You don’t become a world-class poker player if you don’t like the action. Many big-name poker players have betting in their blood, and prop bets and sports betting often go hand in hand with players. Doyle Brunson claims to have lost millions on sports betting and golf. Gus Hansen is another notorious sports bettor who has dumped a large portion of his poker profit to the books.

Daniel Negreanu and his friends Eric Lingren and Gavin Smith spend their entire day dropping bets on just about anything that walks across their path. Prop bets (position bets) are played during cash games and can often move more money around than the poker game on the table.

These players have lots of money and are living the high-roller lifestyle. They live in a gaming environment, and one can understand why many players gamble at other games with their winnings.

Well it’s all over at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and a poker prodigy has had her coming-out party in London. Eighteen-year-old Scandinavian online poker prodigy Annette Obrestad stunned the world when she outlasted the world’s best players to win a million pounds ($2,013,102). She also broke two WSOP female tournament records held by Annie Duke; one for the most money ever won in an event by a female, and the other for the most WSOP winnings by a female.

The tournament was dominated by Europeans and most of the final table was from over there. No big-name players made the final table, but the “Great Dane” Gus Hansen went out in the No. 10 position, just before the last two tables formed the final one. He managed to take home over 41,000 pounds for his efforts. Both Annie Duke and Eric Lindgren made it into the top 25 for a good payday of over 30,000 pounds.

Four of the past five Aussie Millions winners all have impressive poker careers. The first five winners were all Australians, but since 2003 only one Aussie has been able to win it.

2007 winner Gus Hansen picked up the $1.5 million (AUS) first-place prize to add to his long list of victories.

2006 winner Lee Nelson is a retired doctor who plays on the Australian poker tournament circuit and has numerous wins Down Under.

2005 winner Jamil Dia is the last local boy to win the Aussie millions.

2004 winner Tony Bloom is a London-based player who has earned over $1.5 million in tournament winnings, and he has been on numerous televised poker events.

2003 winner Peter Costa is a Greek professional player living in Vegas. He has four WSOP final tables and is a two time European Poker Player of the Year nominee.

There have been numerous big-name players who made a name for themselves winning on the WPT over the last five years. Until the WSOP brand started a circuit schedule, the WPT was the only big tournament schedule during the entire year. Here are the top five WPT players:

1. Gus Hansen has four WPT championship titles and numerous WPT cashes. Gus is 15th on the all-time WPT money list.

2. Carlo Mortensen is second on that list and has two WPT titles, including this year’s $3.9 million first prize at the $25,000 Five Star Classic.

3. Daniel Negreanu has two WPT championships and is atop the WPT money list because of his 10 WPT final tables.

4. Barry Greenstein has three WPT titles and comes in at 20th on the all-time money list.

5. Tuan Lee has risen to third on the all-time WPT money list by winning three WPT titles in just two seasons.

Ask any number of male amateur poker players which poker pro they want to be like and odds are you’ll hear Gus Hansen’s name come up at least a few times. Why wouldn’t it? The man they call ‘The Great Dane’ is a poker champion who has won millions of dollars playing poker, is loved and feared by poker players worldwide, and was named the sexiest poker player in People Magazine’s 2004 Sexiest Man alive issue.

Before he became a famous poker player, Hansen was a world-class backgammon player and a youth tennis champ. Before choosing poker as a career Hansen tried to make ends meet as a professional backgammon player in New York in 2000. The numbers weren’t there for Hansen to make a living playing backgammon, and the poker world has paid for it ever since.

Hansen is famous for his extremely loose aggressive style of play that often leaves his opponents guessing as to what cards he has. No matter what two cards Hansen is holding he could raise or bluff the pot at any time. This style of play has brought him tremendous success on the WPT circuit.

He is the only player to win three WPT open tournaments. He also was the winner of the first WPT Bad Boys of Poker invitational tournament. In 2004, the WPT inducted him into the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame, along with Doyle Brunson and James Garner.

Hansen has also had plenty of success away from the WPT. This includes winning the first Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and the first EPM event, the London All Star Challenge.

One of the most popular poker videos you can find on the internet is of Hansen winning the biggest pot ever on High Stakes poker, when he won $575,700 after his 5-5 defeated Daniel Negreanu’s 6-6 when the board showed 9-6-5-5-8. It’s hands like that which make people want to be Gus Hansen.

Read more about these pro poker players…