42 replies to this topic

[oldadmin]

Tournament Accomplishments:6th on All-Time Money Leader on the WPT $2,161846Only player with three WPT Titles Six total cashes on the WPT24th on All-Time Money ListOnly One cash at the WSOPWon the Bad Boys of PokerWon the Superstars InvitationalTotal tournament earnings: $3,294,588Cash Game Accomplishments: If you've ever seen Gus on television you'd know one thing for sure: Gus has a lot of gamble in him. Gus will regularly play in the biggest cash games in the world as high as $4000-$8000 mixed with the world's best players.Best game: No Limit Hold'em. Gus also has a great imagination for 2-7 triple draw but his brute aggression he utilizes in no limit hold'em make it his best game.Worst Game: 7 Card Stud H/L. For some reason he just doesn't get this game. If you asked Gus what his worst game was I’m certain he'd agree, it just doesn't click for him. Strengths: Math skills. That may sound strange to most but everything Gus does is rooted in mathematics. Gus is arguably the best backgammon player in the world and has transferred those skills to the poker table. His approach to the game is closer to mathematically optimal than the approach of say, a David Sklansky type. Weaknesses: He can be too reckless at times. It's a fine line between genius play and just plan maniacal play and Gus often flirts with that line on a regular basis. Also his approach isn't as perfectly suited for cash game play as it is for tournament play.Cash Games: 6Tournaments: 8 Emotional Stability: 6 Heart: 8 Short Handed: 8.5 Ring Game: 6 No Limit Hold'em: 9Other notes: Gus' style is often misunderstood as "lucky" since he appears to take the worst of it so often in rather large pots. What people don't often realize is that on television you don't see the whole picture. They don't show all of the money Gus picks up in between by forcing his opponents into submission while they wait to trap him. A Gus like image is the perfect image to have for tournament poker. Gus has proven that he has the guts to call big bets with weak hands and will keep coming at you like a bull. There is no easy defense against that other than to try to outwit him after the flop. Some have tried to force Gus to play pre-flop poker, but in doing so they often over play their hands and leave themselves vulnerable when Gus does wake up with a hand. A perfect example of this would have been Howard Lederer's approach to playing Gus in the Superstars event. Howard tried to force Gus out before the flop by making huge re-raises which ultimately was his demise.

[Trump246]

Gus, well he's hard too describe. He play's fast and aggressive. Mixing up his game so well that no one ever thinks he has a hand. He is ultimatly one of the most antimidating players in the industry, and has had more sucess than anyone else on the WPT. I guess we'll see if his luck will ever run out. :roll:

[RikyRicardo]

Doyle said in SS2 that he often entered pots with the worst hand and caught his draws.... but is winning a race lucky, do you make big bets with outs to go.... always... Gus like Doyle, rarely makes bluffs (pure bluffs). His biggest strength is his ability to play strong hands, as hard as draw, or semi-weak ones. HE also has a great ability to put a player on a hand. I.E. Bad boys of poker... against Antonio, "I have T8s, I have to call" he knew he was racing... not a 20% dog. He also knew T9s against a baby pair "55" and under is actually a favorite. I would/do hate to play against good maniacal players like Gus. He is very aggressive and scares the best of them. Phil H couldn't play against Gus, he would get run over, like Hoyt ran him over. Phil is one the best players in the world, but can't handle some irrational behavoirs at the table, like 85s in a 10 man game, just doesn't make sense to him

[Pokerghost2]

this guy will get his good hands paid off for life. i would probably just pop all in with top pr if i were against him and hope he hadnt already hit his miracle. I think one mistake people make with gus is calling him too much.On one of my wpt dvds i thought paul phillips had an excellent strategy against gus.Reraising him big and even restealing against him. Calling him down is not the answer, but who knows what is? Scariest player out there.

[Swift_Psycho]

Pokerghost2 said:

this guy will get his good hands paid off for life. i would probably just pop all in with top pr if i were against him and hope he hadnt already hit  his miracle. I think one mistake people make with gus is calling him too much.On one of my wpt dvds i thought paul phillips had an excellent strategy against gus.Reraising him big and even restealing against him. Calling him down is not the answer, but who knows what is? Scariest player out there.

Paul's "counterstrategy" to Gus is commonly mistaken for just constantly re-raising him. That was not what he did. Paul explains in his own blog that the WPT just happened to show a bunch of hands where he came over the top of Gus, just to perhaps make it look like that was in fact the counterstrategy. Paul made it clear that it wasn't. He said that the majority of hands that Gus raised, he just got out of the way. Paul didn't explain what his almighty "counterstrategy" was to Gus (if I really had one, I wouldn't share it either), but it wasn't coming over the top of him all the time.

[kerrig]

I miss all the replies about Gus being hot, from the original profile.

[JoeyCard]

Gus, love your game. Always a thrill to watch you work a final table over. Crushing dreams of wanna-be players.

[EJ]

I think Gus is one of the best poker players. He could beat anyone. Yeah he has his times where he does somthing stupid and gets caught doing it. He could beat anyone of us.And yea, i do have a huge crush on Gus...he's really really cute. (so is Daniel)

[emineric]

n/m

[greatwhite]

guys got gamble i've asked him questions online before, nice man

[GoldenTee]

I think Danny Nguyen had the perfect strategy against Gus at a WPT Final table. He simply "out-Gus'd" him by playing his own strategy against him. This forced Gus to wait for better hands and took a huge gun from his arsenal.

