Gus Hansen experienced an amazing year on the World Poker Tour where he was the only gambler to achieve final poker table in 3 of the tournaments. Gus Hansen has been seen on High Stakes Poker on GSN where he paid $400, 000 to play. You might remember one of the biggest pots in high stakes poker recorded history competing against Daniel Negreanu. Gus won a large pot with 4 of a kind against Daniel’s full house. Hansen has made many tv poker appearances and is thought to be one of the strongest players around the world. While competing in net poker, a different side of Hansen has emerged. He regularly plays in the 200/400 NL max buy-in of Forty Thousand dollars. Hansen generally buys in for the min of Sixteen Thousand dollars and gambles very poorly. He waits patiently for a good hand and then pushes all-in. I know Gus is an excellent poker player but certainly not even close to the everyday players at 200/400NL. Unless Gus is bankrupt, he has no reason to settle at the table with the minimum buy in.
Playing for the min takes a majority of the expertise out of deep stack poker. Hansen is assumed to be one of the best players anywhere in the world but he cannot buy-in for the total dollar value. I think tv can skew our view of the real world sometimes. The best players anywhere in the world may be guys you have never heard of before. Gus can be seen playing web poker on Full Tilt. He generally plays in big stakes omaha hi-low and texas hold’em. Gus Hansen has proven himself as a competition player. Can he use his talents in money games?
