Gus Hansen enjoyed an amazing year on the World Poker Tour where he was the only participant to achieve closing poker table in 3 of the competitions. Gus Hansen has appeared on High Stakes Poker on GSN where he bought into the game for $400, 000. You might recall one of the largest pots in big stakes poker history up against Daniel Negreanu. He secured a big pot with 4 of a kind against Daniel’s full house. Gus has made many televised poker appearances and is deemed to be one of the best players in the world. While playing internet poker, another side of Hansen has emerged. Gus frequently plays in the 200/400 No Limit max buy in of $40, 000. Gus frequently buys-in for the min of $16, 000 and gambles very poorly. He sits there waiting for a good hand and then pushes all in. I accept that Gus is an outstanding poker player but not even close to the familiar players at 200/400NL. Unless he is flat broke, he has no reason to sit at the game with the minimum buy in.

Buying in for the min takes a majority of the skill out of deep stack poker. Hansen is presumed to be one of the best poker players anywhere in the world but he can’t buy-in for the full dollar value. I believe television can skew our perception of the real world every now and then. The greatest players in the world may be guys you have never heard of before. Gus can be seen betting on net poker on Full Tilt. He usually plays in high stakes Omaha and Holdem. Gus has shown himself as a competition player. Can he back up his skills in cash games?