Hansen Poker Player
- Gus Hansen, from Copenhagen, Denmark, is probably most well-known for his hyper-aggressive gambling playing style. “The Great Dane” originally began his skill game career with backgammon in his native country and this fast-action game most likely had an influence on his style as a poker player.
- Hansen stands as arguably the best poker player that Denmark has ever gifted to the world. His intuition, expert analysis of games, and a record of taking calculated risks have made him well-loved.
Gus Hansen is a person from Copenhagen, Denmark. Danish poker player who won several World Poker Tour titles and was named among People magazine’s 50 Sexiest Men in 2004. Continue to next page below to see how much is Gus Hansen really worth, including net worth, estimated earnings, and salary for 2020 and 2021.
When you think of the “Godfather of Poker,” you probably think of Doyle Brunson. However, when it comes to being the “Godfather of Norwegian Poker,” that honor goes to the late Thor Hansen, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 71 after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Hansen, who many believe is worthy of the Poker Hall of Fame, was active in poker while he fought the cancer, and while those in the know were aware of his health issues, the larger poker community wasn’t. Now, more than two years after his death, Hansen’s story is being told in the new poker documentary “Smile” by filmmakers Kari Wåle and Linn Amundsen.
Gus Hansen Poker Player
The 75-minute film is available now on Vimeo and offers an intimate look at Hansen’s life, particularly his later years while he dealt with his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Here’s a look at the film’s description:
An extraordinary poker talent sends the young Norwegian Thor Hansen on a life journey as an international poker star in Las Vegas. For 23 years he lives a jet-set life, with hundreds of thousands of dollars to play for daily. He becomes a two-time world champion, and is given the nickname 'The Godfather'. But in 2012, his life changes dramatically as Thor is diagnosed with incurable cancer. He returns to Norway with his American wife Marcella, and is predicted six months left to live. But a death sentence is just a new challenge for a man who is used to winning, even with lousy cards on his hands.
Hansen, born June 23, 1947, was a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with just shy of $3 million in lifetime earnings dating back to 1987. Not only that, he played in high-stakes cash games, including as a personal recruit of Larry Flynt in the mid-1990s. In 1999, he married Marcella Braswell, who is featured prominently in the documentary. They were together until his passing on December 5, 2018.
Q&A w/ the Director
PokerNews had the opportunity to chat with Linn Amundsen, one of the directors of the documentary, who opened up about the experience, challenges, and of course the subject himself, Thor Hansen.
When and how did you meet Thor Hansen? What was your relationship?
In Norway poker has actually been forbidden to play, and in a way still is. You can play at home with maximum 10 people and about 100 dollars each, but playing bigger tournaments are not allowed. Except once a year since 2015 there has been the Norwegian championship – in Norway. Every year there is also the Norwegian championship in Dublin, because of these restrictions.
In the championship arranged in Oslo in 2015, we were doing a job for the Norwegian blood cancer society. They were selected to get the profit from this arrangement, and we were doing the ideal advertising for them. Since these small films were screened among people interested in poker, we wished to do a poker-related film, and we then needed two actors. One we had already found, but when we searched in the poker society Thor Hansen`s name came up. We were told that he was the “Godfather” in Norwegian poker and that he also had cancer.
We set up a meeting to discuss his little actor role, and fell in love with him in the first meeting. We then asked if we could make a documentary film about his life, and he responded: “Why not?”
This is the film we made with Thor for the blood cancer association:
How would you describe Thor Hansen as a person? Likewise, how would you describe his battle with cancer?
Thor was a very charismatic person. He was very friendly and interested in people. He had an adventurous life and had almost never had a normal job. He has won so much money, but also wasted all of it since he was a notorious gambler. We met some dealers when we were filming in Dublin, and asked them some questions about Thor. One person started crying when she started talking about him. So many people loved him because he showed real interest in other people.
He knew their names and knew where they came from. When he sat by the poker table, he talked with people, sang stanzas from old songs, and was always in a good mood. Maybe this was also one of his great skills at the poker table, he got to know people and could easier read them.
I think he was a curious and easy-going soul, who lived one day at a time, and this was maybe an advantage when he got his cancer illness. The doctors in the US gave him sixth months to live. When he got back to Norway, he received more than 300 chemotherapy treatments and lived for six years, playing poker to the end.
What inspired you to make this film?
We got inspired by Thor and the way he lived his life. Not his notorious gambling, but to live life to the fullest and enjoy life as much as possible in any situation. While shooting this film we had other projects going on at the same time, so we didn´t have much time to apply for financial support.
'We thought Thor deserved this film, and we also got the impression that he was a bit proud that we were making a film about his life.'
Kari, my business partner, co-director, and best friend had also had cancer some years earlier, so we knew a lot about this disease. While filming Thor, she unfortunately got a recurrence of cancer and was actually in the same situation as Thor, since there was no cure for her cancer either. When we had been filming Thor for a year or so, and Kari became sick again, it became more important to complete the film, even though we had to pay the expenses ourselves. We thought Thor deserved this film, and we also got the impression that he was a bit proud that we were making a film about his life.
What has been the reception of the film thus far?
We showed it for the first time in Dublin in 2019, under the Norwegian Poker Championship. About 150 people watched it there, mainly men. Most of them were crying after watching the film, and of course, many people knew Thor. We were there with his wife Marcella, and it was very touching to see all the guys after the screening. If Thor was there in his spirit, he would have been very proud, I think.
What were some of the challenges associated with making this documentary?
The main challenges were that we had other big projects during the three years of filming, so we had to try to plan recordings with him in between those. And we had to do the filming when Thor had the energy. Sometimes we had planned to do some filming, but Thor didn´t feel well so we had to postpone our plans. We really wanted to go to Las Vegas with him, but this was not possible because of the other projects we had. Besides that, we also had very little money for the project.
