Gus Hansen has a reputation as someone who will play any two cards. He knows it and has milked that image to win four World Poker Tour titles. He bets fearlessly at a lot of pots with nothing, which gets him a lot of action. It's a style that can pay off when he actually has something big, as with this hand from the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2007.

With blinds at $1,500-$3,000 plus a $400 ante, Hansen drew K-8 of clubs in the big blind.

"An older gentleman that I played the day before who gave me the impression that he played tight but was playing a lot of hands raised to $10,600 in middle position," Hansen said. "I'm in the big blind and have K-8 suited, a reasonable hand. I decided to take a flop (getting about 3-1 on his money by calling the extra $7,600)."

The flop came K-J-9, two hearts.

"It's not my dream flop, but I have top pair," said Hansen, who won the main event at the 2007 Aussie Millions. "I check, and he bets $12,000, which is a smallish bet (at a pot worth more than $26,000). I felt it was a weak bet, but I wasn't going to go crazy, so I decided to just call and see what developed."

The turn came the jack of clubs. Hansen checked.

"If he fired a big bet now, I might've let the hand go, but he checked," Hansen said, "and now I really like my hand."

The river came the jack of diamonds, giving Hansen a full house of jacks over kings, but making quad jacks possible. Unlikely, but possible.

"I think there's a good chance he has two 10s or two queens or something like that," Hansen said. "Now I just want to bet for value."

From his sizable stack, Hansen made it $25,000, about half of the pot.

"Usually I bet more, but just for random's sake I bet a little less than that," said Hansen. "I wasn't quite sure what he was on, and I'm not sure how big a bet he would call. I felt this was a range where he could call with fairly weak hands just because I have a bluffing image."

Hansen's opponent was curious enough to call, then mucked his hand when he saw Hansen's kings.

"I felt confident on the river," Hansen said. "He tried one stab at the pot and then he was shot down because he couldn't beat top pair. Sometimes you play it slow and get more information as the hand goes on and you play it accordingly."

Table talk

Tight: Describes a style of playing only premium hands.

user comments (0)