Gus Hansen had a wonderful year on the World Poker Tour where he was the only participant to achieve final poker table in three of the tournaments. Gus Hansen has been seen on High Stakes Poker on The Game Show Network where he paid $400, 000 to play. You may remember one of the largest pots in high stakes poker history up against Daniel Negreanu. He won a big pot with 4 of a kind against Daniel’s full house. Gus has earned many televised poker appearances and is considered to be one of the strongest enthusiasts around the world. While gambling on net poker, a different side of Hansen has been seen. He often plays in the 200/400 No Limit maximum buy-in of $40, 000. Gus more often than not buys in for the min of Sixteen Thousand dollars and gambles very weak. He sits there waiting for a good hand and then goes all in. I accept that Gus is an outstanding poker player but certainly not even close to the everyday players at 200/400NL. Unless he is bankrupt, he has little or no reason to settle at the game with the minimum buy in.
Playing for the minimum takes a majority of the expertise out of big stack poker. Gus is assumed to be one of the greatest poker players in the world but he cannot buy-in for the full dollar value. I think tv can skew our perception of the real world every now and then. The best players in the world may be guys you have won’t have heard of before. Gus can be seen playing web poker on Full Tilt. He generally participates in big stakes omaha/8 and texas hold’em. Gus has shown himself as a competition player. Can he use his skills in money games?