Gus Hansen Bio

Gus Hansen has had a competitive spirit all of his life. He started off as a champion youth tennis player and eventually moved over to backgammon as his game of choice. Hansen actually attempted to become a professional backgammon player at one point, but the money in backgammon was not great. As a result, he turned his attention to poker.
Gus Hansen

Hansen became a household name as the result of the World Poker Tour. From 2002 to 2004, there wasn’t a more dominant player in the poker world than Hansen. He won an epic 4 WPT titles and nearly $1.8 Million. He became known as a hyper aggressive player that would play any holding imaginable. Hansen was truly the first to master the ATC method of poker. ATC is known as any two cards. After his broadcasts aired, many players tried, most unsuccessfully to emulate his method.

Hansen made his first Million dollar payday in 2005 when he won the Poker SuperStars invitation for a cool $1 Million. He would then go on to win the Main Event of Aussie Millions in 2007 for a payday of over $1.19 Million. Hansen’s largest payday to date occurred in 2008. He finished runner up at the WPT Championship for a payday of over $1.7 Million.

While Hansen has had legendary success on the WPT, he still has yet to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. In fact, he has yet to make the final table of an event. He has had deep runs in the 2007 and 2008 Main Event’s, but otherwise he really has not had much traction. He is among the players that are considered the greatest players to have never won a bracelet.

In addition to NL Holdem, Hansen is an accomplished Pot Limit Omaha player. In fact, when Hansen plays online, the pros line up to face him. His swings online are epic. He has been known to win Millions in a short amount of time and also regularly drop Millions to the best players in the world. He plays with the same type of aggressiveness in Omaha that he does in Holdem. In recent months, he has actually posted solid wins at Full Tilt Poker, making some pros wonder if he is running good or if maybe Hansen has begun to figure them out.

One of Hansen’s keys to success is his ability to play after the flop. He is able to put his opponents on hands and can smell weakness in most of his opponents. Part of this is the reason he is able to play marginal hands such as 10-3 and other holdings when most players would throw them in the muck. His playing style is so unpredictable, many times, he can get players to bluff into him when he holds the good and have them check to him when he is drawing or holding air.

Unpredictability of play is one of Hansen’s greatest strengths both in Holdem and in Omaha. He has been frustrating players of all skill levels for years and at only 35, he will continue to frustrate players for decades to come.