Gus Hansen
Gus Hansen at the 2006 World Series of Poker
Nickname(s)	The Great Dane
Residence	Copenhagen, Denmark
Born	(1974-02-13) February 13, 1974 (age 38)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	1
Money finish(es)	8
Highest ITM Main Event finish	61st, 2007
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	3
Final table(s)	7
Money finish(es)	9
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	2
Information accurate as of 13 September 2010.

Gustav "Gus" Hansen (born Gustav Jacobsen on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen, Denmark) is a professional Danish poker player who lives in Monaco.^[1] In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, the 2007 Aussie Millions main event and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Before turning to playing poker professionally in 1997, Hansen was already a world class backgammon player and a youth tennis champion.

Hansen was voted one of People magazine's 50 Sexiest Men in 2004.^[2]

He calls himself a professional gambler and has been known to take private bets on various personal athletic challenges (such as a boxing match against WSOPE bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen^[3]) other than poker and professional sports. Hansen has been involved previously or currently in several online business ventures, including PokerChamps.com (now Betfair Poker), ThePlayr.com and GusHansenTV. He is also involved with Full Tilt Poker.^{[citation needed]}

Poker career[link]

Tournaments[link]

Hansen started playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz, California.^[4] while he was an exchange student at UC Santa Cruz. Hansen finished in the money in 150th place in the 2004 Main Event. In the 2006 Tournament of Champions, Hansen made a World Series of Poker final table, but lost on the very first hand with Ace King against a pair of 9s. In 2007 Hansen cashed in the money in the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em championship, coming in 61st place out of a field of 6,358 players, winning $154,194. In 2008 he came in 160th place out of a field of 6,844 players to win a prize of $41,816.

Hansen was the first player to win three World Poker Tour (WPT) open tournaments. He also won the first WPT Bad Boys of Poker invitational event. In 2004, he was inducted into the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame, along with Doyle Brunson and James Garner. On April 27, 2008 Hansen came in second to David Chiu at the Season 6 WPT Championship, earning $1,714,800. In September 2006 Hansen won the inaugural EPM event, The London All Star Challenge, eventually beating Marc Goodwin heads-up to take home the title and cheque for £53,600 ($US102,000). Hansen won the inaugural $400,000 Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament, winning the $1,000,000 first prize in a one-table event featuring some of the most well-known players today. He did not appear in the second series whilst losing to Antonio Esfandiari in the semifinals in the third.

Hansen finished in the money of the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, and also made the final table of a European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Barcelona. In 2006, Hansen was a member of the winning Danish team in the PartyPoker.com Football & Poker Legends Cup tournament, alongside Theo Jørgensen and Kim Christofte. He is currently featured in the Professional Poker Tour and the second season of High Stakes Poker, where he won the fifth biggest pot in the show's history ($575,700) when his 5♦ 5♣ defeated Daniel Negreanu's 6♠ 6♥ on a board of 9♣ 6♦ 5♥ 5♠ 8♠. He was in Singapore in November 12–17, 2006 to participate in the Betfair Asian Poker Tour. Hansen was the first winner on NBC's Poker After Dark earning him $120,000, as he outlasted a field of six pros including Phil Hellmuth and Huck Seed. In January 2007, Hansen won the $10,500 main event at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia, beating a field of 747 players to take home the A$1,500,000 first prize. His book Every Hand Revealed (ISBN 978-0818407277) is a detailed account of many of the hands he played en route to the title.

In 2010, Hansen won the £10,350 No Limit Hold'em High Roller Heads-Up event at the WSOPE, winning his first WSOP bracelet and £288,409, equivalent to $451,880. He also defeated Tony Bloom heads-up to win the Poker Million IX tournament, taking $1,000,000 for first prize.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,000,000.^[5]

World Series of Poker Bracelets[link]

Other ventures[link]

Hansen was a founding partner and house pro of the online poker site pokerchamps.com, launched in 2003. In 2005 the company and game software technology were sold to the British company Betfair, for over 100 million Danish kroner (approximately £8.8 million / 13 million euro / $15,000,000 USD). Despite the sale, Hansen was involved in a PokerChamps Danish championship in October 2005. In 2005, Hansen appeared in Texas Hold'Em Poker Advanced Strategies With Gus Hansen, which is part of the Going All In instructional series of DVDs.

