You are Gus Hansen in the SB with 97 suited

[jimmer]

(Extract taken from Gus Hansen's blog on Gushansenpoker.com).

"I was very pleased about playing the short-handed $2500 NLH tournament. The structure is very fast compared to the start stack of 5000, and it definitely favors players like myself who like to play a lot of pots.

I arrived two hours late and sat down at a table with Dario Minieri, an Italian on-line phenom. Dario is the epitome of hyper-aggression and pretty darn proud of it too, I think. If Dario re-re-raises you all-in fairly early in a tournament, be it deep or short-stacked, you never know whether he has the goodies or rags and dolls. I saw him bust AK pre-flop today with 94o or something like that – full speed ahead without any regard for poker conventions or established truths. On the one hand, you gotta love that approach! One the other hand, I believe it is very hard to actually win a live tournament that way because there are spots where you have to stop and put it in reverse.

Be that as it may – it didn't take long for Dario and myself to get tangled and when the smoke cleared I had doubled up to 10k and Dario was down to about 11-12k. He hit top pair and I hit a set of Queens – nothing much you can do at this level if you are hyper aggressive.

In another hand, I did try to induce a third barrel bluff from Dario in a hand, where I flopped two pair and made a flush on the river, but alas he took his finger off the trigger – hyper aggression my ass J.

Fast forward to my final hand of the day. We are playing 100/200. I have just about 10k in chips. The button (also sitting pretty with a 10k stack) opens for 550, I call in the SB holding 7 9 . The BB calls"

The flop is
K 9 7

Gus Hansen????????

Your move, amounts and reasons why are....?

The check raise seems the obvious move, but with Gus Hansens reputation this could seem a bit predictable.

[Jernej Zorec]

crai just coz there is a flush out
altho just check call and ship non heart flush seems ok too in vacum

[supafrey]

I'll be the ballsy one to take the first stab, despite there likely being well reasoned answers against my line from gus himself =(

The pot is 1650. I prolly lead for ~1100. Prolly 1050, actually.


Thoughts:

The initial raiser could have almost anything here, a king would be nice, but just as likely any ace high hand or two medium cards. If it's checked to him, he may very likely check behind on this board - it's too drawy for him to have a ton of immediate fold equity, we might have the king, he's up against two callers, etc.

The BB is very unlikely to raise our bet in this position, with the initial raiser still to act, and may very well be put in an uncomfortable spot to make a biiiiig mistake with a naked king. If he has the straight/flush draws he may just call our bet, but this in turn would make it more necessary for the initial raiser to **** on the pot or get off the toilet, so to speak. If the raiser has a king, a lead out and a call might be scary/garner a fold from some individuals, but we're GUS FREAKING HANSON. KQ or KJ may very well try to raise us here, putting us on any two cards and thinking the BB would just be calling with a decent draw and some goooood implied odds + position against one of the most famous aggro superstars.

If someone has a set oh well lol tournies laff laff reload.

We want the bets to go 1050 ---> call ----> 3k ----> *ham it up for the cameras* ARR YOU CAN EAT ---> I call with my KQ, lol gus you lose ---> nuh uh biatch.

[kingetje]

fold preflop

[Garoen]

fold preflop

[Kemics]

i think the preflop raise looks more like a steal, put a bet out as if testing that theory, 1/2 - 2/3rds of pot. then wait for the re-raise

[Felting]

Gus's style is a natural trap. He is always agressive and always betting. That prevents his opponents from telling the diference between a bluff and a monster. A check from Gus raises more red flags then a bet. I bet out 3/4 of the pot.

[mortaleclipse]

I'll be the ballsy one to take the first stab, despite there likely being well reasoned answers against my line from gus himself =(

The pot is 1650. I prolly lead for ~1100. Prolly 1050, actually.


Thoughts:

The initial raiser could have almost anything here, a king would be nice, but just as likely any ace high hand or two medium cards. If it's checked to him, he may very likely check behind on this board - it's too drawy for him to have a ton of immediate fold equity, we might have the king, he's up against two callers, etc.

The BB is very unlikely to raise our bet in this position, with the initial raiser still to act, and may very well be put in an uncomfortable spot to make a biiiiig mistake with a naked king. If he has the straight/flush draws he may just call our bet, but this in turn would make it more necessary for the initial raiser to **** on the pot or get off the toilet, so to speak. If the raiser has a king, a lead out and a call might be scary/garner a fold from some individuals, but we're GUS FREAKING HANSON. KQ or KJ may very well try to raise us here, putting us on any two cards and thinking the BB would just be calling with a decent draw and some goooood implied odds + position against one of the most famous aggro superstars.

If someone has a set oh well lol tournies laff laff reload.

We want the bets to go 1050 ---> call ----> 3k ----> *ham it up for the cameras* ARR YOU CAN EAT ---> I call with my KQ, lol gus you lose ---> nuh uh biatch.

I actually agree

[jimmer]

Gus hansen isn't only a well known player, he's known for being loose and aggressive.

If I was one of the other two players, knowing Gus's reputation, I would be slightly suspicious of the check, even if I had the King.

Looking at it from Gus's point of view, what could the others have? The raise just short of 3xbb from the button is a pretty standard move. Effectively, he could be holding anything, but we need to assume it's either medium to low pair, Ax, Kx and maybe Q with (J-7). Of course, depending on the player, the range could be a whole lot wider. I'm kinda guessing it's not a premium hand. If I was on the button against an aggressive player in the SB, I would probably be trying to play these hands a little more tricky and forcing Gus to raise the pot preflop. By the very fact that Gus's doesn't re-raise this hand, we could probably assume Gus isn't playing a premium hand as well.

So we have two options. Bet straight out or check-raise. If we check, the button could have easily have K(J to 7) to incude K9 and K7 and bet for value. We will assume he doesn't have one of the these hands and raise him, but we aren't sure. Of course if they don't and just check, we all get a free card.

The other option is to bet and either win the pot there, or get some action (of which we are probably favorite)

I think leading out here is the best outcome. If someone calls, that's not to bad, if they re-raise, happy days.

This was Gus's play

"Bottom two pair look very much like the best hand and the set-up is perfect for an all-in check-raise. I check, the BB checks, the original raiser bets 1200 (in accordance with my tricky little master plan) and I move all-in for just about 9000. He thinks for just a little while and then calls having me covered by a couple of hundred chips. He shows J T Although I have two pair I am actually a slight dog in this hand against his powerful double-gutter flush draw.

The winning chances are as follows:
Double gutty, flush buddy: 50.9%
G. Hansen: 49.1 %

The turn is as a nice 6 but the river brings the 8 and I am out the door"

I'm personally a little surprised by this move. Firstly, the check-raise, secondly, the push all-in.

I appricatate Gus needs to mix up his game, but this hand knocked him out.

[UrAteUp]

http://www.theplayr.com/en/academy/

Now you too can learn to play like Gus in the Gus Hansen Acadamy....