Gus Hansen

[Sheriff Fatman]

Having finally got used to the difference in style from Late Night Poker to WPT I invested in the Series 1 WPT box-set and have been thoroughly enjoying them.

Having now seen Gus Hansen win 2 events I'm intrigued by his style of play. I'm still a newbie (~7 months since taking up the game) but I've done a lot of poker reading in that time.

Its seems reasonable to assume from my reading that Stu Ungar would be very high, if not top of, a 'best of all time' ranking. However, its unlikely that I'll ever see any footage of him playing.

My question for those 'in the know' is whether Hansen's ultra-aggressive play is in any way reminiscent of Ungar's, who I've seen described as 'maniacal' on several occasions. When done well its absolutely devastating (and brilliant to watch) but I can't imagine there being many players who can play like this successfully. How do the two compare? Was Ungar even wilder than this (although I suppose its difficult to know without the aid of table cameras in Ungar's case).

I'm just intrigued to build a picture of Ungar's play in my mind and Hansen seems to be an obvious reference point.

Thanks

Sheriff

PS: I'm referring to Hansen as he's the obvious choice from my viewing of WPT. I'm sure there are a few other great pro's out there who adopt a similar style - I just haven't seen them yet!

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Its seems reasonable to assume from my reading that Stu Ungar would be very high, if not top of, a 'best of all time' ranking. However, its unlikely that I'll ever see any footage of him playing.

[/ QUOTE ]

WSOP, whatever year they played the thing out on Fremont Street (what a fiasco). Plenty of footage.

All indications are that Unger had the better game, when it was his A-game.

[Sheriff Fatman]

[ QUOTE ]
WSOP, whatever year they played the thing out on Fremont Street (what a fiasco). Plenty of footage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately it all seems (apart from a few pirate DVDs) to be NTSC video format, so useless to me in the UK.

Thanks for the response though. I'm not suggesting Hansen is as good as or better than Ungar just trying to get a reference point as to whether this is the 'maniacal' style talked about.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not suggesting Hansen is as good as or better than Ungar just trying to get a reference point as to whether this is the 'maniacal' style talked about.

[/ QUOTE ]

I knew that, but I think what I should have said is that Ungar might have a legitimate claim to the word "seemingly" preceding the word "maniacal."

[CrisBrown]

Hiya Sheriff,

I can't compare Stu Ungar and Gus Hansen, except to say that yes, their styles are very similar.

One of the things to remember about Gus is that he has a background as a pro backgammon player. He is constantly calculating outs and odds, both present and implied. He uses the backgammon term equity, and he's talking about what Sklansky (and most people here) call EV.

Quite simply, he looks to make every +EV decision he can. If he thinks that

* the probability of stealing the blinds, plus
* the probability of flopping a winner if called, plus
* the probability of bluffing someone off a better hand at the flop, minus
* the probability that he will get sucked into a big loss

all add up to "positive equity" or +EV, he'll raise with any two cards. And if his reads are good, raising with 42o is technically correct!

Of course, most of us can't read -- or calculate EV -- as accurately as Gus Hansen, Layne Flack, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negraneau, Ted Forrest, and the other "maniac" players. We have to play cards that have inherent potential, and they recognize that and include it in their EV calculations.

And that's why Gus, in particular, has been so incredibly successful in WPT events. If they hadn't had to re-edit the UB-sponsored tournament this year -- which is why they are re-running last year's event this week -- we would be seeing Gus win his third WPT title.

Cris

P.S. Sorry for the spoiler, but I assume most of the other readers here check out the WPT site, and they've posted the results there.

[MCS]

I actually DON'T read the WPT site specifically to avoid knowing who won the tournaments before they air.

[toots]

Why'd they have to re-edit it?

[J.R.]

[ QUOTE ]
If they hadn't had to re-edit the UB-sponsored tournament this year -- which is why they are re-running last year's event this week -- we would be seeing Gus win his third WPT title.


[/ QUOTE ]

Gus Hansen won the Pokerstars event, not UB's 2003 Aruba event.

2003 Aruba UltimateBet Poker Classic II Results (http://www.cardplayer.com/?sec=tresults&did=2108)

Pokerstars 2004 Caribbean Adventure Results (http://new.cardplayer.com/tournaments/results.php?event_id=339)

[CrisBrown]

Hi J.R.,

You're correct, and thank you for correcting my error. I think "Caribbean" and automatically think UB, even though four of the WPT tourneys are there. Go figure.

As for why they had to edit it, I suspect it was to trim out any mentions of UltimateBet.com, because the Justice Department put pressure on the Travel Channel to stop carrying ads for online poker sites. But that's just a guess, and I don't know for sure.

Cris

[wm r the rake]

you can buy vhs tapes of the wsop on ebay and see him in action....also there is a movie being released about stu....still hasn't hit the public but if you go to http://www.stueymovie.com/ they have more info on that

[TylerD]

Pretty sure the Stuey movie has been released at selected cinemas in the US.