Gus Hansen

Gustav Hansen, known as Gus Hansen in the poker world, is a Monaco-based Danish professional poker player, who has to his credit three World Series of Poker (WSOP) championships and has won the Aussie Millions 2007 Main Event and the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament.

Hansen is also an excellent tennis and backgammon player. He has also been voted as one of the 50 sexiest men on People’s Magazine. Hansen is fond of all forms of gaming, bets on boxing matches, and is associated with a number of online businesses such as GusHansenTV, PokerChamps.com, which is now called Betfair Poker, and The Playr.com.

Before the US federal government cracked down on Full Tilt Poker, Hansen was one of the professional players on Team Full Tilt Pro.

Hansen’s Poker Achievements

Hansen is the first professional poker player with three World Poker Tour (WPT) championships to his credit. In 2004, Gus Hansen, along with James Garner and Doyle Brunson, was inducted into the WPT Walk of Fame. In 2008, he won $1,714,800 at the sixth season of the WPT championship.

Gus Hansen won the WSOPE £10,350 NL Hold’em High Roller Heads Up tournament and collected a cool prize of $451,880. He also won a heads up tournament against Tony Bloom during the Poker Million IX event and won $1,000,000. In 2007, Hansen won $1 million playing the $10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event.

By 2010, Hansen had won more than $9 million playing live poker tournaments alone.

Poker Business Interests

Hansen does not spend all his time playing poker. As previously mentioned, he is fond of playing and betting on other games too while checking out new business ventures.

Hansen was one of the founders of pokerchamps.com, which was inaugurated in 2003, and was its house professional player for the next two years. The brand was then sold to Betfair, a British gaming company, for more than $15 million.

In 2007, Hansen established ThePlayr.com, an online poker site comprising poker information and an online forum, but sold his part of it in 2008. Till 2008, poker players could view his poker strategy articles, blogs, and other poker content on this site.

In 2008, Every Hand Revealed, a poker book authored by Hansen was published. It contains detailed accounts of how he won the 2007 Aussie Millions. In 2009, GusHansenTV, a free poker channel, was launched. Gus Hansen has also released a poker DVD called Texas Hold’em Poker Advanced Strategies with Gus Hansen.

Interesting Details

Known as the Great Dane, possibly because he is a Danish player, Gus Hansen views financial losses in a positive manner. At one of the Big Game events held in the Vegas-based Bellagio Casino, which he frequently participates in, he is reported to have said that the financial losses he has suffered are not a secret. He even admitted to have lost a million dollars while playing certain poker games.

When he is not playing poker, Gus Hansen spends time with his family, which includes his young niece Sally, or plays squash, tennis, or soccer with friends.