In 2007, Hansen launched a poker forum and strategy website, ThePlayr.com. Prior to selling his interest in that site in 2008, it housed his blog, articles and a "Gus Tracker" to track his worldwide poker play along with other poker news, videos and content. In 2008, Hansen joined the commentary team on World Series of Backgammon, a high stakes televised backgammon tour broadcasting on Eurosport across Europe. In May 2008 Lyle Stuart Kensington published Hansen's book Every Hand Revealed, a hand-by-hand account of his triumph in the 2007 Aussie Millions. In February 2009, Hansen launched GusHansenTV branded as a free poker channel broadcast over the internet.

Losses[link]

Despite his ongoing success, Hansen has struggled with money problems, reportedly because of losses during live cash games.^[6] Hansen is a regular in the The Big Game normally held in "Bobby’s Room" at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. He has said that his losses are not a secret and has admitted to losing a million or so at a couple of games.

Bibliography[link]

• Every Hand Revealed (2008) ISBN 0-8184-0727-1

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• GushansenTV.com

Tom Dwan
Nickname(s)	durrrr
Residence	Edison, New Jersey
Born	(1986-07-30) July 30, 1986 (age 25) Edison, New Jersey
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	None
Final table(s)	4
Money finish(es)	10
Highest ITM Main Event finish	None
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	2
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	None
Money finish(es)	1

Thomas Dwan Jr. (born July 30, 1986)^[1] is an American professional poker player who regularly plays online in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker, where he plays under the screen name "durrrr". In early November 2009, Dwan became a member of Team Full Tilt.^[2]

Dwan has won prize money in live poker tournaments and has appeared on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the fourth, fifth, sixth & seventh seasons of Poker After Dark,^[3] the third and fourth seasons of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game, and the fifth and sixth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker. He attended Boston University before dropping out to pursue poker full-time.^[4][5]

Poker[link]

Online poker[link]

In March 2004 at the age of 17, Dwan began playing online poker at Paradise Poker with $50 his father had given him for his 17th birthday. He believed the alias "durrrr" ^[6] would put players on tilt if they'd lose to him. Dwan initially focused on $6 sit-and-go tournaments and ended up losing $35. With his last $15, he continued to focus on these sit-and-gos until he was able to turn a profit. After finding he could beat these games, he turned to cash games, where he built his bankroll starting at low stakes and slowly climbing his way up, eventually reaching the largest games found online. After beating multiplayer cash games, Dwan switched his focus to playing heads-up No-Limit hold 'em against other professionals, such as Frederick Halling at the $10/$20 stakes level. He challenged Prahlad Friedman at $25/$50 stakes but kept losing to him for several months, forcing him to drop to lower stakes before coming back again and again until he was able to beat Friedman.^[7]

According to HighStakesDB.com, a site that tracks high-stakes online poker action, Dwan earned $312,800 in 2007 on the Full Tilt online poker cardroom and $5.41 million in 2008,^[8] even though he has gone through several large swings throughout his career. Before the 2007 World Series of Poker, Dwan claimed to have lost, at the time, $2 million of his $3 million bankroll, over a span of four months.^[7] He was able to recover from this loss within a year. In January 2009, Dwan lost more than $3.5 million, which he managed to recover after six months. However, from late October to late December 2009, Dwan suffered his largest downswing, losing approximately $2 million to Phil Ivey and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, and $5 million to Viktor Blom^[9]

In mid November 2009, a player from Sweden using the online name "Isildur1" challenged Dwan to a series of heads-up No Limit Holdem cash games. Isildur1's foray into online high stakes cash games began in late October, when he initially lost $1.1 million to Patrik Antonius, Brian Townsend, and other high stakes players. However, by the beginning of November, Isildur1 had recovered his losses and challenged Dwan to a heads-up marathon playing six tables at a time with over a million dollars in play. By the end of the week, Isildur1 had gone on the largest run in the history of online poker, winning approximately $5 million from Dwan, prompting Dwan to issue a live challenge to play Isildur1 at the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge.^[10]

