Gus Hansen's blog...is he busto or not?

[MagCFO]

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/

Ok, so he's not busto, but I'd like him to tell us a little more about his wins and losses like Negreanu does. That would be cool.

[Humble Pie]

I'd like to know a little more about your wins and losses.

[grdred944]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to know a little more about your wins and losses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Weak. This is the best retort you can come up with.

I for one appreciate the OP posting that link. Gus has fascinated and bewildered many players -- pro and amatuer alike. It would be interesting to learn more about his sessions a la Danny.

[steel108]

Ummm........... OP made the exact same post in a couple of other poker forums. Be original for christ sake

[NicksDad1970]

Very nice read. Thanks

Gus was very candid I thought..... or not .... but if he was it was a nice surprise.

[Aceshigh7]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway: gotta go! I have to go back to work on my poker book.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is great news. I didn't know he had revived his plan for a poker book. Very nice.

[MagCFO]

I just thought people would enjoy the blog.

As for my wins and losses....I'm up about $500 this month. I got waxed in $20 HU matches by 2 people that had combined losses of over $3k according to sharkscope. That pissed me off.

Went out calling all my money off with AQ at a FT this weekend. That pissed me off too.

I'll be sure to keep every updated on my wins and losses.

[Rootabager]

I just want to hear about him playing on full tilt, or losing 2 million and not being able to go on poker cruise with the cirqe solei guy. i dont really care about tournaments

Do you know for sure that was Gus?
He has said himself he had a bad run in the big game during this year's Wsop but in theory it could be someone else as well.

Anyway I have a longer, more detailed and really good (despite my translation) article about him that I can post. Just have to edit it a bit.

Ok it's pretty long and there will probably be a few errors here and there. I'm too lazy to go through it all.
Mind you this wasn't for a poker magazine which I'm sure shows, but it's pretty detailed and quite personal all the way through:


Spending time with a gambler


Dane Gus Hansen is one of the biggest stars in poker.
Journalist Lars Madsen spend a week with him in Los Angeles to experience the life as a poker poker star.
A week that saw both tournament poker, playing with Larry Flynt and a quick trip to Vegas to deliver five hundred thousand dollars, and where Gus Hansen earned millions (kroner) to finance a freedom that in reality is more interesting to him than the actual money - a freedom there isn't any getting away from.


Ron Kaplan has gone to Commerce Casino LA to see the players at the "Big Game".
He has positioned himself four or five meters from the table and tries to observe the players without being a disturbance.
Otherwise the the Big Game's armed security guard would notice him and with a tired voice tell him: "sorry sir, you can't stand there".
That would be a shame, because it's seeing those players and nothing else, that brought Ron to convince his his wife to spend saturday evening at the casino that's 75 kilometer away from their home in Meadow Ridge.
He is watching men like the 72 year old poker legend Doyle Brunson, wearing a beige cowboy hat. Phil Ivey - the world's perhaps best player right now, wearing a cafêaulait coloured leatherjacket. His sunglasses up on his forehead, staring characteristically curiously at his cards.
Legendary Chip Reese, fellow legend Lyle Berman, one of the men behind WPT and Gus Hansen sitting back turned to Ron in bootcut jeans and a black shirt.
32 years old, ex backgammon shark now playing poker.
It is Gus Hansen that 48 year old Ron with his moustache and poloshirt, first and foremost has come to see.
"Yeah he is my favorite player. I like his style. Its very aggressive. He goes in head first. He challenges everyone and I really like it when folks play aggressive." says Ron.

