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Gus Hansen favorite to be 2007 WSOP Top Scandinavian Player

by Thomas Jensen on Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Gus Hansen favorite to be 2007 WSOP Top Scandinavian Player Gus “Great Dane” Hansen was born on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to becoming a poker player, Hansen was a world class backgammon player who hoped to make backgammon his living, but the field was too small to suit him. In his youth, Hansen was a tennis champion, and played various other sports competitively as well.

BetUS.com has made Gus Hansen the favorite at +900 odds to be the top Scandinavian player at the 2007 WSOP.

Hansen was introduced to poker in Santa Cruz, California as an exchange student studying at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He fell in love with the game playing with schoolmates. Hansen became notorious for raising or bluffing with almost any two cards, which often leads opponents to call or raise his bets when Hansen has a legitimate hand. This strategy seems to work well enough for him; his total live tournament winnings are currently just shy of $5 million.

While Hansen has played in numerous World Series of Poker events, he has not done incredibly well. In 2004 he managed into the prize pool placing 150th in the Main event, then in the 2006 Tournament of Champions he made the final table, but was eliminated in the very first hand when his A-K failed to improve against a pair of 9’s.

Hansen has done considerably better on the World Poker Tour, being the only player to win three WPT Open tournaments. Hansen also won the first World Poker Tournament Bad Boys of Poker Invitational, and in 2004 was inducted into the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame with Doyle Brunson and James Garner.

BetUS.com has posted poker odds on the Top Scandinavian poker player at the 2007 WSOP:

Gus Hansen +900

Juha Helppi +1000

William Thorsson +1100

Johnny Loddon +1200

Patrik Antonius +1200

Mads Andersen +1500

Martin De Knijff +1600

Bo Sehlstedt +1800

Lars Bonding +1800

Daniel Larsson +2000

Johan Storakers +2000

Erik Sagstrom +2000

Bengt Sonnert +2000