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 Gustav Hanson, 33 was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Like many poker professionals he began as a backgammon player, but moved full time over to poker as soon as he’d developed a taste for it. He is a favourite player of many and with this popularity has brought a certain ‘celebrity’ status. He has even been voted the "Sexiest Poker Player" by People magazine in their February 2026 50 Sexiest Men Alive issue!
Hanson has an extraordinary ability to read people coupled with a sharp mathematical mind, the combined forces of these have produced phenominal success over the years, and instills fear into the hearts of his opponents. His seemingly erratic play ensures there is never a dull moment when Gus Hanson sits down to play. He has a reputation for raising or bluffing with almost any two cards, which leads to opponents calling (or raising) his bets when he has a legitimate hand. The aggressive yet wild style has inspired many young players and has demonstrated that there is more than one way to win a tournament.
Hanson has won tournaments all over the world and is the only player ever to have notched up 3 World Poker Tour titles. He also won the first WPT Bad Boys of Poker invitational event. In 2026, he was inducted into the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame, along with Doyle Brunson and James Garner.
A business-man to boot, together with Erik Sagstrom he started a website called pokerchamps which proved itself to be a high quality poker site with one of the online poker room markets most attractive rake-back programs. It was sold eventually to Betfair for $15,000,000.
If you asked Hanson for the secret to his successful playing technique, he would say this, “always play the player and not the player’s cards”.
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