It's less than ten years ago that Gus Hansen entered the poker world.
In the late 90s he made his living as a pro backgammon player in New York, but when it became difficult to find cash strong opponents willing to take risks, he began to look around for other opportunities.
In the media there have circulated stories that he was introduced to poker while working off gambling debt as a croupier in Vegas. What happened in reality was that Gustav Hansen went to Vegas to see if it was poker that was the opportunity, and discovered that it clearly was.
There were tons of money. Tons of willing players.
"It looked like poker was the future." he remembers during a conversation in his hotel room.
"And if you ask me, it's a good game. There are many mathematical aspects and I as a person is very interested in mathematics. At the same time you just can't sit down and have everything figured out. There wil always be different situations. Different people you're playing against. Meaning that it is always challenging."

Gus Hansen's timing wasn't poor: he managed to become a skilled poker player just before poker really boomed. When the televised World Poker Tour debuted in 2002 he had in fast fashion cleared the long road to the big money.
He had his usual spot at the Bellagio and was both sharp and unconventional with a style of play everone, and many still do, percieved as extremely aggressive.
During WPT's first season he managed to make the final table in two tournaments. Winning them both.
People started calling him the great dane.
In 2004 - where People Magazine named him sexiest poker player alive, he won his third title.

But Gus Hansen is also a danish kid by the name of Gustav Hansen, who grew up in Vanløse, and who more than anything loves having the freedom to do what he wants, when he wants it. Usually very low key stuff. He likes to go the gym, he likes sport . tennis, golf, badminton, badminton and hockey.
He has no decadent needs eventhough he would have plenty of opportunity to exploit such-
Asked directly he estimates that he is good for "a handful million dollars", which is a very easy going estimate. In reality through a year a lot more money runs in and out of his hands when playing poker. Gus Hansen thinks we're talking about a 100 million dollars here.
"It sounds crazy but generally I don't think a lot about the money" he says.
"One of the reasons for that is that the money in the real world are so small compared to those is play for. I sit down somewhere and play for, say a 100 thousand dollars. Afterwards I go do grocery shopping for 10 dollars. Those things don't really have anything do with eachother, do they?"

Gus Hansen's few investments include a condo in Monaco and a beuge Audi A6 2.7 Turbo Sedan.
Sometimes you can spot him with a good old fashioned discman, he wears snickers and prefers t-shirt and jeans. Ok they're from Hugo Boss but that's just cause there is a Hugo Boss store right next to Bellagio and that he thinks the girl who works there is hot.

It was that pair of those jeans that he was wearing when he Saturday, about seven in the morning, sat down at the Big Game at Commerce.
The day before he had been knocked out of the WPT tournament and had afterwards ended up with a girlfriend. Then when he woke up 5 in the morning it was with the urge for poker.
I wonder if there is big game taking place. Maybe they're tired after playing all night he then thought.
So he had gone there and played with Doyle, Phil, Chip and Ron Kaplan from Meadov Ridge observing from the sidelines.
And when he left again, around 5 the following day, he was up "350" meaning 350 thousand dollars. After sleeping on that, next morning, he said: "So that went ok".

Sunday afternoon around 3 Gus Hansen again appears at the big game.
He is well rested and does some chatting with the friends, before stepping out in the sun and taking his place in the back of Phil Ivey's car.
Ivey -who they call the Tigeer Woods of poker and really does look like him with his sour looking mouth, soft cheeks and vague chin, puts some rap music on the stereo.
They're heading towards Hustler Casino in the LA suburb of Gardena.
A tasteful decorated Casino with dark panels, enormous lights and waitresses in short skirts.
The Casino is owned by the legendary porn king Larry Flynt.
The boys are in town and the Larry likes to play big money poker of the Seven Card Stud kind.
When everyone have sat down at a table in the corner of the Casino, Larry himself is pushed in.
Flynt's wheelchair is made of gold while the seat and back are deep purple velvet.
His head is wax pale and almost twice as big as everyone else's.
The thin reddish hair is wet and combed back. His hands are shaking.
At his seat between Gus Hansen and Chip Reese there are two pieces of protective wood between which he can pick up his cards without anyone seeing them. Gus explains that anything different simply wouldn't be fair.
Phil Ivey catches Larry's eye and asks: "How Ya doin Larry? better?"
Larry nods.
Like the game at Commerce this is a cash game. It's poker played for money outside tournaments.
It's the kind of game that Gus Hansen, these days, spends most of his time on. It's here he makes the most money.
While playing tournaments, maybe 60 days a year, he is playing cash games 5 days a week. Almost always at the Bellagio and almost always with well known pros such as Doyle Brunson. Doyle's son Toodd. Phil Ivey and Eli Elezra.
Typically you need at least 50 thousand dollars to play, and it sometimes happen that some rich guy is feeling lucky and stops by.
"It's not something that i seek out at all, cause it's easier when they stop by themselves. Everyone knows that there is a big game at Bellagio and sometimes at Hustler. But it is actually very rare that rich guy just sits down like that." says Gus Hansen.
He has tried getting invited to home games with some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Matt Damon, Leonardo Dicraprio, Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck - but it hasn't meant much to his overall winnings.
"They actually don't play that high. It's fun to see that people who makes 10-20 millions for some movie, all of them are very careful. Ben Affleck plays the highest. I've played him a few times and well one time I did lose a somewhat big pot to him. 65 thousand or something like that."

