Gus Hansen enjoyed a marvelous year on the WPT where he was the only one to achieve last table in 3 of the events. Gus Hansen has been seen on High Stakes Poker on GSN where he bought into the game for $400, 000. You might remember one of the biggest pots in high stakes poker recorded history up against Daniel Negreanu. Hansen raked in a massive pot with quads against Daniel’s full house. Hansen has made many televised poker appearances and is thought to be one of the greatest players anywhere in the world. While gambling on net poker, another side of Hansen has been seen. He regularly plays in the 200/400 No Limit maximum buy-in of Forty Thousand dollars. Hansen generally buys-in for the minimum of $16, 000 and gambles very weak. He sits there waiting for a decent hand and then pushes all in. I accept that Gus is an excellent poker player but not even close to the familiar players at 200/400NL. Unless Gus is broke, he has little or no reason to sit at the table with the minimum buy in.
Buying in for the minimum takes almost all of the expertise out of big stack poker. Hansen is presumed to be one of the best poker players anywhere in the world but he cannot buy in for the total dollar value. I believe tv can alter our perception of the real world at times. The best poker players anywhere in the world may be players you have won’t have heard of. Gus can be seen playing internet poker on Full Tilt. He normally competes in high stakes omaha/8 and texas hold’em. Gus Hansen has shown himself as a competition player. Can he use his abilities in money games?