Gus Hansen experienced a marvelous year on the World Poker Tour where he was the only participant to make it to the last 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 recall one of the largest pots in big stakes poker history competing against Daniel Negreanu. Gus secured a huge pot with quads against Daniel’s full house. Hansen has made many televised poker appearances and is considered to be one of the best gamblers around the world. While playing web poker, another side of Hansen has been seen. He often participates in the 200/400 No Limit maximum buy in of Forty Thousand dollars. Hansen generally buys in for the min of Sixteen Thousand dollars and plays very weak. He waits patiently for a decent hand and then pushes all-in. I accept that Gus is an excellent poker player but certainly not even close to the familiar players at 200/400NL. Unless he is penniless, he has absolutely no reason to settle at the table with the minimum buy in.
Playing for the min takes almost all of the skill out of big stack poker. Gus is assumed to be 1 of the best players anywhere in the world but he can’t buy-in for the total dollar value. I think tv can skew our perception of the real world sometimes. The best players anywhere in the world may be players you have will not have heard of before. Gus can be seen playing web poker on Full Tilt. He commonly competes in high stakes Omaha and Holdem. Gus Hansen has proven himself as a competition player. Can he back up his abilities in cash rounds?