Gus Hansen

Gus Hansen is a professional poker player who hails from Denmark. He is much beloved by poker fans for his erratic playing style and down-to-earth personality. Gus takes a unique approach to poker in which he plays lots of hands, makes a lot of raises and generally gets the table out of its comfort zone. As unorthodox as his style may be, it has helped him win more than $7,500,000 in live poker tournaments.

Background

Gus Hansen was born on February 13th, 1974 near Copenhagen, Denmark. As a child, Gus had an extremely competitive spirit. He excelled in all sports and was even a youth tennis champion for a while. At the same time, Gus developed a mean backgammon game that would later prove helpful in his transition to poker.

As an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz, Gus Hansen got his first taste of poker at the Ocean View card room in Santa Cruz. He was a quick learner but the idea of going professional was not yet on his radar. In 2000, Gus moved to New York City to play backgammon professionally but soon found that there just wasn’t enough money in the game.

Poker Career

After his short backgammon career, Gus set his sights on the much more lucrative game of poker. He hit the tournament and cash game scene hard and earned a reputation as a loose-aggressive maniac. His willingness to play any two cards at any time made him difficult to read and endlessly frustrating to play against.

In 2002, Gus became a big name in the poker world by winning the Five Diamond World Poker Classic for more than $500,000. He followed that up with a win at the L.A. Poker Classic in 2003 for another $500,000. The very next year, Gus Hansen made it to the money in the WSOP Main Event and then made it to the final table at a European Poker Tour tournament in Barcelona.

Hansen has also won the London All Star Challenge, the Poker Superstars Invitational tournament and placed well in various other tournaments. Altogether, Gus has won four WPT titles and more than $7.5 million playing in live tournaments. As an avid cash game player, Gus Hansen has also made a small fortune playing in cash games (although he has admitted to losing more than a million dollars at a single setting in the Big Game at the Bellagio).

Life Away from the Tables

Gus Hansen helped start the poker site PokerChamps.com in 2003, which was eventually sold to Betfair.com for $15,000,000. He also launched ThePlayr.com, which was a poker strategy site and forum where players could interact, discuss strategy and keep up to date on Gus Hansen’s whereabouts. He sold his stake in 2008 and has moved on to other things since then.

Today, Gus Hansen is a sponsored Full Tilt Poker pro and can be found playing online under the screen name “Gus Hansen.” He can often be seen playing at the super high stakes cash games there against other big name professionals.