Is Gus Hansen broke? Is his online poker “career” over? How big is the Gus Hansen net worth anyway, that he can keep on burning through millions playing the highest online poker stakes? These are all related and popular questions that we will discuss in our very first edition of Readers Choice, where our fans choose the topic, and we write about it! Go ahead and give your opinion for what next month’s topic should be in the Readers Choice box directly to the right. But for now, dear readers, enjoy Part 1 of this two-part series.

Gus Hansen online poker results

Gus has been all over the poker news sites and forums for many months now, everyone discussing whether or not he is a degenerate and wondering if he will ever again have what it takes to defeat the top online poker players. That’s not surprising considering he lost a shocking $8.48m in 2013 playing online poker, and a staggering 60 brand new 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider’s worth in total since his online statistics started being recorded in May 2007 (read $15.1m!), according to High Stakes DB.  It hurts just looking at his online results graph…

While many are contemplating whether or not Gus Hansen still has it what it takes to compete against the best poker pros in the world, one thing is for sure, he is an incredibly skilled poker player who has built up an impressive resume since he started playing professionally in 1997.

Gus Hansen’s greatest poker successes to date

Not only does Gus rank Number 1 on the Denmark All Time Money List, but he has amassed a whopping $11,240,677 through live recorded tournaments according to The Hendon Mob. Hansen’s biggest cash came from a first place in the 25k WPT Championship Event back in 2008 for an impressive $1,7m and he was the first player to win three WPT titles.

Although Gus has had some major downswings in online poker, he did have a massive heater between the months of October 2010 and March 2011, during which time he banked an incredible 8 million dollars just playing online. The Great Dane’s past poker achievements don’t stop there either – he is a regular in the high stakes live cash games which have probably paid him off handsomely over the years, considering all the wealthy businessmen who play those stakes. In January last year it was reported he made close to $4m in one week from the Macau cash games alone.

Known for his ultra loose and hyper aggressive play, Hansen is a highly valued TV poker personality and has accordingly appeared on multiple Poker TV shows. He was a Full Tilt Poker Pro up until Black Friday, but he has been resigned since then.

How it all went wrong for the Great Dane

Gus has spent most of his online “career” in the red, but his biggest downswing prior to last year’s was between May and December 2009, during which time he lost just over $8m. However, unlike many media-shy high stakes online poker pros, Gus is not afraid of the camera and actually revealed some interesting information about his 2013 downswing in a recent interview with FlopTurnRiver.

He stated 3 main reasons for the downswing: feeling rusty from not having played in such a long time online, being “a little sloppy” by leaving the TV on in the background while playing and finally the fateful variance.

Next, read Part 2 of this article where we discuss the common “Gus Hansen Net Worth” question as well as whether or not he will ever have what it takes to take on the top online pros.