High Stakes Column: What's Going On with Gus Hansen?
In this column, we had a look at Gus Hansen's latest results and noticed that the "Great Dane" is not doing so well anymore. After starting April with a massive dent in his profits, we started wondering if this is 2010 all over again, when Gus was dealing with some huge swings.
The nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt Poker saw Gus Hansen record the largest profit so far this year, making over $4 million at one point. It seems that the fun ride has been stopped for a while, as he managed to lose more than $1 million in April.
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| Gus Hansen's profits so far in 2011 Photo source: Highstakesdb |
Is it 2010 all over again for Gus Hansen?
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| Thumbs up for PLO |
According to the data on Highstakesdb, Gus had a great year so far in Pot Limit Omaha, the game at which historically he has lost the most amount of money. Up until now, he managed to make over $4.5 million playing the highest stakes around.
However, the 2-7 Triple Draw games haven't been so kind to him. So far, he is down about $1.6 million from these games, which have been going quite strong recently, as the NL/PLO action was rather absent. This puts him at about $3 million in profit, which still puts him in 1st place for the year.
This sudden change of pace for the Great Dane is quite characteristic actually. He's known for his huge swings and you just need to look back one year to see this.
If you remember, he had a similar trend last year: he started the year with about $2 million in profit, then he lost it all and more, only to recover most of his losses towards the end of the year. Is this a case of "history repeating itself"? Could be, or it could just be a little setback.
Back in 2010 he said he would take a break from poker and re-evaluate his game, following a massive string of bad results. Did he actually worked on improving his game? Looking at the results, we would say "Yes", especially if we consider the stakes and opponents he has faced in PLO so far this year.
How would you judge Gus Hansen's results so far? Do you think he's on a heater and he'll take the same steps he did last year or will he actually hold on to this profit and eventually increase it? We would like to hear your thoughts on this, so don't hesitate and share them with us in the comments section.
2-7 Draw games - the new fad
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| Gus just doesn't want to hear about the Draw games right now |
Gus is no stranger to big swings - in fact that's how most of the poker world perceives him. However, we have to look at the results and see that his PLO game seems to be sharp - it's just that learning the 2-7 Draw games is costing him quite a lot.
He is actually not the only pro to switch his attention to these games. In a recent blog posted on BlueFire Poker, Phil Galfond also mentioned these games and said that he's paying quite a price to learn them, referring to the losses he recorded so far.
Besides these two, other big names like Phil Ivey, Tom "durrrr" Dwan or Patrik Antonius have also given these games a shot. Does this mean the centre of attention will shift from PLO to the Draw games? Some might say it is definitely an option, but it might also be just a passing thing. We'll just have to wait and see.
The high stakes world so far in 2011
Despite his latest losing sessions, Gus Hansen is still leading, with jungleman12 ranked second. Tom Dwan is on the other side of the spectrum, having dropped the most amount of money at Full Tilt Poker's virtual tables.
For those of you interested in the numbers, the top 10 winners and losers at Full Tilt Poker can be found below:
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