At the end of 2009, HighStakesDB.com reported that Dwan had lost $4.35 million in 2009, putting his cumulative online poker winnings at Full Tilt since January 2007 at approximately $1.4 million.^[11] HighStakesDB.com also reported that after stepping down in limits following his massive loss to Isildur1, Dwan won $2.7 million in December 2009.^[12] According to the same site, Dwan had more than recouped his 2009 losses in the first few months of 2010; he was reported to have won $1.6 million in the first two weeks of April 2010 alone,^[13] and after a session in which he won $1.6 million off Sahamies in a little over 2 hours,^[14] was up $7.3 million for the year to date as of April 21.^[15] However, in an illustration of the swings of fortune often associated with high-stakes play, Dwan lost about $4 million in the next three weeks, leaving him up about $3.3 million for 2010.^[16]

Million dollar challenge[link]

In January 2009 Dwan issued a $1,000,000 challenge to play anyone online, "with the exception of Phil Galfond", heads up for 50,000 hands 4-tabling $200/$400 or higher No-Limit Holdem or Pot-Limit Omaha. If his opponent is ahead after 50,000 hands, Dwan agreed to give them $1,500,000 more, while if Dwan is ahead, he will get $500,000.^[17][18]

Patrik Antonius and Daniel Cates are playing Dwan as part of the challenge, but no 50,000-hand challenge is yet complete.

Live tournaments[link]

Dwan was 19 when he cashed in his first live tournament, finishing 12th in the £3,000 no limit Texas hold 'em Main Event of the European Poker Tour's second season held in London, earning £7,000 ($12,398). His next cash wasn't until he was 21 years old at the World Poker Tour's 2007 World Poker Finals, $9,700 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event, where he finished 4th, earning $324,244.^[19] In January 2008, Dwan finished second at the Aussie Millions A$3,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys event, winning A$103,200 ($90,716) and later finished in 62nd place in the A$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event, good for A$25,000 ($21,976).^[19] Dwan finished second to James Michael Sowers at the 2008 WPT Borgata Winter Open in the preliminary $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event, earning $226,100.^[19][20]

Dwan cashed twice in the first year that he was eligible to play in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event held in the United States. Dwan reached the final table in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker finishing in 8th place, earning $54,144. He then nearly made another in a seven person final table, but finished again in 8th, this time in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys event, earning $45,110.^[19]

Dwan participated in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, where in his first match he defeated Phil Hellmuth in the third hand. Dwan was eliminated in the next round by Mike Matusow.^[21] At the 2008 Five-Star World Poker Classic (the $25,500 WPT Championship), Dwan finished in ninth place, winning $184,670.^[22][23]

At the 2010 WSOP in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event, Dwan finished in second place for $381,885.^[24]

In 2011, Dwan cashed three times at the 2011 WSOP, including a 5th place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for $134,480.^[25]

As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,100,000.^[26]

Live cash games[link]

Dwan holds the record for the largest pot won in a recorded live game at over $1.1 million, which occurred during the fourth season of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game. This record broke the previous record of over $919,000 also won by Dwan in the fifth season of High Stakes Poker.^[27]

Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge[link]

Dwan’s Million Dollar Challenge was expanded to a 500 hand live heads up format in the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge. The event was held November 17 to 19, 2009, at Les Ambassadeurs Club in London and televised by Sky Sports.

The rules of the Challenge were that each player paid $250,000 for the privilege of playing, blinds were set at $500/$1,000 with each opponent having the choice of playing either Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Neither player could leave the match until at least 500 hands had been completed or one of them lost all of his buy-in and decided not to re-buy.

