Where Are They Now – Gus Hansen

Posted by admin | Poker News | Wednesday 20 May 2009 9:34 am

Where are They Now is a series of an in depth look at all poker players – not just the pros – as they travel through one long game. Some of the players profiled are deceased but not forgotten.

From time to time we chronicle a player that didn’t bother with a learning curve, and instead went straight to the top in the world of professional poker. Gus Hansen literally became a star overnight when he entered the Five Diamond World Poker Classic World Poker Tour Event in May, 2002 and won. Without knowing anything about Hansen, fans of poker learned a few things right off the bat about the player now known as “The Great Dane.”

The first is that he is a gambler. Hansen didn’t waste time in preliminary events, instead opting to pay $10,000 dollars to enter his first poker tournament. Hansen has said he’s a gambler first and a poker player second, and he has certainly shown that time and time again. Secondly, he won the tournament with a style of poker that hadn’t been seen much before, and has hardly been duplicated since then. On the surface it appears Hansen plays any two cards because he gets bored, but in reality he’s able to do that because of his top notch ability to read his opponents’ cards. It’s possible his opponents at that final table way back in 2002, such as John Juanda, Freddy Deeb, and Scotty Nguyen thought he might have just been a flash in the pan, but over eight years later Hansen has proved he’s here to stay.

Gustav Hansen was born February 13, 1974 right outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. Despite being a few decades apart in age, Hansen focused primarily on backgammon, like Dan Harrington, as a youngster. Hansen played poker with his friends occasionally, but only as something to do when he wasn’t playing backgammon. Hansen didn’t realize it at the time, but playing backgammon helped him develop the decision making skills that would later help him at the poker table. As imagined, the professional backgammon scene wasn’t big in Denmark, so eventually Hansen made it to New York City, also much the same way as Harrington did.

When Hansen arrived in New York City, he became friends with two of the bigger names in the poker world, Huck Seed and Phil Laak. With friends like that you can’t help but eventually learn to play poker and with the backgammon scene pretty much all but dried up, Hansen turned his attention to the green felt.

Gus took the next few years developing his style in the underground card rooms in New York City, and by occasionally taking trips to Las Vegas to test his new found skills against the very best. At first Hansen said he felt the game came to him easily, but after a few trips to Vegas that saw him lose most or all of his bankroll, he realized he needed to take the game even more seriously if he was ever going to not only survive in the shark infested world that is professional poker, but also become a shark himself. Over the course of the next few years though, Hansen did nothing but eat, sleep, and breathe poker, and in the early 2000’s he was ready to dive head first into the deep end.

As a child Hansen enjoyed all sports, especially tennis. Being that tennis is a game that is usually played at the highest levels in a tournament format, it made sense that Hansen was drawn towards tournament poker. After winning the World Poker Tour event, which was the inaugural WPT event, Hansen wasted little time before succeeding in other tournaments. In February of 2003, he won his second WPT Event, taking down the L.A. Poker Classic, and just two months later he won his third WPT event, “The Bad Boys of Poker” event. In the first three poker events Hansen ever placed in he won them all, and added a total of over 1.2 million dollars to his bankroll. This is arguably the best start to a tournament poker career of all the players we’ve chronicled in the PokerWorks “Where Are They Now Series.” However, it hardly went downhill from here.

In fact, in the first six tournaments Hansen cashed in, all WPT events, he earned four first place finishes, and a third and sixth place finish. All said, Hansen has finished in the money of nine WPT events, with 7 of those being final tables. The one tournament nut Hansen hasn’t yet to been able to crack is winning a World Series of Poker Bracelet. He hasn’t played the WSOP as much as other players, but it’s still a bit surprising, being that he hasn’t even made a final table yet, with two 10th place finishes being his best result.

