The question this month concerns an idea set forth by one of poker’s most venerated players, the late David “Chip” Reese.  

Shortly before his untimely death in December 2007, Reese contributed a foreword to his friend Gus Hansen’s yet-to-be-published book Every Hand Revealed in which Reese offered some words of praise for Hansen.  Among those compliments Reese accurately notes that Hansen “is not only a very talented poker player but also a very popular one worldwide.”

To that statement Reese adds that Hansen’s “popularity among women has greatly increased female interest in poker” -- perhaps a casually-delivered observation, but intriguing in the way it suggests that an attractive male player might bring more women into the game.

What should we make of such an idea?  Before answering that question, let’s first think a little about Gus Hansen, and how his persona in the poker world has been shaped over the last eight years or so.

Last month, Gus Hansen claimed his first World Series of Poker bracelet, taking down the £10,350 buy-in heads-up no-limit hold’em event at the WSOPE in London.  The victory renewed focus on the 36-year-old Danish pro, who after early successes at the World Poker Tour and a win at the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event had perhaps moved a step or two outside of the poker limelight, relatively speaking.  

That’s not to say Hansen had ever gone away -- or that he wasn’t still making deep runs and final tables -- but rather to recognize the extreme brightness of his star from just a few years ago.  

Hansen’s three WPT titles all came during the tour’s first two seasons (the 2002 Five Diamond World Poker Classic, the 2003 L.A. Poker Classic, and the 2004 PCA).  Hansen also won another televised event during that period, the 2003 WPT “Bad Boys of Poker” invitational, thus ensuring he was a constant presence on television screens during the height of the poker “boom.”

Hansen’s reputation as a “bad boy” or “ladies man” was further secured in 2004 when People Magazine included the Great Dane in its annual list of the “50 Sexiest Men Alive.”  Hansen appeared alongside Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, Usher, and other of the world’s most handsome hotties as the only poker player on the list.  

The fact is, Hansen has always been regarded as both a top player and one of poker’s sexiest men.  In this way, we could say Hansen has occupied what has long been a classic role in the history of poker, namely, the man who wins both at cards and at romance.  Kind of a poker archetype, really (whether real or imagined) -- the player that all men want to be and that all women want to be with.

Hansen himself is obviously aware of his reputation.  While in London, he was interviewed by PokerNews’ Gloria Balding, and the pair talked about an injury Hansen had recently suffered to his Achilles’ tendon which had left him wearing a cast and needing crutches to get around the Empire Casino in London.  Balding asked him how the injury had occurred.

“Well,” Hansen grinned, “there’s obviously always an exotic version of me and three girls and a jacuzzi and things got out of hand....”

Then Hansen offered the real, decidedly less exotic explanation:  he’d hurt himself playing squash.  Hansen’s reputation -- and his awareness of such -- obviously provided inspiration for the joke.  

It is interesting to consider, actually, how the attractive male player perhaps enjoys greater freedom to make light of his reputation as one of poker’s “sexiest men” whereas the situation faced by an attractive woman who plays poker is often quite different.  Unlike Hansen, whose “ladies man” persona isn’t really connected to how he is viewed as a player, judgments of female players’ relative attractiveness often eclipse how they are rated as players.  (Such a double standard is not unique to poker, of course.)

Getting back to the question at hand, though, what are we to make of Reese’s claim about Hansen and women’s interest in the game?  Is it really feasible to think that players like Hansen -- that is, attractive men -- really can be said to have “greatly increased female interest in poker” as Reese claims?

I think there may actually be something to what Reese is saying, although I wouldn’t necessarily take his statement too literally.  In other words, I don’t believe women who see a Gus Hansen or Patrik Antonius or Chad Brown playing on television are necessarily going to be inspired to become players themselves.  That said, it is quite possible the presence of such men might keep some women from changing the channel away from the poker shows on which they appear.

Just this week, ESPN’s World Series of Poker Main Event coverage (of Day 7) included what might be called a “side plot” involving Tony Dunst, the suit-wearing young gun who may well be viewed by some as another player in line to occupy that “classic” role mentioned above of the card sharp-slash-ladykiller.

Dunst made an impressively deep run in the Main Event this year, and was shown this week playing at the feature table.  He occasionally would leave the table to sit in the stands with three women -- either friends or fans -- and even successfully secured a good-luck kiss from one when he was all in and his tourney life was on the line.

The commentators had a lot of fun with Dunst’s antics, and my sense was that like Hansen, Dunst was also quite aware of the “role” he was playing.  In that all-in hand, the suave Dunst had pocket queens and was racing against Hasan Habib’s A-K.  

“Dunst has got more than two queens,” quipped Norman Chad.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say a Dunst or Hansen necessarily encourages more women to play poker.  But having men occupying these roles probably does help keep viewers -- women among them -- engaged with the shows.

See She Said: Does Gus Hansen Make You Want to Play Poker?