When Full Tilt Poker removed the likenesses of Gus Hansen and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom from its website, people started gossiping that something was up. It was. The two high stakes poker pros are no longer sponsored by the site.
In a statement released to multiple media outlets, Full Tilt confirmed the departure of Hansen and Blom, saying:
We can confirm that Full Tilt’s sponsorship of Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen has expired. This follows a year-long review of the Full Tilt brand and a decision to move away from Pro-centric advertising to focus on the experiences and stories of the vast majority of our players. Full Tilt will celebrate the excitement, fun and intrinsic enjoyment of playing our poker, blackjack, roulette and slots games. A new TV campaign will launch imminently, representing this new approach. There will be more news on this later in the week. We would like to wish Viktor and Gus all the best in their future endeavours.
Gus Hansen, who made his name on television during the poker boom, was the first “ambassador” signed by Full Tilt leading up to the site’s re-launch in late 2012. It may have been a bit of a surprise signing, as Hansen was one of the members of Team Full Tilt before the poker site went down after Black Friday. The team’s initial members were Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, and Andy Bloch, who were the first investors of the company. They were followed by John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowen, Eric Lindgren, Jennifer Harman, and Mike Matusow. During the 2006 World Series of Poker, Hansen became the first non-core member added to Team Full Tilt.
Blom, along with Tom “durrrr” Dwan, was added to the new Full Tilt roster shortly after Hansen in October 2012. The three were dubbed “The Professionals,” a trio that were arguably the most recognizable nosebleed stakes players on the internet. Blom made a splash in 2009 when he came out of nowhere to mix it up in the highest stakes games, playing with what looked like a reckless abandon. He was a mysterious figure; his real name was unknown, as he just went by “Isildur1.” In January 2011, he signed with PokerStars, while at the same time outing himself as Viktor Blom. He left PokerStars in August 2012 and it was rumored at the time that he did so to sign with Full Tilt.
Hansen and Blom, as well as Dwan, were almost certainly brought onboard so that Full Tilt could court their fans. They had a strong railbird following, as people loved to watch them rack up six-figure pots at the high stakes tables. It seems, though, that paying them to play at Full Tilt’s tables just so that those few tables could have an audience was not a strategy that worked. Those who knew about them enough to rail them were obviously in touch with the poker community, so the amount of new blood brought to the site was probably negligible. As Full Tilt implied in its statement, it is looking to appeal to a broader, recreational player base.
Tom Dwan parted ways with Full Tilt in December 2013.