Since 2005 Hansen has begun to focus largely on cash games, and the largest cash games in the world, at that. Hansen is one of the few players that can be considered a “regular” at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He has also been featured on the Game Show Networks High Stake Poker. The episodes he has appeared on have been some of the highest rated shows in the history of the network. He also participated in the biggest pot the show had ever seen. He was up against Daniel Negreanu, holding four of kind—fives—against “Kid Poker’s” full-house. The final pot tallied $575,000.

Hansen’s online cash game exploits have been well documented. In at least two different sessions, Hansen has lost one million dollars. It has also been documented where he has gone on downswings lasting weeks, and even months, at a time. But, by all accounts, he has been able to battle his way back every time this has happened to him, as most good poker players always will. Also, despite spending most of his time playing cash now, positive tournament results have continued to come as a regular occurrence over the last few years. In April 2008 he finished second in his specialty, a WPT event for his highest cash ever, and his second million dollar plus cash, for 1.7 million dollars and change.

Hansen also has his hands dipped into a number of other endeavors. The most profitable one of those was when he decided to become one of the initial investors of the poker room Pokerchamps.com, which made its debut in 2003. In 2005 Pokerchamps.com was bought by what is now BetFair for 15 million dollars. Just last month he opened GusHansentv.com, which is to be used as a poker channel. What has been described as a publicity stunt for the website, Hansen took on poker pro Theo Jorgensen one on one. Not at a poker table though, but in a boxing ring. Jorgenson, the underdog won a decision, and $35,000 from a side bet the two had made. The boxing match didn’t hurt Hansen’s face too bad, as he also acts as a model for a Danish magazine, and has appeared in People’s “Sexiest Men Alive” lists. Find Gus online at Full Tilt Poker .

*Read Billy Monroe's Blog*

Major Tournament Results

03-Sep-2008        € 8,500 Grand Final – No Limit Hold'em
Partouche Poker Tour – Grand Final, Cannes    9th    € 58,000    $ 84,897

03-Jul-2008 $ 10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em
39th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2008, Las Vegas 160th $ 41,816

04-Jun-2008 $ 10,000 World Championship Mixed Event
39th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2008, Las Vegas 10th $ 45,120

19-Apr-2008 $ 25,000 No Limit Hold'em – Championship Event
Sixth Annual Five Star World Poker Classic – WPT World Championship, Las Vegas 2nd $ 1,714,800

31-Mar-2008 $ 20,000 Week 8 – "Gus and the Ladies"
Poker After Dark III, Las Vegas 5th

02-Mar-2008 Finals
NBC National Heads-Up Championship 2008, Las Vegas 5th $ 75,000

25-Feb-2008 $ 20,000 Week 6 – "International"
Poker After Dark III, Las Vegas 4th

12-Dec-2007 $ 15,000 Doyle Brunson Classic – No Limit Hold'em
Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 22nd $ 57,815

11-Oct-2007 € 7,500 No Limit Hold'em – Championship Event
WPT Spanish Championship, Barcelona 5th € 100,600 $ 141,340

10-Sep-2007 £ 10,000 No Limit Hold'em – Main Event
World Series Of Poker – Europe, London 10th £ 41,630 $ 83,832

06-Jul-2007 $ 10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em
38th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2007, Las Vegas 61st $ 154,194

Jun-2007 $ 20,000 Week 20 – Signature Week
Poker After Dark II, Las Vegas 5th

Jun-2007 $ 20,000 Week 15 – WPT Multiple Winners
Poker After Dark II, Las Vegas 3rd

Jun-2007 $ 20,000 Week 12 – International Event
Poker After Dark II, Las Vegas 6th

19-Feb-2007 $ 20,000 Week 7
Poker After Dark, Las Vegas 3rd

04-Feb-2007 Poker Superstars III Championship
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 8th

14-Jan-2007 A$ 10,000 Main Event
2007 Aussie Millions, Melbourne 1st A$ 1,500,000 $ 1,192,919

01-Jan-2007 $ 20,000 Week 1
Poker After Dark, Las Vegas 1st $ 120,000

22-Oct-2006 Semi-Final – Group A
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 2nd $ 30,000

