Danish poker player, Gus Hansen is, no doubt one of the sexiest poker players in the world. But 36 years old Hansen is so much more than just a pretty face (and body). He is one of the best poker players today with a record of three WPT open titles and other substantial tourney wins. After many years of disappointments he has managed to earn a WSOP Golden Bracelet – he won the 2010 WSOP Europe Heads Up – No Limit Hold’em High Roller Event, which earned him juicy $400K.
Unlike many other poker players, Hansen did not take to poker in his youth or teenage years; he was more of a sports person. But his real passion in adolescence was backgammon. It was during his Backgammon professional tours that he started playing poker. It was not too long before he changed his backgammon professional career with poker. But he soon realized that he needed to sharpen his poker skills and style, especially in the Hold’em game, when he was knocked out early in the first day of his first WSOP tournament in 1996.
It was then that he developed his notorious loose aggressive style. He tends to bluff and raise almost every hand, some times with no connection to the quality of his cards. Although this method brought him more than a just few critiques, he must be doing something right as by now he scored a total of over $7M in tournaments cash prizes.
His biggest career accomplishment is no doubt his three open World Poker Tour titles. He won his first WPT title in 2002 –the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Later that same year he won his second title in the L.A. Poker Classic. His third win came in 2004 in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure. This placed him as the only player to win three open WPT titles.
Hansen is also very active in the online poker business. He was one of the founders of Pokerchamps.com, launched in 2003 and sold in 2005 for around $15M. In 2007 he launched Theplayr.com, where he wrote his blog, articles and other poker related materials. He is also a member of Team Full Tilt Poker, and can be found playing online in the Full Tilt poker room.
