Poker Player Profile: Gus Hansen

Gus Hansen hails from the country of Denmark. He is one of the more notable, contemporary poker players in the world. Known for his intelligence and high level of skill, Hansen is a force to be reckoned with on the felts. Born in the 1970s, Hansen originally played backgammon and would become an excellent player, world class even. However, he would decide that the Backgammon market in his home county simply wasn’t big enough. The payouts weren’t generous enough and neither was the market. Instead, he began playing cards and then eventually poker. His strength’s early on where his aggressiveness as a bluffer and also his unpredictability. These two qualities worked in his favor, helping him win cash games and eventually become one of the premier players in the game today.

Gus would be forced to take a break from poker and the other casino games he was playing, because he was obligated to serve in the Danish military. However, as soon as his service time was up, he moved back to America. Hansen would begin playing backgammon again and also gin. He started playing poker again and would soon find himself building up his skills and becoming a very good player.

His first major Texas Hold’em tournament would be in 2002. It was a pretty famous one, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic. It included a field of nearly 150 players. Gus would go on to perform extremely well, winning the tournament and taking home more then $500,000.

Hansen has continued to have a lot of success after that win and his popularity has grown tremendously. In fact, just two years after his first WPT win, he was featured in People magazine as one of their 50 sexiest people. Not bad for someone who first started out playing in whatever cash poker games he could find while learning and perfecting his craft in New York City.

Tags: Gus Hansen, player, Poker profile

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