Gus Hansen

Gustev (Gus) "The Great Dane" Hansen was borne in Denmark and currently lives in Monaco. Like many successful professional poker players, Hansen was a competitive athlete in high school and was also competitive in table games. His game of choice in high school and in his early days in the U.S. was backgammon. He was introduced to poker while touring backgammon and gin rummy clubs in New York.

Hansen played his first World Series of Poker tournament in 1996, but it was not until 2002 when he won his first major poker tournament, the World Poker Tour inaugural event, a $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the Five Diamond World Poker Tour Classic. Later in 2002, he won the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship at the WPT’s L.A. Poker Classic.

In 2003, Hansen won the Invitation-only Bad Boys of Poker tournament and, in 2004, earned his fourth WPT title at the Caribbean Adventure tournament. Hansen is the only player to win three WPT open tournaments

Starting in 2005, Hansen entered fewer tournaments in order to focus on his cash game. However, he still made the final table at the FullTiltPoker.Net Poker Invitational in Monaco and won the Grand Final of the inaugural Poker Superstars Invitational.

In January of 2007, Hansen won the $10,500 main event at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia, beating 747 players to win the $1,500,000 first prize.

As of 2007, Hansen’s total live tournament winnings exceed $4,770,000