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Poker player profile: Gus Hansen
Click here to watch Gus Hansen playing on Full Tilt Poker
Gus Hansen, perhaps more than any other player, is responsible for ushering the loose/aggressive approach to the game that is en vogue these days. It was rumored that during one of his early WPT wins he played an estimated 70% of the hands he was dealt!
Gus’s style of play causes many players to either fear him, play in awe of him, or simply consider him lucky; all of which are the wrong approach to take of course. Whenever someone makes a daring bluff, or a difficult call, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow often calls the player “A sicko”. Mike will then go out of his way to find where Gus is sitting and point out, “but nobody is as sick as him… He’s the sickest one in the room.”
Through all the criticism, Gus just takes it all in stride, usually accompanied by a wry smile: And why shouldn’t he be smiling? His “sick” style of play has won him millions. His lifetime tournament winnings exceed $7 million. Gus has owned the WPT since its inception: He is a 3-time champion, has appeared at 7 final tables, won the inaugural Bad Boys of Poker title, and is 5th on the all-time money list despite playing in only 45 events (the all-time money list leader Daniel Negreanu has played in 80).
Hansen also captured the Poker Superstars crown in 2005, and the 2007 Aussie Millions; both tournaments being $1 million wins. Most people find it surprising that Gus hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet, but there is a very good reason for that hole in his resume. I call Gus a poker ‘snob’, because he only plays in $10k tournaments. His penchant for only playing the top events is the main reason why he has yet to capture a WSOP bracelet.
Depending on who you ask, Gus is either a big winner in cash games, or a big loser. Cash game wins and losses are hard enough to track, and when you couple in Gus’s incredibly loose/agro play it makes it all the more difficult to estimate. A regular in the biggest games in the world –live and online—$1,000,000 swings have taken place.
The Danish born Hansen, who now resides in Monaco, started his gambling career as a backgammon player, but was discouraged by the small amount of action available. At this point Hansen turned to poker, which he was introduced to in 1993 as an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz.
Gus has had quite a bit of success in the business world as well: In 2003 he launched PokerChamps.com; which was the first site to incorporate multi-table capabilities into the software. Two years later, he sold the company to BetFair for approximately $15,000,000. Gus is also a minority shareholder in Full Tilt Poker.
In 2007 Hansen launched his website ThePlayr.com. He has also published a book and instructional DVD’s, launched GusHansenTV (marketed as a free poker channel), and is even a spokes-model for a Danish men’s fashion line: Frank Q.
Despite all of his success, there have been setbacks for Hansen. Hansen is a notorious sports-bettor –and not a successful one—and also has a propensity for prop bets. Perhaps Hansen’s best known wager is his boxing match against WSOP bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen, which took place at the 2009 EPT Copenhagen event, and appeared where else… on GusHansenTV! The bout went the distance, but the judges awarded the win to Jorgensen.
Gus Hansen plays exclusively on Full Tilt Poker. Sign up now for your chance to play with the pros.
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