In the early days of a sport or a gaming community, there is quite often one player that manages to act as a guiding light for everyone else. Whether it is through hard work, effort or just outright skill and talent, an individual or team can often quickly stand out from the crowd.
Gus Hansen is a phenomenal poker player. Not only does he have three World Poker Tour titles under his belt, but he has also won a WSOP gold bracelet, an Aussie Millions championship, and a plethora of other world-renowned tournaments. Throughout his poker career, he has won over $10 million from live. 63.3k Followers, 34 Following, 315 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Gus Hansen (@therealgushansen). Gustav Hansen, better known as Gus Hansen, is a danish professional poker player. He was born February the 13th in 1974 in Copenhagen. Gus Hansen is known for his extremely aggressive style of play, playing almost every hand he is dealt. Gus has won the World Poker Tour (WPT) four times since his debut in the beginning of 2002.
This is a great thing for the player but it is often a great thing for the ruling body as well. After all, people love heroes and in the gaming community, looking up to winners is something that people enjoy doing. It is good to have inspirations and when you look back at the early days of the WPT, there is one name that is written all over the history books.
Gus Hansen, the Great Dane
Hansen was born on the outskirts of Copenhagen in Denmark back on February 13th, 1974. Although currently living in Monte Carlo, Monaco, Hansen is known all over the world and was an early symbol of success in the WPT. It could have been so different for Hansen and the WPT with tennis and backgammon being viable career routes for him. Hansen was considered to be a world class backgammon player and was also a champion tennis player in his younger days. These sports loss was definitely poker’s gain.
Hansen quickly became famous in the 1st season of the WPT with two wins, earning him over $1m for the season. Given that this was the debut season of the tour and the prize winnings were of a lower level, this is a prize that was worth being proud of.
Hansen won in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic and the L.A. Poker Classic. Season 2 of the WPT saw Hansen finish third in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic but triumph in the Caribbean Poker Adventure. This saw his second season winnings come in at over $730,000, giving him a healthy return for the first two seasons on the tour.
Over $4m in WPT winnings is a great return
Hansen has been unable to win any other WPT event as of March 2011 but a number of money finishes has seen him rack up over $4m in WPT winnings.
However, it was the three triumphs in two seasons that marked Hansen out as a major player in WPT history and this is why he was inaugurated into the WPT Walk of Fame. There were only three men inaugurated at this time, with Hansen being notably younger than Doyle Brunson or James Garner. The fact that no poker player has managed to win more than 3 WPT titles, with only Hansen and Carlos Mortensen being able to claim this indicates the size of the task that Hansen completed.
This is why Hansen is still regarded as one of the most important poker players of WPT history.
Gus Hansen Net Worth
Hansen was bringing sexy back to poker
In a twist to the usual perceptions of poker players, Hansen, back in 2004 at the peak of his game and general public awareness, was voted amongst the 50th sexiest men alive. This may not be an achievement that can make you money but it is certainly something to be proud of. If ever other poker players start to talk about their winnings, Hansen can point to not only his poker winnings but his final placing on that poll.
Although poker is the reason that so many people know Hansen, he refers to himself as a professional gambler as opposed to being a professional poker player. It is said that Hansen can quite often be found taking and placing bets on a various number of sporting events and challenges with his fellow players. This can help to break the monotony of the touring life and no doubt keeps Hansen’s mind ticking over with regards to calculating odds and playing other people.
Gus Hansen Net Worth: Gus Hansen is a name that poker fans know and love for a variety of reasons. Not only is he the holder of a vast selection of poker titles and awards, but Gus Hansen is also one of the most handsome men to have ever graced the tables. He even took his place in the list of people magazine’s 50 sexiest men.
In this article, we’ll take you on the journey of what made Gus Hansen the sensation he is today. We’ll also look at how his unique playing style and aptitude for the game has boosted Gus Hansen’s net worth into the millions of dollars. Read on to find out everything you need to know about this Danish master.
Early Career
Gus Hanson, or Gustavo Jacobsen as he was first known, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, back in 1974. As with so many poker stars on the circuit today, Hanson’s first gambling exploits came through playing Backgammon. He was at a World Championship level at that point in his life, and he was also a champion tennis player before injury cut his career short.
