-Gus Hansen-The Great Dane-Gambler-
Born in 1974 Copenhagen, Denmark, Gus Hansen was a player of sorts long before his career in poker started. In his teens Gus was a fairly active sports better and a youth tennis champion. Later in life Gus became one of the world's top backgammon players, tried to make a living at the game in New York and abroad but felt the opportunities were too slim. Now a top professional in poker, Gus is known for his aggressive play. "I play the players, not the cards," he says.
Gus Hansen started playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz, California while he was an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz in 1993. When he returned to Denmark, he continued playing poker as well as backgammon, where he was ranked as a professional. He tried his hand at professional Backgammon in New York, where he met Huck Seed and Phil Laak, who got him more interested in poker. He decided to focus on poker full time and in 1997 chose to become a professional poker player. He is notorious for his extremely loose, aggressive play. He has a reputation for raising or bluffing with almost any two cards, which leads to opponents calling (or raising) his bets when he has a legitimate hand. As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,200,000. Gus Hansen finished in the money in 150th place in the 2004 Main Event.
In the 2006 Tournament of Champions, Gus Hansen made a World Series of Poker final table, but lost on the very first hand with Ace King against a pair of 9s. In 2007 Hansen cashed in the money in the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em championship, coming in 61st place out of a field of 6,358 players, winning $154,194.
In 2008 he came in 160th place out of a field of 6,844 players to win a prize of $41,816.
Gus Hansen finished in the money of the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, and also made the final table of a European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Barcelona. In 2006, Hansen was a member of the winning Danish team in the PartyPoker.com Football & Poker Legends Cup tournament.
He is currently featured in the Professional Poker Tour and the second season of High Stakes Poker, where he won the fifth biggest pot in the show's history ($575,700) Gus Hansen was the first winner on NBC's Poker After Dark earning him $120,000. In January 2007, Hansen won the $10,500 main event at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia, beating a field of 747 players to take home the AUD $1,500,000 first prize.
In 2007, Gus Hansen launched a poker forum and strategy website. It housed his blog, articles and a "Gus Tracker" to track his worldwide poker play along with other poker news, videos and content. In 2008, Gus Hansen joined the commentary team on World Series of Backgammon, a high stakes televised backgammon tour broadcasting on Eurosport across Europe. In May 2008 Lyle Stuart Kensington published Hansen's book "Every Hand Revealed", a hand-by-hand account of his triumph in the 2007 Aussie Millions. In February 2009, Gus launched GusHansenTV branded as a free poker channel broadcast over the internet.