Gus Hansen is one of the most recognizable names in the professional poker world. He is known for his incredible live tournament success, with more than $7 million in career earnings. He’s also one of the most popular players, easily picked out at a table.

A lot consider the Great Dane one of the best in the world, so it’s stunning to see him play so terrible at online poker cash games.

Not much smiling for Gus at the online poker table

If you go over Gus Hansen’s online poker cash game statistics since 2007, he has lost an inconceivable $7.7 million. Even worse than that is the fact that Hansen has lost more money in online poker cash games in the last three years than he has won in live poker tournaments over the course of his entire professional poker career.

Since 2002, Gus Hansen has raked in a total of $7.2 million in live tournament cashes, including his $1.3 million win at the 2007 Aussie Millions. Hansen’s tournament winnings are good enough for 23rd on the all-time money list.

So how is it that such an impressive poker player could be so bad at online poker cash games? Just this year, Hansen has dropped about $800,000 at the tables.

One might begin to speculate as to whether Gus Hansen is really broke, a la Michael Mizrachi.

The one variable is Hansen’s live cash winnings or losses. He plays in the biggest live games, so it’s possible his skills don’t transfer over to the virtual felt and that he’s a winning live player.

But the most likely explanation is that like Phil Hellmuth, Gus just isn’t good at cash games. Phil stays out of big cash games unless it’s on television and it’s worth the money for the exposure. Gus, however, finds any excuse to play the nosebleeds anywhere.

It’s probable that Hansen just ran good for a couple of years, making money during the poker boom. He’s got a solid tournament game, but as anyone can tell you, tournament poker and cash poker aren’t really the same.

Maybe Hansen should take some lessons from Hellmuth.