Gus Hansen's book

[slapdash]

I bought this today. I've started reading it, but haven't got that far yet. But so far it's pretty interesting and entertaining. He takes you through the 2007 Aussie Millions (which he won), describing his thoughts and actions on each hand. He leaves out most hands where he folded preflop, though I'd have liked to see something about these as well: given his reputation for playing any two cards, it would be nice to know what he's thinking when he doesn't play any two cards. But maybe he says something later in the book. By page 18 he's lost half his stack. I guess this could have been a very short book. One thing I liked was in the introduction, where he talks in general terms about the two strategies early in a tournament of playing lots of hands and seeing a lot of flops, or being selective with your starting hands and seeing few flops. Obviously he chooses the first way, but he says that he really doesn't know which way is best. I approve of people who don't feel they have to pretend to be sure that they're right.

[BAM]

Re: Gus Hansen's book

I bought this today. I've started reading it, but haven't got that far yet. But so far it's pretty interesting and entertaining. He takes you through the 2007 Aussie Millions (which he won), describing his thoughts and actions on each hand. He leaves out most hands where he folded preflop, though I'd have liked to see something about these as well: given his reputation for playing any two cards, it would be nice to know what he's thinking when he doesn't play any two cards. But maybe he says something later in the book. By page 18 he's lost half his stack. I guess this could have been a very short book. One thing I liked was in the introduction, where he talks in general terms about the two strategies early in a tournament of playing lots of hands and seeing a lot of flops, or being selective with your starting hands and seeing few flops. Obviously he chooses the first way, but he says that he really doesn't know which way is best. I approve of people who don't feel they have to pretend to be sure that they're right.

Very interesting that as I have experimented both ways (cue unfunny bisexual jokes) and had success both ways ( :eyes) and I have put it down to the dynamics of the table and obviously if you come out firing and being aggressive on the wrong table make-up then you can come unstuck, as I have found a lot recently. On the other hand how many times have you sat tight and then wished you would have been in the hand. I place a lot more importance on the early part of the tourney than I used to as I think you need to gather chips to enable yourself to 'play poker' in the middle stages rather than relying on the luck of a shorter stack game. Will be an interesting read :ok but need to finish other books first before I delve in.