I play like Gus Hansen, how come I never win?

[Shandrax]

Gus Hansen is my idol! I saw him break so many people at WPT finals with absolutely nothing, drawing out on them on the river. I love to watch his comeback against Hoyt in Foxwoods and of course I tried to copy that style of play.

My hand selection is simple: I play all hands, except pocket aces. I have seen Gus crack so many aces, that I don't want to risk getting busted with them. My favorite play is to raise with 7-2o from first position. If I get called by 2-3 players I reraise and put them all in. In contrast to Gus Hansen I never flop 7-2-2 though and I never draw out on people when I am actually a 15-1 underdog. How come he wins millions of dollars while I bust out on my very first hand every single tournament?

[imported_mlet]

come play with me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Shandrax]

Sure, I raise! Are you going to call?

[SheridanCat]

Okay, listen. This is the Beginner's Forum. It's really rude to troll here. If you want to play around with confusing and bogus information or just bust some pro's chops, go do it in the WPT/Televised Forum, they dig that kind of thing.

Regards,

T

[sexypanda]

[ QUOTE ]
Gus Hansen is my idol! I saw him break so many people at WPT finals with absolutely nothing, drawing out on them on the river. I love to watch his comeback against Hoyt in Foxwoods and of course I tried to copy that style of play.

My hand selection is simple: I play all hands, except pocket aces. I have seen Gus crack so many aces, that I don't want to risk getting busted with them. My favorite play is to raise with 7-2o from first position. If I get called by 2-3 players I reraise and put them all in. In contrast to Gus Hansen I never flop 7-2-2 though and I never draw out on people when I am actually a 15-1 underdog. How come he wins millions of dollars while I bust out on my very first hand every single tournament?

[/ QUOTE ]

You need to shave your head and make funny faces when you raise, otherwise it doesn't work.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
This is the Beginner's Forum. It's really rude to troll here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even though I admit to laughing at the post, he's right -- the chances of some beginner seeing this and thinking it's serious are pretty decent. Generally I'm all for satire without any obligation to mark it with smilies or "snark tags" (<snark>), but this probably isn't the place.

To the OP: Of course, the answer is you never win because you're playing too low, and those small-buyin tournies are unbeatable. Enter a big one where "people will respect your raise" and then you can win like that.

</satire>

[Shandrax]

No sense of humor /images/graemlins/frown.gif

Actually I thought this fits quite well to a beginners forum, because what should a beginner think of all the advice given to him when he can watch a guy on TV who violates every single rule and gets away with it?

[SheridanCat]

I actually have a great sense of humor. Really. I swear.

Your point is good, and had you gone on to make it in your original post, I wouldn't have complained.

Regards,

T

[boose_bagina]

I hate Gus Hansen's style of play. It makes me mad just watching it, even thinking about him. On a second note, if you are going to emulate a professional as a beginner, I would try Howard Lederer.

[Malachii]

Yeah I know, that a guy could dare to do things differently... and be successful!? The man must be punished.

[Hedge Henderson]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate Gus Hansen's style of play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I love it. There are very few things as good for my micro-limit bankroll as playing ring-game opponents who think they should raise with a particular hand because they saw Gus Hansen do it once on TV.

I suppose that someday a "professional poker player/do not attempt" disclaimer will be added on TV coverage, but until then...

[boose_bagina]

hmmm, is that sarcasm i sense? ouch.

[Shandrax]

That's interesting in a way. Most of his wins on TV are the direct result of bad beats. He was a huge underdog going in managed to draw out on his opponents. The funny part is that drawing out as an underdog is obviously unlikely and since it happend so often, people think that there must be some sort of skill behind it. I can guarantee you that if you go all-in with A-5 against A

[ackid]

This is funny. I just watched the WPT Battle of Champions DVD last night. Gus Hanson was the 1st one knocked out. Some baby huey w/ wrap arounds look-alike raises in ep. with A9s.
Everyone folds to Gus who's moves all in with KQs. Huey calls. The flop comes A,Q,X. Gus is sent on a plane back to Transilvainia (is that where he's from?) when he fails to improve.

[Shandrax]

There is justice in poker! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Shandrax]

Hmm, that posting got scrambled somehow.

Anyways, I try to reconstruct it....
---------------------------------

That's interesting in a way. Most of his wins on TV are the direct result of bad beats. He was a huge underdog going in managed to draw out on his opponents. The funny part is that drawing out as an underdog is obviously unlikely and since it happend so often, people think that there must be some sort of skill behind it. I can guarantee you that if you go all-in with A-5 against A-9 and win, there was no skill involved at all. You just got lucky and if you can manage to do it back to back, you simply got very lucky.

Getting to the position where you can play for 1 million is where the skill comes in.