[jsbabe]

I really like Gus Hansen's poker game.

[lucky_charmz]

The most hillarious Gus hand ever was him drawing to one of the 3 remaining ten's against Hoyt Corkins at the Carribean Adventure WPT event when Hoyt had him dominated. Gus of course hit the ten on the river and ended up coming back to beat Hoyt. The guy's got game!

[pirana]

admin said:

Strengths: Math skills. That may sound strange to most but everything Gus does is rooted in mathematics. Gus is arguably the best backgammon player in the world and has transferred those skills to the poker table. His approach to the game is closer to mathematically optimal than the approach of say, a David Sklansky type.

Please explain how Hansen's approach is mathematically optimal. I thought Sklansky utilizes mathematical and game theory, while Hansen puts more value in aggression. Don't you have a higher expected value in waiting for good hole cards instead of raising on such low cards?

[lucky_charmz]

[quote name='"pirana"][quote=admin]Strengths: Math skills. That may sound strange to most but everything Gus does is rooted in mathematics. Gus is arguably the best backgammon player in the world and has transferred those skills to the poker table. His approach to the game is closer to mathematically optimal than the approach of say' date=' a David Sklansky type.[/quote']Please explain how Hansen's approach is mathematically optimal. I thought Sklansky utilizes mathematical and game theory, while Hansen puts more value in aggression. Don't you have a higher expected value in waiting for good hole cards instead of raising on such low cards?[/quote}Gus' math skills come into play AFTER he has put his opponent on a hand in which is getting good odds to call. For example, during the WPT Bad Boys of Poker night Gus called Antonio Esfandiari's all-in with 10-8o. Obviously not the greatest cards, but Gus knew that this hand was just under a 50% favourite against a baby pair (ie the two 5's that Antonio had). Because of his read and the fact that the math showed him that he was getting the right price to call, Gus made the call and ended up hitting his ten on the river (i think) and busting Antonio.

[Swift_Psycho]

lucky_charmz said:

Gus' math skills come into play AFTER he has put his opponent on a hand in which is getting good odds to call. For example, during the WPT Bad Boys of Poker night Gus called Antonio Esfandiari's all-in with 10-8o. Obviously not the greatest cards, but Gus knew that this hand was just under a 50% favourite against a baby pair (ie the two 5's that Antonio had). Because of his read and the fact that the math showed him that he was getting the right price to call, Gus made the call and ended up hitting his ten on the river (i think) and busting Antonio.

This was a reasonably good example of Gus's instincts and use of mathematics in his game. Though, your memory of this particular hand is incredibly poor. Antonio had 7's, Gus had T-8 sooted and Gus hit an 8 on the flop and it held up.I'm also not sure this is the best example to bring your point across however, I don't think Gus really cared if he won or not and looked like he was just playing for shits and giggles. The prize was a seat to the 25k championship and he already had one locked up at the time.

[copernicus]

[quote name='"lucky_charmz"][quote name='pirana][quote=admin]Strengths: Math skills. That may sound strange to most but everything Gus does is rooted in mathematics. Gus is arguably the best backgammon player in the world and has transferred those skills to the poker table. His approach to the game is closer to mathematically optimal than the approach of say' date=' a David Sklansky type.[/quote']Please explain how Hansen's approach is mathematically optimal. I thought Sklansky utilizes mathematical and game theory' date=' while Hansen puts more value in aggression. Don't you have a higher expected value in waiting for good hole cards instead of raising on such low cards?[/quote}Gus' math skills come into play AFTER he has put his opponent on a hand in which is getting good odds to call. For example, during the WPT Bad Boys of Poker night Gus called Antonio Esfandiari's all-in with 10-8o. Obviously not the greatest cards, but Gus knew that this hand was just under a 50% favourite against a baby pair (ie the two 5's that Antonio had). Because of his read and the fact that the math showed him that he was getting the right price to call, Gus made the call and ended up hitting his ten on the river (i think) and busting Antonio.[/quote']Sklansky's approach is less than mathematically optimal because he gives up small edges that carry a risk of large losses if you get outplayed. Gus's approach is closer to optimal even pre-flop because he recognizes that you are going to catch a piece of the flop 30% of the time or so, and he is confident that he can recognize when he is ahead or has the odds to continue playing.It is very similar to his backgammon style, which is seemingly reckless early in the game in pursuit of primes/near primes, because he plays backgames so well that if his blocking gambits fail he is not a huge underdog to come back late in the game.A reasonable analogy would be Hansen:Sklansky as Hansen:Magriel

[DanielNegreanu]

Last updated on Oct 29th, 2005.

[Jusbe]

Wow, one of my favourite player, I love that aggressive approach. I mean, you can't know what this guy has. I myself play little like Gus, very unpredictable and aggressive, it makes very hard to get any read. There is no mathematical formula for Gus play, his ability to change the way he play just makes it almost impossible to play against.

[AshleyC]

The hands that Gus plays have great implied odds when he hits; and when he has premium hands he gets paid more than say Dan Harrington does when he holds a premium hand (everyone folds). Combined over all hands Gus's strategy for him gives him greater EV per hand (as he is able to get away from a hand when he realises he is beat).Also his tournament strategy may be optimal for the payout structures compared to say a cash game. For example, if a tournament pays the following: 1st $1000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250 then Gus realises that coming 1st one week and then no place the next two weeks is more profitable than coming 3rd weeks in a row. This is because of the top havy payout structure of tournaments.