While most known for high-stakes poker, Gus Hansen (pictured) is also considered a formidable bridge player. After a break from the tables at Full Tilt, the Great Dane recently surfaced in the Danish press and revealed that he is investing “millions” into a bridge shuffling machine that will speed up play and solve problems unique to the game.

Growing up, Hansen was drawn to games of all types, not just poker. He excelled at many, including backgammon, gin rummy, chess, and bridge and points to these games as his “first small steps in the gambling direction,” according to a 2006 interview with Bluff.

Now, after a very public $20 million+ poker downswing, the 40-year-old is going back to his roots and has turned his focus to streamlining the game of bridge. Partnering with game expert Tom Hanlon and businessman Nils Foss, Hansen has invested millions into a machine called Bridge + Dealer, which is slated to debut at this year’s Copenhagen Bridge Invitational.

Hansen and Hanlon have been friends for years and teamed up in 2010 to win the Invitational, where they played against opponents like the Prince Consort of Denmark.

In the poker world, Shufflemaster dominates the shuffling machine industry; just one of the company’s popular machines can set you back thousands of dollars. But with the alternative being shuffling by hand, the high cost is justified for many busy card rooms. With automatic shuffling machines, casinos can speed up the pace of the game, deal more hands, and make more money in rake.

Bridge + Dealer will do more than deal; the machine will also analyze hands in tournaments, something that is usually a time-consuming task. In bridge, all players sitting in the “North” square receive the exact same cards. At the conclusion of the game, the results of all players sitting in the “North” position are compared. Therefore, the game isn’t so much about receiving a great hand, but rather which player got the most of the cards he was dealt.

It remains to be seen how big the market would be for a bridge-specific shuffle machine, but at the right price point, the investment could pay off.

The past few years of online poker have been a disaster for Hansen. Last year, he eclipsed noataima to become the biggest loser in online poker history and is currently $20.7 million in the red. “I can afford to lose, but it’s more fun to win,” he said in a 2014 interview. “You sleep a little bit better when you win.”

When asked if he would move down in stakes, he replied, “It’s not impossible. I can’t keep losing… At some point, I have to quit.” He added that he was working on his game, “but it seems like it’s not enough.”

Adding insult to injury, Hansen, along with Viktor Blom, was cut from Full Tilt‘s sponsored roster. In the weeks before he was let go, Hansen bailed on a heavily promoted tournament series against Blom and was replaced by No Limit Hold’em specialist Jake Cody.

In light of the Great Dane’s massive downswing, many are questioning how much more punishment Hansen’s bankroll can sustain. Online poker losses aside, the 40-year-old been part of several successful business ventures. He was a founding partner in the poker site PokerChamps, which he sold to Betfair for $15 million in 2005.

Hansen has done quite well for himself in live tournaments as well, banking $11 million according to Global Poker Index. He is also said to consistently profit in private high-stakes poker and backgammon games.

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