Gus Hansen enjoyed a marvelous year on the WPT where he was the only one to make it to the closing game 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 might recall one of the largest pots in big stakes poker history up against Daniel Negreanu. Gus raked in a large pot with quads against Negreanu’s full house. Gus has earned many televised poker appearances and is thought to be one of the best players around the world. While betting on net poker, another side of Hansen has appeared. Gus often plays in the 200/400 No Limit max buy-in of $40, 000. Gus more often than not buys-in for the min of $16, 000 and plays very poorly. He sits there waiting for a good hand and then pushes all in. I know Hansen is an outstanding poker player but certainly not even close to the regular players at 200/400NL. Unless he is flat broke, he has absolutely no reason to play at the table with the min buy in.
Buying in for the min takes almost all of the skill out of big stack poker. Hansen is presumed to be one of the greatest players anywhere in the world but he can’t buy in for the total dollar value. I believe television can skew our perception of the real world sometimes. The best poker players anywhere in the world might be guys you have never heard of before. Gus can be found wagering on net poker on Full Tilt. He generally competes in big stakes Omaha and hold’em. Gus has proven himself as a competition player. Can he back up his skills in money rounds?