By Bob White - Jan. 28, 2004

There's a new star on the rise in the poker world. Known just a few years ago primarily among the Danish competitive backgammon community as Mama Lustra Spillertruppen #9601, those in the professional poker world have quickly come to know him by his more familiar moniker: Gus Hansen. Born Gustav Hansen in Copenhagen, this intense young Dane has, in short order, become one of the fastest rising tournament poker players in the business. He's made four final WPT tables in the past year and a half, and won three of them, netting close to 1.5 million dollars in the process. He will soon be one of the game's most recognizable figures.

So how is it that Gus Hansen has catapulted from relative obscurity, playing backgammon with a small club team in a tiny country, to center stage in what is arguably the fastest growing spectator sport in the United States?

"Not to say that I am a great player or anything, but somebody has to win."

Okay, well, it's not really that simple. Or is it? It's tough to get a bead on Gus Hansen. Experienced player Freddy Deeb exclaimed after Gus felted him on his way to winning his first title, the WPT Season 1 World Poker Classic at Bellagio, "he played very bad." Little did anyone imagine at the time, this was only the beginning of the throbbing headaches Gus Hansen would be giving to the elite players of the tournament poker world. Just ask Andy Bloch, who Gus knocked out on his way to winning his second WPT event, the Season 1 L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. On one early hand, Gus, in the big blind with 4-2 offsuit, checked the flop when it came 9-8-5, then bet the turn when a 10 hit. Andy called with A-8, a pretty good hand, middle pair and a strong kicker. When a jack hit on the river, Gus led out again with a hand of absolute wood, and Andy folded, obviously fearing Gus's imaginary straight.

It is plays like these, even more than the times Gus actually has the nuts or catches cards to make hands, that have earned him a reputation as a player to be feared. At the poker table, the Great Dane exemplifies two totally contradictory principles: mathematical precision and reckless abandon. Some might disagree with the first part of that equation, but that's because they're dazzled by the Gus Hansen that re-raises before the flop with nothing, and haven't gotten a chance to see the calm, calculating statistician lurking inside. Said Gus, speaking on the eve of the WPT Battle of Champions:

"There's a word that's always used in backgammon, but not used very often in poker. It's "equity." 'What's your equity in a given situation?'

Much has been written on the concept of equity in backgammon, and it's most instructive to Hansen's peculiar combination of talents to get a taste of it. Take a look at just two brief definitions...

"Equity is a fundamental concept of backgammon, indeed of any game which is a mixture of skill and chance. The equity of a position is the average profit (or loss) that one would net, per game, by playing the position to conclusion an infinite number of times. It is the value of the position."
- Bill Robertie, Advanced Backgammon, Vol. 2, position 357

"In general, "equity" is "value". The word is common in financial circles, especially in accounting. In backgammon, "equity" is equivalent to "expectation" - a term used by mathematicians, especially statisticians."
- Chuck Bower, champion backgammon player, teacher, and PhD Astrophysicist

Anyone who has invested a few dollars in just about any good teaching book on poker knows that same idea of "expectation" comes up again and again. As in, do you have a positive, or negative, expectation in a particular situation, with a particular hand, vs. particular opponents? Gus elaborates...

"...just thinking along those lines, it probably makes you evaluate things a bit better. I think actually backgammon players are a little more objective than poker players generally are. So I think actually backgammon players have a little edge when they come to poker because they have a little more objectivity. They look at things a little more clearly than poker players. I think poker players look at it from one perspective. They look at it from their own perspective and that in general is not the way to look at things..."

Gus Hansen's most critical talent appears to lie in not simply playing his own hand, but instead, in his uncanny ability to play his opponent's hand. By knowing the statistical probability that, more often than not, they're no better than his own, and also that everyone is a dog to improve on the flop, it often renders his own cards irrelevant. As he says, "Of course...it's always nice to have a good hand, but the cards are not always there for a good hand....and if your opponent is not going to call, it doesn't matter what you hold. So that, in a sense, is playing your opponent's cards. You sense that he might not call this, I'm just gonna take a big chance and bluff at it..." Perhaps this is precisely the aspect of the game that gives him equity, or expectation. Determining, through the use of skillful, exploratory checks and bets, what his expectation of winning and losing on a given hand will be.

"And sometimes of course, it goes wrong, and then you pay the price." As he did at the Battle of Champions when another icy newcomer, Juha Helppi, called Gus's suited K-Q, all-in dare on the first hand of the final table, sending the Dane to the rail.

Gus Hansen is philosophical though, and has a pretty good grasp of his flaws as well as his advantages. "One of my strengths is that I definitely make mistakes that other - I would call them solid poker players - wouldn't make, but I definitely also make some good plays that they probably wouldn't dream about."

That much is unquestionable. It's said that early in Gus's career, he would turn over his cards at a showdown, and sheepishly say "I have a Gus..." Inevitably, those cards would turn out to be rags...something like 7-3 off-suit, things the average low-limit Hold 'em player would laugh at. It led to an early - and naive - impression among competitors that Gus Hansen was simply lucky. Something that Hansen doesn't mind a bit.

"I love that they think I'm lucky. I don't mind at all. I mean…let them just think I'm lucky. I think it helps me if, if people think I'm a little bit crazy because there's definitely rationale behind a lot of things I do. They might seem wacky but I'm not totally crazy... just a little bit."

With his latest victory, taking the WPT Season 2 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title and a $455,000 payout, the days of anyone thinking Gustav Hansen is simply lucky or crazy are numbered. As to his new status as the WPT all-time money leader, Gus is characteristically circumspect: "It's not bad, not bad at all..."

And neither is knowing we'll be seeing a lot more of Gus Hansen this year on the WPT.