In the game with Flynt, buy-in is 100.000. Gus Hansen is playing with his pink 5k chips. He is wearing the same clothes as yesterday and has bare feet in his shoes- he didn't take into account spending the at the Commerce before the schedueled game at the Hustler.
While playing he manically he moves his foot up and down but other than that he is the silent type.
He looks disinterested at his cards and throws his chips very casually.
He takes small bites of a piece of garlic bread, which he together with a plate of spaghetti bolognese got rolled in on a small wagon.
He doesn't drink cofee and avoids soda cause he says it makes him feel heavy. He drinks water.
The mood at the table is laid back and boys are saying funny things that Larry Flynt once in a while applauds with a silent laughter and light in his eyes. while at the same time emptying one bottle of norwegian water after another.
The chips are changing hands and colours at a pace that for the outsider makes it almost impossible to keep track.
Gus Hansen is aware of that and after about an hour, he comes over and whispers pedagogically: " For an example right there I won exactly 100 thousand". Then glides back to his chair.
One hour later the exact same thing is happening again. He collects the chips and stacks them.
They're pieces of ceramic but they're also money and in the mind of the danish poker player they float together, forming a mass that has the exact needed value in order for him to hold it dear, but at the same time, not more than that he is not afraid to gamble with it.
"In poker you just can't let the money influence your game too much. If you do that, you become nervous and then you don't play your best. Then on the other hand they have to have some value too, otherwise you get sloppy". he explains.
"There have been times where I've played too high compared to what I was really supposed to, but I think that I've become better at managing that."
When shortly after winning a nice pot from Larry Flynt he shows, with a smile, his cards.
Flynt laughs silently. It's like he has a special appreciation for Gus Hansen. He even agrees to answer a couple of questions about the dane, eventhough normally he doesn't take kind to interruptions of the game.
"He's taken America by storm!" he says with a thick voice and rolling r's.
He sucks in a deep breath of air and continues:"He is the best overall card player we got!".

In 2004 Gus played a hand that many people since then have viewed as typical for his style of play.
It was the WPT tournament Bad Boys Of Poker, where he was at the table with among others Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari.
At one point Gus Hansen was dealt 810 of diamonds. Antonio was sitting with a pair of 7s and and made it 29k. Gus Hansen raised 100k.
Esfandiari thought about it for a moment, then went all in. Gus Hansen called.
The flop came 863 and now Gus Hansen was suddenly in position to knock Esfandiari out. Turn and River saw A3 which didn't change anything.
Esfandiari was out.
"You're the best. Gus" he mumbled and left the table while the spectators were wondering if it was genuine or sarcastic.
"Noone could believe that I had called with 10 high" Gus Hansen said after winning the tournament.
"But you can win with all cards. Not just the big ones."
Many people saw the hand as evidence that Gus Hansen played like a maniac but in reality he had almost as good a hand as his opponent. 48.5 vs 51 %.
That's how the danes game mostly look. Hazardous to the unknowing. Entertaining for everyone.
"And that means that in many aspects I'm seen as a luckbox" Gus Hansen concludes.
"Throughout the most of my career I've been seen as lucky and a weird one. Someone who did things that were completely crazy. But nonetheless I've done pretty well in what we call poker."

