- published: 06 Jul 2013
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Gustav "Gus" Hansen (born Gustav Jacobsen on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen, Denmark) is a professional Danish poker player who lives in Monaco. 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.
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) 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]
Hansen started playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz, California. 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.
Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr. (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables. Ivey is regarded by numerous poker observers and contemporaries as the best all-around player in the world today.
Ivey first began to develop his poker skills by playing against co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990s. One of his nicknames, "No Home Jerome", stems from the ID card he secured to practice in Atlantic City, New Jersey in his teenage years. His other nickname is 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'.
As of 2012[update], his total live tournament winnings exceed $16,000,000. $5,294,840 of his total winnings have come from cashes at the WSOP. He is currently ranked 2nd on the all time money list behind Erik Seidel.
Ivey's tournament accomplishments include winning three bracelets at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr, Ted Forrest, and Puggy Pearson for most tournament wins in a single year (Jeff Lisandro has also since tied the record). Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table. In addition to his eight World Series bracelets, Ivey has had great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 four times between the 2002 World Series of Poker and the 2009 World Series of Poker. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, 20th in 2005 and 7th in 2009.
Thomas Dwan Jr. (born July 30, 1986) 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.
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, 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.
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" 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.