Amateur player Don Topel pushed his luck a little too far.  After winning the $200,000 round, he pressed his luck and went for a cool million against Gavin Smith.  Unfortunately for Topel, Gavin took the hand seriously and beat him out leaving Topel with absolutely nothing.  The guy really looked like he could have used that $200,000.  Makes you wonder what he was thinking.
After the Topel match, new contestant Marcia Owens goes up against the Great Dane was a pretty good watch. Owens is an affable character and Gus Hansen obliged with some playful banter.
I think the …read more

Gus Hansen gets solemn on this crackly, vintage film-esque clip from YouTube.  I agree with the basic tips he offers, but I think even the Great Dayne would be better served if he followed more of them some of the time.  Here are his tips:

The big bluff should be rarely used
Play 1 table on your first session
Don’t play too high for your bankroll
Watch out for short handed tables (heads up will force more difficult decisions)
Play straight forward poker, nothing wrong with playing tight
Know the Rules

The video, marked from ThePlayr.com is a little wierd for me.  I don’t know why they …read more

Passive play in the hands of a killer = bounties.

Even in backgammon, Hansen cuts em from behind:

Poker and backgammon are supposedly so similar, I guess when you’ve got it, you’ve got it.
I want to learn to play backgammon again, anyone know good places to do so online?

Another televised cash game is now making the rounds, a table that was held during the 2008 Aussie Millions, featuring play with Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, and some other poker weirdos.
More popular tournaments like this should feature cash game side games, like a WSOP cash game? That would be brutal, I think.

The new episode of WPT, which is the big finale championship with an extra hefty buy-in and an almost $4 million dollar first prize, is definitely worth a watch, primarily in that it gets down to heads up between Gus Hansen and David Chiu with Gus having an almost 6-to-1 chip lead, and the match ends up lasting almost 45 minutes in air time alone.
Along the way you see Gus seem to go on tilt, which is kind of a first that I’ve witnessed, and also represents pretty fairly how to blow a huge chip lead by trying a little …read more

Some good advice for beginners getting started with online poker by Gus Hansen:

There’s so much poker on TV these days that sometimes it gets a little too much, and you end up with final tables full of new guys that just aren’t all that exciting.
I thought today I’d think a bit about my top 5 favorite players to watch on TV.

1. GUS HANSEN: He’s the obvious choice, yeah, but I honestly think Gus is still playing not only the most fun to watch poker in the game, but the most creative, even ‘progressive.’ His recent successes also prove that there is extreme method to the madness and that there’s more to poker …read more

Gus Hansen’s EVERY HAND REVEALED is now out. You can get it for 33% off at Amazon, though I’m probably supposed to tell you to support an independent press or a local independent bookstore.
I can’t help it, Amazon is always cheapest.

I am totally stoked about this book. Just from Gus’s recent posts on his blog, it should be pretty stellar and better than most other poker books, especially recent ones.
I think any questions about the method to Gus’s madness have been supplicated by his absolutely ridiculous tournament results in the past year. He’s a force. This book probably will be …read more

Gus has a pretty good post about his recent downswing on his blog.
“Bottom-line: I have lost about 80% of my sessions during the last month and a half. That’s right, 80%! I have to ask my self a couple of questions: Should I play No-Limit Hold’em instead of Pot-Limit Omaha? Is the opposition simply too strong? Or, of course, the most likely scenario: Have I completely lost my mind and been on tilt for six straight weeks?”
A pro poker blogger who doesn’t just talk about what he ate and golf. Sweet.