When Gus Hansen plays he often brings a dictaphone where he records the interesting hands.
Afterwards he goes home and calculates the odds. Sometimes then he will discover new connections and probabilities that can strenghten his game. Other times he will not. But he is constantly trying to expand his understanding of the logic of poker.
It's a characteristic of him that he likes to examine the game.
"My attitude generally is that I don't accept anything as given. I like to question everything and then hopefully learn something from the answers I find. It's a good learning process because the more you know the better your position" he explains.
"I try things and that's why I make many stupid mistakes. Probably more than most. But afterwards then I'll know why this and that wasn't a very good idea. And of course on the other hand I also do more things that are really smart. When I've tried these things out it gives me a better ballast for next time. What I do will often look like pure madness, but mostly there is a method to it.

When Gus Hansen two or three years ago stumbled upon a gamling addiction test consisting of ten questions he went through them.
He could answer yes to about 9 out of 10 which theoretically makes him an exceptional gambling addict. But he didn't see that as any kind of a problem,
"I don't rate these tests very highly. There is only one word that counts when it comes to this and that's control. As long as there is control it's fine. I'm not saying that I have 100 percent control of every situation I'm in but noone have that. That's how it is no matter what kind of business you're in.
When you like Gus Hansen monday morning can return to your hotel room up 1.5 million kroner following 30 hours of play (which even for him is a very long session) at the Hustler, you begin to kind of see the point of it all.
Not least because poker simply is a game where in order to win big you also have to gamble big. Poker is not like tennis or golf where the prizes are financed through sponsors and attendance. Not yet anyway.

When Gus Hansen tuesday morning is informed that Texas billionaire Andy Beal once again is on his way to Vegas to challenge the world's best poker players to a heads up, where both parties bring 10 million dollards, he is more than ready, He gets the Audi and is on his way to Vegas.
At the Bellagio he gets 20 pink orange 25k chips from his personal box.
They are 20 players, each putting in their share of the 10 million. Eventhough they daily compete against eachother they also trust eachother. Many of them are friends and the daily games at the Bellagio means that they're in many ways as much colleagues as people working together in an office.
Several of them see eachother outside of poker too. Gus for an example plays golf with Phil Ivey - and then they have a lifestyle in common that is different from most other people.
They agree on who gets to play. Gus Hansen himself didn't expect to be picked since there are stronger heads up players than him. It's Phil Ivey who will play Andy Beal.
Gus Hansen feels tired and goes to bed early after having dinner with a girlfriend.
The following day he drives back to the Commerce where he is in the evening is schedueled to play in WPT's popular Celebrety Invitational.
It's turns out to be a quiet evening with snacks and photos with the likes of Ricky Lake.
At his table Gus Hansen is sitting across Meat Loaf. Hansen is very relaxed, smiling and sees many opportunities, between the rounds to seek out women at the other tables. Puts his arm around them, chats and laughs.
Before all that, we had a talk with him in hotel room. Mostly about the life of a poker player where he several times went back to how important freedom is to him. It was obvious that, that was something he cared a lot about. He rejected both family and marriage as ideal institutions and he told us that he more or less always had been single. "At least mentally".
At one point the phone interrupts. It's Phil Ivey who wants to tell about how it went against Andy Beal.
"Sup......Phil?....What's up?" Hansen laughed.
"Four point what? Hahahaha yeah I hear what you're saying but you're just slowly but surely breaking him....no no, but you know what I mean....yes....yes, so that is ...No, that's fine, you get your extra 5 percent and then, how is the mood, is everyone ready for tomorrow? Yes, yes it sounds like you got him... Well you know, I'm behind you 100 percent, so just continue... All right, well done, bye."
He hung up and immediatly realised that he had forgotten to ask how many millions exactly Phil had won for him and the others.
"Yes... Phil... How much did you win? Two or four millions? Oh so you're up six? Beautiful ... Ok, just continue and play your game and there is no limit on how much you can win... Hahahaha ... That sounds good ... Ok.. bye."

