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 I've
only met Gus briefly, but I know where he's "coming from". Before moving to Los Angeles, I lived in Santa Cruz,
California. I don't know about these days, but in the late 80s and early 90s the small card clubs there featured some of
the wildest poker games you can imagine. I wrote about
one situation where I saw a player cap
the pot on the turn in Holdem, even though he had not even been dealt in that hand! I could relate story after story about
these looney games, like the time playing Crazy Pineapple that I had Ad2d on the button on a flop of 8d7d3d, and I never
once got to put in a bet or raise. It was capped on all streets, NINE HANDED, before the action got to me.
Anyway, a little while after I left town, Gus arrived, and cut his poker teeth in these loose-is-not-descriptive-enough games
at the Ocean View Cardroom. While most people may not immediately get the significance of that, it really does explain a lot about
Gus' style of play -- where starting hands don't matter as much as the action after the flop. While obviously his game has evolved
beyond how he played as a beginner, most players carry a lot of their initial experience over to their mature game. Gus learned to play
post-flop poker, and I suspect he very clearly learned that he knows how to play after the flop better than the vast majority of players.
If you have seen the way Gus Hansen plays at million dollar final tables, now imagine him playing $3/6 and $10/20 limit Holdem!
See Shirley Rosario's
Gus Hansen bio for more.
-- Steve Badger
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