how the online poker world will view the new Full Tilt ownership. PokerStars may not be a brand with a bad reputation but in the mind of millions their decision to purchase Full Tilt diminished them in their eyes. The real reason behind the decision was to gain access to a land based casino in New Jersey that PokerStars parent company wishes to purchase.
Time will tell where this leads.