Dwan’s opponents were Marcello "luckexpress" Marigliano, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, and Sammy "Any Two" George respectively.^[28]

The first match between Dwan and Marigliano consisted mainly of Texas Hold’em, although the players did agree to play PLO near the end of the match. Dwan lost $22,500 which was highlighted by two bluffs by Marigliano.

In the second match between Dwan and Sahamies the players played only PLO. Although the match started surprisingly slow considering the history of online competition between Dwan and Sahamies, the match eventually became aggressive as expected. There were several large pots resulting in large swings in the players’ stacks. After 12 hours, the match concluded with Dwan winning $68,000.

The final round pitted Dwan against George in an exclusively Texas Hold’em match.^[28] During the match, the parties agreed to a 7-2 prop bet wherein if a player wins a pot with 7-2 then he earns an additional $10,000. This led to one of the most memorable bluffs in television poker when Dwan bet $479,500 on the river, all in, into a pot of only $162,000. Dwan was bluffing with 7-2 against George’s two pair (aces and sixes). George folded his two pair after much consideration even though Dwan, after making a 6x pre-flop raise, had said he had 7-2 and just wanted the blinds. George went on to lose $750,000.^[28]

Dwan made a final profit of $795,500 after winning 2 of the 3 matches.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site

Gregory "Greg" Merson is an American professional poker player living in Laurel, Maryland. He won a World Series of Poker bracelet at the 2012 World Series of Poker in the $10,000 Six Handed No-Limit Hold'em World Championship.^[1] He is an online shorthanded cash game poker professional.^[2][3] He is a member of the final table for the 2012 WSOP Main Event and the current leader in the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year points standings.

World Series of Poker[link]

His first World Series of Poker (WSOP) in the money finish was at the 2009 World Series of Poker main event where he finished 639th in a field of 6,494 for a $21,365 payday.^[4] He earned his first bracelet at the 2012 474-player $10,000 six-handed Texas hold'em World Championship.^[1] The win set a record for the shortest day of poker in the history of the WSOP, when it was extended to a fourth day and he won on the second hand of the day, according to ESPN.^[2] Other sources report that he won on the first hand of Day 4.^[1][5] On Day 3 of the event he started in 12 place out of 27 contestants.^[1]

At the 2012 WSOP, Merson finished in the money in three shorthanded (four- and six-handed) No Limit Hold 'em events prior to the main event.^[6] In addition to his bracelet, he finished 5th in the 750-person $2,500 four-handed event for a prize of $70,280^[7] and 21st in the 924-person $3,000 six-handed event for a prize of $16,850.^[8]

During Day 5 of the 2012 main event, at 4:45 PM PDT, the blinds were raised to 10,000/20,000/3,000.^[9] At a little before 6:35, Merson was busted down to 50,000 chips,^[10] meaning he nearly had to settle for a $52,718 payday and about a 150th place finish.^[11] On Day 7 of the main event, he began in 12th of 27, but was the chip leader when the field was narrowed to 12.^[12] He finished the day third in chips out of nine.^[13][14] As a result, he is the current leader in the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year race.^[14]

*does not include the 2012 Main Event

Other events[link]

Prior to his 2012 bracelet win, his biggest payout in any tournament came when he owned a 5% stake in someone who succeeded at a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, earning himself $75,000.^[2] Merson also has played online at both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker under the name gregy20723. His best result was a 2nd place finish in the 1564-person $200 + $15 July 25, 2010 PokerStars Sunday Second Chance event where he earned $40,664.^[15]

Personal[link]

Merson started playing poker with neighborhood friends in 2003.^[16] He attended University of Maryland for two and a half semesters before dropping out to play poker.^[3] At first he was not successful,^[16] so he attended a community college.^[3] He eventually tried again and became a successful short-handed cash game speciallist.^[3] He resided in Laurel, Maryland until Black Friday, when he established residence in Toronto.^[3] He also briefly lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[16] His mother's name is Donna and he has a brother.^[16]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Gregory Merson at Hendonmob.com
• Gregory Merson at Bluff Magazine
• Gregory Merson at Card Player
• Greg Merson at WSOP.com