Poker Player Biography: Gus Hansen

 

Poker Player Biography: Gus Hansen

Gustav Hansen was born in 1974 in Denmark. He started off as a professional backgammon player – but decided to change to poker. We don’t know why he changed his profession. What we do know is that it was one of the best moves he made because he is great at it and because it has made him somewhat of a celebrity to many poker fans.

Being a professional backgammon player gave Hansen some of the skills that are needed in playing professional poker which include; percentages, hard decision making, and calculating. With this practice under his belt it is no surprise that he started off and has continued to do well in the world of poker.

Gus Hansen is one of the few professional poker players that has the ability to read his opponents. It is a gift that is given only to a chosen few and it was seen fit to be given to Gus Hansen. This is the only way to explain how he can tell when someone is holding a winning hand or a losing hand. This is how he makes all of the great decisions that allow him to win so many hands.

It is difficult to play with Hansen because of this gift and also because he is often unpredictable and even a bit wild when he plays. Most people would not be able to play like this very often and would find themselves on one of their biggest losing streaks – but Hansen does it with style and he does it with confidence knowing that he will win.

Hansen made his mark on the poker scene and became quite wealthy after he appeared at the final table four times on the World Poker Tour. He has won a good $1.5 million in all of these events – which is more than any other professional poker players has in all of the world.

He is unusual when he plays and knows how to gain the attention of what seemed like a mundane game of poker by playing at the wrong time. It seems at first that all of the decisions he is making seem like they would go horribly wrong by the end of the hand. He also knows how to knock the other professional players off their guard and he always seems to be betting when he has absolutely nothing in his hand. Yet, that is the way he works and amazingly that is what allows him to win. He knows how to play out his winning hands and when he is stuck with a losing hand he knows how to bluff it out and turn it into a winning hand.

A few years back Hansen created his own poker site – pokerchamps.com – which he has made easy to use and without all of the graphics that make other poker sites annoying to use. His site allows players to fit four different tables on their screen. This allows them to work and improve upon their multi-table play.