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 WSOP 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 $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em championship, coming in 61st place out of 6,358 players, winning $154,194. In 2008, he came in 160th place out of 6,844 players to win a prize of $41,816. Hansen was the first player to win three World Poker Tour 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 27 April 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, beating Marc Goodwin to take home the title and a cheque for £53,600. 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 best-known players. He did not appear in the second series, and lost to Antonio Esfandiari in the semifinals in the third series. 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 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, when his defeated Daniel Negreanu's on a board of. He was in Singapore in 12–17 November 2006, to participate in the BetfairAsian Poker Tour. Hansen was the first winner on NBC's Poker After Dark, earning $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. In 2008, Lyle Stuart Kensington published Hansen's book Every Hand Revealed, a hand-by-hand account of his win. 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. As of 2017, his total live tournament winnings exceed $11,250,000.
Despite his ongoing success, Hansen has struggled with money problems, reportedly because of losses during live cash games. Hansen is a regular in 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 dollars or so at a couple of games. He has lost $20.7 million on Full Tilt Poker as of March 2015.
Other ventures
Hansen calls himself a professional gambler and has been known to take private bets on various personal athletic challenges other than poker and professional sports, such as a boxing match against WSOPE bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen. Hansen was a member of the original Team FullTilt, and was re-signed as the first brand ambassador under the new management team of Full Tilt Poker. Hansen has been involved previously or currently in several online business ventures. Hansen was a founding partner and house professional 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. 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 February 2009, Hansen launched GusHansenTV branded as a free poker channel broadcast over the internet. In 2017, Gus Hansen said that he has been involved in a music business in Denmark but went on to declare: "it went probably as bad as my online poker career!". Hansen was voted one of People magazine's 50 Sexiest Men in 2004. In March 2018, Hansen returned on Poker After Dark to play pot-limit Omaha in a game also featuring Matt Kirk.
