After Delay, Hansen Wins Heads-Up Title

After delays, reschedulings and the two finalists finally getting eliminated from the Main Event so that they could finish their match, Gus Hansen ultimately won the High-Roller No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Championship at the World Series of Poker Europe. The win earned Hansen £288,409 (about $450,000), as well as his first WSOP Bracelet.

The struggle to actually finish the final match was almost as interesting as the tournament itself. The final was set to be a best-of-three affair. Hansen took down the first match, while his opponent, Jim Collopy, came back to win the second.

That’s when things got interesting. Due to the length of play on what was scheduled to be the final day of the heads up tournament, Hansen and Collopy agreed to suspend play. Both players wished to play in the WSOPE Main Event, which made agreeing to a time to pick up the match difficult. Originally, the plan was to play the final match during a dinner break of the Main Event, but both players agreed that this 90-minute break likely wouldn’t be long enough to settle their final match. At this point, it was unclear when the match could be played, and it was even suggested that the two might go to Las Vegas to play the match during the World Series of Poker Main Event’s final table.

However, a solution soon presented itself, as both players were eliminated from the Main Event. The match was then set for Sunday evening, on the Main Stage, which attracted a large audience for the long-awaited event.

In the end, it took Hansen about three hours to defeat Collopy. A key hand gave Hansen a big lead, as his rivered a full house to beat Collopy’s trip jacks and win a huge pot. On the final hand, Collopy reraised all-in preflop with K4 of spades, which Hansen called with pocket fours. The board did not improve either player, and Hansen had (finally) won his first World Series bracelet.

For second place, Collopy won £178,211.

Hansen’s win filled in a gap on what has been an impressive poker career. Hansen has won over $8 million in live tournament cashes, along with four World Poker Tour titles – and now, a World Series of Poker bracelet.