At first I thought he was playing Super System all the way, but now I am not so sure anymore.

What he does is pick random hands and act first with them. That usually makes all the weak hands fold. So he has to deal with above average hands. The other guys have a dilemma also. Since Gus could hold virtually anything they are facing a decision when to make a stand. It is similar to having to call an all-in if your opponent did not look at his cards. Would you do it with Q-7 or K-10? Of course you would like a pair, but unfortunately that won't happen every single time. By playing like that Gus forces his opponents to lower their hand selection and to play hands that they aren't used to play a lot.

In my opinion his game is based on psychology and game theory. It is some sort of system that doesn't even take lots of courage on his part. He simply follows his system and looks what happens. It is not always easy for him, that's why he makes these faces a lot.

Now what do you do if you got such a guy on your table?

Call him down?
Reraise him?
Fold?

The answer is difficult, since Gus is running a mixed strategy. As soon as he recognizes a pattern in your play, he will adjust to it. It is as simple as rock/paper/scissors and one guy playing scissors all the time. Sooner or later you'll get him with rocks for all of his chips.

[El Cuchara]

I've been wondering for quite some time where all these people learn to play poker. I guess they watch gus hansen too.

[Malachii]

If you're referring to Poker Superstars, yes, he did pot a number of beats on people, but the only one where he was a significant underdog (I believe) was the one against Barry Greenstein where Barry had him dominated. The rest he was just slightly the underdog.

Some observations:

- Despite being a slight underdog, it was probably +EV for him to gamble because of the pot odds he was getting. That is, calling as a slight underdog probably had a better EV than folding.

- Gus was playing against the absolute best players in the world, players who have gotten the best of him in cash games. Obviously he would want to counter this by maximizing his volatility and making them gamble whenever possible.

- Gus's aggressiveness leads to a number of blind steals (which we don't see, because we're on TV.) In short, he's stealing so many antes that he can afford to occasionally take the worst of it. All we see are the trash hands that he gets called on and gets a big flop, we never see the trash hands that don't get called.

- Gus's aggressiveness gets people to overplay their hands against him. Howard Lederer pushed all in with an A9o after Gus opened a pot, Gus called with AQ and busted him. Doyle made a massive checkraise with pocket queens (a huge overbet of the pot) and got called by Gus's pocket aces. Doyle even said later he wouldn't have done that against anyone but Gus.

I think if you work out the math, Gus was never worse than a 2-1 underdog, and in spots where he was "taking the worst of it" he was frequently something like a 45-55% underdog, but he knew the math and called anyway in a spot where most would have folded. He's just unconventional, and people don't like that for whatever reason.

[Shandrax]

I was referring to the WPT tournaments, where he pulled off a couple of stunts. What shocked me most was the one at Foxwoods where he beat Hoyt Corkins.

[CashFlo]

this is a joke...rite?

[CaptSensible]

[ QUOTE ]
No sense of humor /images/graemlins/frown.gif

Actually I thought this fits quite well to a beginners forum, because what should a beginner think of all the advice given to him when he can watch a guy on TV who violates every single rule and gets away with it?

[/ QUOTE ]

I saw a repeat of the wpt bad boys of poker. Gus Called a big all in with Ten High. WOAH. if he lost it really would have hurt his stack. It was an unreal call AND he WON!!!

Gus seems to have a lucky angel on his shoulder. most of the rest of us dont /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[trader77]

I actually would call myself a begginer. I was fooled untill about the fourth sentence. I actually know who Gus Hansen is and I am familiar with style of play. I have often wondered the same thing as you have. But I think you have to remember at a short handed tabel I.E. six playeres like they show on WPT rules go out the window. Also you have to remember those guys who make the final table have been through grueling hours of bullshit. If you ever saw Gus Hansen at table one of a WPT event I'm sure he would be as tight as your mothers ass.

[dozer]

Gus Hansen is a Bot, Live poker is rigged.

[TaoTe]

[ QUOTE ]
come play with me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes...yes...me too. I'll bring the chips and dip. Someone else must provide drinks. I think that post is the funniest I've ever read.

[Komodo]

This is a joke post, rigth?
/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Komodo]

He didnt violate any rules. I watched foxwoods too. The 73 hand he won with was in BB heads-up. Everyone would play that hand. He fired a bluff with 6-2off that didnt work, mostly cause Hoyt (Think it was Hoyt) caugth trips. Otherwise he migth have folded his queens. He won another all-in against a guys straigth. Gus had TP, good kicker and a straigth draw. Yes he was lucky, but everyone would have called that. yes he played many hands, but there wasnt anything close to "Violate every rule". Dont forget that he has the ability to lay a hand down, so he can afford to play a few more hands than the average player.