Gus Hansen had an amazing year on the World Poker Tour where he was the only player to achieve last game in three of the tournaments. Gus Hansen has appeared on High Stakes Poker on The Game Show Network where he paid $400, 000 to play. You may recall one of the biggest pots in big stakes poker recorded history competing against Daniel Negreanu. Hansen secured a large pot with 4 of a kind against Daniel’s full house. Gus has made many televised poker appearances and is thought to be one of the greatest enthusiasts around the world. While competing in online poker, a different side of Hansen has emerged. Gus frequently plays in the 200/400 NL maximum buy in of Forty Thousand dollars. Hansen generally buys-in for the min of $16, 000 and plays very poorly. He waits patiently for a decent hand and then goes all in. I accept that Hansen is a great poker player but certainly not even close to the familiar players at 200/400NL. Unless he is flat broke, he has no reason to sit at the table with the minimum buy in.

Playing for the minimum takes a majority of the ability out of deep stack poker. Hansen is supposed to be one of the best players anywhere in the world but he can’t buy-in for the full amount. I think television can skew our perception of the real world sometimes. The greatest players in the world could be players you have never heard of. Gus can be found playing net poker on Full Tilt. He commonly participates in high stakes omaha high and hold’em. Gus has proven himself as a competition player. Can he back up his abilities in cash rounds?