Gus Hansen enjoyed a wonderful year on the WPT where he was the only player to achieve closing 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 may recall one of the biggest pots in big stakes poker history competing against Daniel Negreanu. He secured a huge pot with quads against Daniel’s full house. Hansen has made many tv poker appearances and is deemed to be one of the best enthusiasts anywhere in the world. While competing in net poker, another side of Hansen has emerged. He often competes in the 200/400 NL maximum buy-in of $40, 000. Hansen usually buys in for the min of $16, 000 and gambles very poorly. He waits for a good hand and then pushes all in. I believe Gus is a great poker player but certainly not even close to the everyday players at 200/400NL. Unless he is flat broke, he has absolutely no reason to sit at the table with the minimum buy in.
Playing for the minimum takes almost all of the ability out of deep stack poker. Hansen is presumed to be one of the greatest poker players anywhere in the world but he cannot buy in for the full dollar value. I think television can skew our view of the real world at times. The best poker players anywhere in the world might just be players you have never heard of. Gus can be seen playing internet poker on Full Tilt. He usually competes in high stakes omaha/8 and hold’em. Gus has proven himself as a tournament player. Can he use his abilities in cash games?