Gus Hansen: Player Profile
May 26, 2008 - Thomas Clarke
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Name: Gustav (Gus) Hansen
Nationality: Danish
Born: Feb 13 1974 (lives in Monaco)
Nickname: The Great Dane
Biggest win: $1,714,800
Winnings to date: $7,125,726
Major titles: 8
WSOP bracelets/money: 0/3
Gus Hansen is one of the most entertaining players on the poker circuit and his aggressive play makes him one of the exciting players to watch. Before turning pro Hansen was a promising tennis player but his first love lay with another game based with more than an element of Lady Luck. He was an extremely talented Backgammon player and even moved to New York to try and forge a career out of the game but found there was not enough people out there who were playing - so he moved into the world of poker.
During his time in New York he found himself playing many different types of poker and also discovered that playing aggressively and erratically meant that others found him very unpredictable to call. However his fledgling career was put on pause when he was called home to Denmark to carry out military service - working as a civil servant until he was able to return to America.
Having mastered Texas Hold'em he decided that he felt confident enough in his ability to turn professional and he exploded on to the poker world in 2002 when he won the WPT event at the Bellagio. Remarkably he turned up at the Bellagio on the day, paid the $10,000 buy-in himself and then saw off the other 147 players to take down the $556,460 first prize. He has not looked back since and has become famous for his maxim: "I play the players, not the cards."
He finished 150th in the WSOP main event in 2004 and 61st in the main event in 2007 as well as coming 10th in the WSOP Europe main event in the same year. However his biggest win happened in April 2008 when he lost heads up to David Chiu in the Sixth Annual Five Star World Poker Classic, but still took home over $1million (first prize was over $3million!).
Hansen can be seen regularly on Poker After Dark and other poker television shows, and continues to entral and entertain his growing fanbase.
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