Ivey had so far beat Andy Beal for 6 million dollars which meant that Gus Hansen the last 24 hours had won 1.8 million kroner without really doing much. He looked satisfied. It was money in the box. Money to finance his freedom.

"I decide what I do." He says.
"I travel around and take one day at a time. When I was back home in Denmark and the weather was crap, one monday I ordered a ticket to Vegas for the next day. I live after my own rules. Perphaps a little selfish but as long as you don't step on other people's toes, everything will be fine. It matches perfectly into my lifestyle to just be myself."

L.A end for Gus Hansen the following day where he exits Celebrity Invitational.
The winner is Barry Greenstein who sat next to Gus in the Flynt game.
Gus Hansen heads back to Vegas. He has been knocked out of two tournaments in a week. But at the same time he has earned about 8 million kroner, not least because Phil Ivey ended up beating Andy Beal for 16 million dollars.
Recently Gus Hansen has hired both a business manager and an personal assistant because now there are so much money and so many opportunities in the world of poker.
Maybe they can also help him getting the book together that he has been writing on. The chapters sometimes go missing. He doesn't always remember where he wrote it down.
But first and foremost the new employees shall help him uphold the poker life like Gus Hansen likes it the best.
He wants to play and live from it but it must not become too much like a real job with a lot of meetings and negotiations.
In the poker player's nearest future there are tournaments waiting but he likes to take them as they come. He once did try buying a calendar but he quickly discovered, after using it once, that it was a wrong investment.
"I don't know what will happen in 5 or 10 years. Yeah I don't know what will happen in a year. We will have too look at that when 2007 arrives." He says.

"One of the things I'm having fun with is that noone is deciding where I should be or when I should get up. That's also something you get used to and it's probably also kind of a drug. You probably don't think about it if your everyday is very controlled and in strict patterns, but the more you have your freedom, the more you want it.
Your relationships with other people of course become more loose in a way. I have good friends in Vegas, Monaco and Denmark, and I'm sure there are some things I'm missing out on.
If for an example I was always in Denmark, my relationship with my danish friends would be closer simply because we would spend more time together. A psychologist could probably make lot out of that (makes voice): " You are lacking close bonds in your life". But then I could ask, who says we all nessecarily have to need that?"
"People with a normal everyday life may not understand it. I think by now the whole world have asked if I don't miss a steady relationship. But I don't.
I just mentioned that you seek freedom the more you have it. And I don't feel I suffer from any kind of loss. If I felt that - then I'm so fortunate that I also have the freedom to change things.


What they said about Gus Hansen:

Phil Ivey:
He is one of my toughest opponents because his game is so much different from everyone else.
Lately he has improved extremely too. You really have to be on your toes because all the time he is adjusting his game to your game.
I don't have any specific recipe on how to beat him.

T.J Cloutier:
He is an excellent player. It's full steam ahead but there is a lot of intelligence behind it. It's hard to play against him cause he always puts pressure on you, but I like it.
I like players who will gamble and he wants to gambe. He sure will!

Larry Flynt:
Be beats me. I don't like that.

David Benyamine:
He is always trying to analyze the situation. That's what means that Gus will always become better and better, which is definitely not the case for all players.
Many have their own style and just play that. I sometimes catch myself simply playing for the sake of playing and not to improve. And I don't improve nearly as much as he does.