Gus Hansen

They call him the Great Dane. Gus Hansen took the poker world by storm and defines the unpredictable player.









Gus "Great Dane" Hansen

Born near Copenhagen, Denmark, Gus grew up into a life of activity, playing tennis and soccer. For a boy on the path to being a jock, however, Hansen had not only a head for numbers but a love for them as well. He took the intensity he would apply to sports and applied it to math, blending his love for numbers and competitive nature into a mastery of backgammon, a game at which he would excel.

Gus turned Backgammon Pro and began to tour, winding up in New York City and within reach of people like Phil Laak and Huck Seed, who introduced him to Texas Hold’em, at which part the stars must have aligned in the sky. Gus applied his considerable game skill to what would become a new love… and bombed. This was unacceptable, and a challenge – one that Gus would soon overcome.

By the time he had mastered the game he would develop a style of play that would take many by surprise as he played what many consider the worst hands in the game at the worst times. What seemed like random recklessness was actually a carefully considered move in a long game, a game that Gus would win.

The very first World Poker Tour event would be won by the man who quickly became known as the Great Dane. You could say the WPT and Gus came up together, and he was the first inductee into their WPT walk of fame years later.

Now Gus continues to study, analyze and reinvent his play, forever keeping his skilled opponents on their toes. We couldn’t have Celebrity Poker Deathmatch without the Great Dane, and the “conversion” to The Great DaneGerous was a fun one.