15-Oct-2006 Quarter Finals – Group B – Match 2
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 1st $ 30,000

08-Oct-2006 Quarter Finals – Group B – Match 1
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 4th

09-Sep-2006 £ 2,000 No Limit Hold'em
FullTiltPoker.com London All Star Challenge, London 1st £ 53,600 $ 100,275

03-Sep-2006 Final 16 – Group C – Match 2
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 1st $ 15,000

27-Aug-2006 Final 16 – Group C – Match 1
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 3rd

27-Jul-2006 Final
Party Poker Football & Poker Legends Cup, London 2nd $ 40,000

23-Jul-2006 Heat 20
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 1st $ 10,000

20-Jul-2006 Semi Final 2 – Denmark vs USA
Party Poker Football & Poker Legends Cup, London 6th

29-Jun-2006 Quarter Final 3 – Republic of Ireland vs Denmark
Party Poker Football & Poker Legends Cup, London 1st $ 20,000

25-Jun-2006 No Limit Hold'em
Tournament of Champions, Las Vegas 10th

04-Jun-2006 Heat 13
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 6th

18-May-2006 France vs Denmark
Party Poker Football & Poker Legends Cup, London 6th

14-May-2006 Heat 10
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 4th

16-Apr-2006 Heat 6
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 4th

26-Mar-2006 Heat 3
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Season 3, Las Vegas 3rd

25-Mar-2006 Heat 5
British Poker Open 2006, London 2nd

26-Feb-2006 No Limit Hold'em
WPT Bad Boys of Poker II, Los Angeles 6th

25-Nov-2005 $ 120,000 No Limit Hold'em
$120,000 Full Tilt Poker Invitational, Monte Carlo 5th

20-Nov-2005 $ 25,000 No Limit Hold'em
2005 Monte Carlo Millions, Monte Carlo 62nd

18-Oct-2005 $ 10,000 2nd Annual Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship – No Limit Hold'em
Bellagio Festa Al Lago IV, Las Vegas 21st $ 20,690

01-Oct-2005 No Limit Hold'em Championship
Danish Championships, Copenhagen 4th DKr 68,083 $ 10,964

16-Sep-2005 € 4,000 EPT Main Event – No Limit Hold'em
Barcelona Open 2005, Barcelona 5th € 78,000 $ 96,712

27-Apr-2005 Heat 8
British Poker Open 2005, London 2nd

16-Mar-2005 € 10,000 European Poker Tour Grand Final – No Limit Hold'em
European Poker Tour Grand Final, Monte Carlo 16th € 15,800 $ 21,030

07-Mar-2005 $ 9,750 Championship WPT Event – No Limit Hold'em
Bay 101 Shooting Stars of Poker, San Jose 3rd $ 320,000

Feb-2005 $ 400,000 Grand Final
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament, Unknown 1st $ 1,000,000

13-Aug-2004 € 5,710 Episode 2
The Gaming Club World Poker Championship (Pot Limit Hold'em), Dublin 10th

22-May-2004 $ 10,000 World Championship Event
35th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2004, Las Vegas 150th $ 15,000

24-Jan-2004 $ 7,500 No Limit Hold'em
2004 PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure, Caribbean 1st $ 455,780

19-Dec-2003 No Limit Hold'em
World Poker Tour Battle of Champions, Las Vegas 6th $ 10,000

15-Dec-2003 $ 10,000 WPT No Limit Hold'em Championship
2003 Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 3rd $ 276,426

24-Apr-2003 No Limit Hold'em
World Poker Tour Bad Boys of Poker, Las Vegas 1st $ 25,000

21-Feb-2003 $ 10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship – WPT
2003 L.A. Poker Classic, Los Angeles 1st $ 532,490

31-May-2002 $ 10,000 No Limit Hold'em – Final
Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 1st $ 556,460

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