Gus Hansen had a marvelous year on the WPT where he was the only participant to achieve final game in 3 of the competitions. Gus Hansen has been seen on High Stakes Poker on GSN where he paid $400, 000 to play. You may remember one of the largest pots in big stakes poker recorded history against Daniel Negreanu. He raked in a big pot with quads against Daniel’s full house. Gus has earned many tv poker appearances and is deemed to be one of the strongest players anywhere in the world. While competing in net poker, another side of Hansen has appeared. He regularly competes in the 200/400 NL maximum buy-in of $40, 000. Hansen generally buys-in for the min of $16, 000 and gambles very weak. He waits for a good hand and then pushes all-in. I accept that Gus is an excellent poker player but certainly not even close to the everyday players at 200/400NL. Unless he is bankrupt, he has no reason to settle at the table with the minimum buy-in.
Buying in for the minimum takes almost all of the skill out of big stack poker. Hansen is presumed to be one of the greatest poker players in the world but he can’t buy-in for the full dollar value. I think tv can skew our perception of the real world sometimes. The greatest players anywhere in the world could be guys you have won’t have heard about. Gus can be seen wagering on net poker on Full Tilt. He normally competes in big stakes Omaha and texas hold’em. Gus has proven himself as a tournament player. Can he use his skills in money games?