What were some of the highlights for you while making the documentary?
The highlight for us making the film was to get to know Thor and his lovely wife Marcella. She was not into poker at all, but gave him so much love and caring during his disease. Every time he had been to a tournament he was so exhausted, but after being in her care for a few days he had renewed his energy.
It was also very interesting to get an insight in the world of poker. We tried to play a few times, but that was really scary.
Can you give us an update on Marcella? How about Thor´s friend Steinar?
Steinar, who you see a lot in this film, also died just before Christmas. So that was really sad.
Marcella stayed in Norway after Thor died. She went to some Norwegian classes and her goal is to find a job here. Last summer she went back to the US to catch up with her family, but she had a really tough time, because she lost a young family member to the Covid-19 while she was there. She came back to Oslo a few months ago and is still in great grief because of all her losses the last couple of years.
How did you get noted musician Angelina Jordan to do music?
Kari, my co-owner of Zacapa Film, edited a music video with Angelina Jordan about five years ago. Then we got to know her family. Some years ago, we applied for funding on an idealistic project about bullying together with Angelina and her grandmother, who is also a great artist. Unfortunately, we did not manage to get the financial support and a bit later they moved to the States. I think Angelina liked the song “Smile”, which was important for her. Her uncle is her manager, and he is interested in poker and also liked our film about Thor.
How can poker fans watch the film?
Poker fans can watch the film on Vimeo here.
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Of all the poker players that fans love but don’t understand, Gus Hansen might be at the top of the list. An enigma, Gus Hansen may have written a poker book, the hugely popular Every Hand Revealed, but he has also walked out of tournaments when the chip leader, gone from zero to hero to win from nowhere and disappeared for years at a time. Gus Hansen is a unique poker player who has won and lost millions playing the game we all love.
THE EARLY YEARS OF THE GREAT DANE
In the 1999 movie the Talented Mr. Ripley, Jude Law’s character Dickie Greenleaf states: ‘Everybody should have one talent, nobody should have more than one talent’ to the Ripley of the title. He clearly never met Gus Hansen, whose early years consisted of not one but three major talents that the Danish legend was using to his advantage. That was literally the case when it came to his sporting passion of tennis, in which he was a champion during his youth. He then turned his attentions to backgammon, where he became one of the world’s best players. Finally, not long after the release of the Talented Mr. Ripley, the turn of the millennium gave way to a change of career – to that of a professional poker player.
A HOT STREAK CREATES A HERO
To say that Gus Hansen timed his run at poker well would be a bit like saying Robin Hood had a knack for firing arrows. Hansen’s first ranking title win was in 2002, where he won $556,460 by taking down the $10,000-entry Five Diamond World Poker Classic, defeating a final table that included John Hennigan and Scotty Nguyen and saw John Juanda finish as runner-up. Both Hansen’s next two cashes were victories too, the first of which was the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event, which he won for another half a million dollars just a few months before Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event.
Can @GusHansen get away or will he pay off @Scott_Seiver? Watch this PLO hand and then watch $3,000/$6,000 10-Game Mix action LIVE on PokerGO!
▶️ https://t.co/5rUlItuiNKpic.twitter.com/3WR2LK6FmC
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) December 13, 2018
THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN
More victories followed, with the Poker Superstars Invitational Event just one of them, Hansen outlasting Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey in the final three to take the top prize of a million dollars, his first seven-figure score. It would be the first of several high-profile million-dollar results. The next time he won a million, it was in Australian dollars too, the top prize translating to around $1.2m in U.S. Dollars as Hansen cracked Down Under, winning an Aussie Millions Main Event final table that included Andy Black and runner-up Jimmy Fricke.
By the time he played the Full Tilt Poker ‘Poker Million’, he had already a superstar of the game, winning his only WSOP bracelet to date in the £10,000-entry Heads-Up event at the World Series of Poker Europe in London. The title-deciding match against James Collopy came after players such as Ram Vaswani, Neil Channing, Daniel Negreanu, and Huck Seed all finished close but not close enough.
Thor Hansen Poker Player
The Poker Million, however, was something entirely different. It was a million dollars to the winner… but nothing to anyone else. You needed minerals of steel to take it down, and at a final table that boasted a who’s who of the game at the time – players such as British luminaries Tony Bloom, Gary Peniket, James Bord and Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman and International stars such as Seth Webber, Howard Lederer and Patrik Antonius – Hansen had what it took. Here was a poker hero who could beat all contenders if everything was on the line. The bigger the risk, the bigger he liked it. The Great Dane was unbeatable.
BLACK FRIDAY AND ONLINE SWINGS
Gus Hansen Poker Player
To say that 2011 hit online players hard would be to master the understatement. Hansen was a Full Tilt pro and as such, was associated with the disaster that was Black Friday more than most. Over the years, Hansen has had a love/hate relationship with online poker. Rumors have always surrounded him that suggests he is a losing player and has even lost as much as $20 million. The true figure in Hansen’s profit and loss columns may never be known but it seems unlikely to us that Hansen, that smartest of players, would ever allow himself to run dry. He’s too good at the game and has always found a way back in. One example of this came in a poker tournament in London around a decade ago. Hansen was chip leader and in pole position to seal the victory. Hearing of a lucrative backgammon game that he wouldn’t want to miss, Hansen left the poker table, and played backgammon for the highest stakes, allowing his stack to simply blind away. He knew where the most money was to be made and went for it.
The legend of Gus Hansen isn’t confined to his book Every Hand Revealed, just like it isn’t restricted to his efforts in poker, backgammon or tennis. There is a lot more to Gus Hansen than what meets his eye, and the end of his story is still a long way off. The only certainty when it comes to the Great Dane is that he’ll be back… and probably even bigger and better than ever before.
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