When he made a move into poker in 1997, it couldn’t have been more straightforward for Gus, and he knew at that time where his future would take him. Ocean was the first place Gus saw any real success in Santa Cruz’s Card Room. When he first started playing, he was a risk-taker, and a lot of that early success came as a result of lady luck, as well as his burgeoning skill. This irked some of his rivals, but nobody can deny that his methods, if not a little unconventional, worked wonders for the Dane.
His charming nature endeared him to many in the early part of his journey to poker success, and his reputation at the tables started to snowball as a result. He began to make serious ground winning smaller competitions along the way, and he made the decision to become professional and set playing poker as his life goal.
Professional Poker Career
Gus Hansen’s net worth didn’t take long to start accumulating to a life-changing level, and his first significant tournament win didn’t take long to achieve either. In 2002, Hansen won his first of three World Poker Tour (WPT) open tournaments. He’s the only player to have ever taken three victories at these massive events to date. That first major victory at the Five Diamond Classic bagged Hansen $556,460.
He followed that up later the same year with another outstanding performance at the WPT Poker Classic, where he took home $532,490. Over a million dollars in your first successful year as a professional is no small achievement, and Gus continued to make waves on the poker scene.
In 2004, he arrived at the first-ever edition of the WPT Bad Boys of Poker with a point to prove after a slightly quiet 2013. He took first prize against the odds. It was at that point Hansen was inducted into the WPT Walk of Fame, which secured his place in the list of poker’s greatest ever players. He went on to add a spectacular victory at the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament in Las Vegas. That February 2005 event saw him walk out with $1,000,000.
Gus Hansen’s next big win had to wait until 2006, where he took his place at the FullTiltPoker.com London All-Star Challenge tables. This event showed the world once again why this man was one to look out for on the global poker stage. He took the top spot once again and added another $100,275 to his ever-growing bankroll. He continued to appear and win at various tournaments all over the world, and by 2017 he’d amassed an incredible $11,250,000 from live poker tournaments.
Gus Hansen: Achievements at a Glance
Let’s take a quick look at Gus Hansen’s achievements to date. There are too many to mention, so this gives you a flavor of his most significant cashes and titles.
Gus Hansen Net Worth
Gus Hansen’s net worth has taken a hit or two over the years as he’s reported to have lost big money in live games. Big Game Las Vegas is one such example, where he lost over a million dollars. His history on Full Tilt Poker wasn’t the best for his net worth either, and in 2015 he had losses on the website of around $22 million, which is an unbelievable amount of money.
When you read that, you probably think that Gus Hansen hasn’t got much of a net worth left, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He set up his own poker playing site back in 2003, which he sold to gambling giant Betfair for $15,000,000 in 2005. Gus is also a highly successful sports bettor and professional gambler in other fields. Although we can’t put an exact number on Gus Hansen’s net worth today, we can be sure that he’s doing alright for himself.
If we only look at poker winnings, then Gus Hansen’s net worth is $1.7 million.
Personal Life
Hansen isn’t married but spends much of his time with his parents and siblings. It’s been rumored that he is dating Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, which would make sense given his love of the sport that he previously played at a high level. His losses in poker have certainly caused him some problems, but he’s living a much quieter life than he did in the past. The Dane is still playing poker, but his focus now seems to be more on his family and his private life.
He’s made many training videos to assist aspiring poker players and still has a keen interest in Backgammon. He used the same website for his blog and also helped players with any questions they might have about the game that gave and took so much from this Dane. We expect Gus will settle down and start a family himself at some point in the near future, but that is, of course, something we won’t hear much about. Gus Hansen maintains his privacy and doesn’t like to be in the media spotlight.
Conclusion: An Ode to the Great Dane of Poker
There’s no doubt that the professional poker career of Gustav ‘Gus’ Hansen places him among the very best of the lot. Hansen stands as arguably the best poker player that Denmark has ever gifted to the world. His intuition, expert analysis of games, and a record of taking calculated risks have made him well-loved by poker fans globally.
As things stand right now, it’s unclear whether Hansen has any desire to dip his toes back into the poker pool as he did in the past. One thing is for sure, though, if and when he does make a comeback, he’ll be as entertaining as ever to watch.
If Hansen still has the magic, then this Dane will inevitably hold his own among the current elite poker players.