Gustav Hansen (born 13 February 1974) is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003.[3] In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, one WSOP bracelet and the 2007 Aussie Millions main event, and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Before turning to playing poker professionally in 1997, Hansen was already a world class backgammon player and a youth tennis champion.[4]
Poker career
Tournaments
Hansen started playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz, California,[5] while he was an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz. Hansen recorded his first major tournament cash with a victory in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in May 2002. He won $556,460 for his victory.[6] In February 2003, Hansen won the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship at the WPT LA Poker Classic for $532,490.[7] In January 2004, he won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $7,500 No Limit Hold'em event for $455,780.[8] Hansen was the first player to win three World Poker Tour (WPT) open tournaments. In addition, he won the first WPT Bad Boys of Poker invitational event.[9] Hansen finished in the money in 150th place in the 2004 WSOP Main Event.[10] In the 2006 Tournament of Champions, Hansen made a World Series of Poker final table, but lost on the very first hand with ace king against a pair of 9s. In 2007, Hansen cashed in the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em championship, coming in 61st place out of 6,358 players, winning $154,194.[11] In 2008, he came in 160th place out of 6,844 players to win a prize of $41,816.[12]
In 2010, Hansen won the £10,350 No Limit Hold'em High Roller Heads-Up event at the WSOPE, winning his first WSOP bracelet and £288,409, equivalent to $451,880.[24] He also defeated Tony Bloom heads-up to win the Poker Million IX tournament, taking $1,000,000 for first prize.[25][26] In January 2012, he finished 3rd in the A$ 250,000 No Limit Hold'em - $250,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship in Melbourne for $823,579.[27]
An "E" following a year denotes bracelet(s) won at the World Series of Poker Europe
Poker losses
Despite his ongoing success, Hansen has struggled with money problems, reportedly because of losses in live cash games.[28] Hansen is a regular in the Big Game normally held in "Bobby's Room" at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. He has said that his losses are not a secret and has admitted to losing a million dollars or so at a couple of games. He has lost $20.7 million on Full Tilt Poker as of March 2015.[29]
Style
Hansen plays according to a strict pot odds-deductive approach which was highly successful in the poker-boom years, but which has also, in recent times, become highly volatile.[citation needed]
Career earnings
As of August 2023, Hansen's total live tournament winnings exceeds $10,000,000.[30]
Other ventures
Hansen calls himself a professional gambler and has been known to take private bets on various personal athletic challenges other than poker and professional sports, such as a boxing match against WSOPE bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen.[31]
Hansen was a member of the original Team FullTilt, and was re-signed as the first brand ambassador under the new management team of Full Tilt Poker.[32]
Hansen has been involved previously or currently in several online business ventures. Hansen was a founding partner and house professional of the online poker site PokerChamps.com, launched in 2003. In 2005 the company and game software technology were sold to the British company Betfair, for over 100 million Danish kroner (approximately £8.8 million / €13 million / US$15,000,000). In 2005, Hansen appeared in Texas Hold 'Em Poker Advanced Strategies With Gus Hansen, which is part of the Going All In instructional series of DVDs. In 2007, Hansen launched a poker forum and strategy website, ThePlayr.com. Prior to selling his interest in that site in 2008, it housed his blog, articles and a "Gus Tracker" to track his worldwide poker play along with other poker news, videos and content. In 2008, Hansen joined the commentary team on World Series of Backgammon, a high-stakes televised backgammon tour broadcasting on Eurosport across Europe. In February 2009, Hansen launched GusHansenTV branded as a free poker channel broadcast over the internet.
In 2017, Gus Hansen said that he had been involved in a music business in Denmark but declared that "it went probably as bad as my online poker career!"[33]
Hansen was voted one of People magazine's 50 Sexiest Men in 2004.[34]