See Shandrax, he didn't respond with "loser". That would have proven his loserness. Now its in doubt.

Great insight to the book. I'm half way through and a few things occur to me along the way.
1) This book is not a step by step guide on 'how to play' like Gus. Even though he makes his strategy sound very simple and straight forward, there is a lot of logic and math behind the decisions he makes. Yes, a fair bit of his strategy could pre determined prior to playing, but he obviously has a knack for working out the odds very quickly and knowing what risk / reward his moves entail. I have been able to take some 'lesson's learnt' from his play, but I don't have his reputation or name to be able to bully and captain a table to the degree he does.

2) Defending against a Gus approach requires a pretty good chip stack to re-raise and threaten. Not to mention an above average to a good hand to win. Unless you are going to seriously wound his chip stack (i.e. take 25% of his chips or more) with a re raise or all in, Gus will play along with you and use agression against you regardless of whether he hits the flop or not. So hopefully you have the guts and the chips to counter his lead out bet on the flop, and are able to raise him and give him something to think about.

So far the tips I have taken from him, have helped my game, and it is a great companion book to a 'Harrington on Holdem' which I think paints a far more conservative approach to the game. Once you have the tournament basics nailed from Harrington, this book shows how to put your approach on steriods and not become one of Gus's target statue players he constantly robs blinds / antes from.

Enjoy. Highly recommend.

gus' section at the back, analyzing stats is really good.... i found his dan harrington comment interesting. said that dan had gone all-in over 50 times in winning WSOP. gus said he was all-in 4 or 5 times in winning aussie millions. NOT sure if this was apples to apples as i think gus is saying when he was all-in with his life on the line, whereas dan's situation is more making or calling all-in and may not be at risk for life. and gus makes this very clear that there's a distinction (at least, that's how i read it).

anyhow, i found the harrington comment interesting... and frankly, i think when reading dan's very tight style (original HOH1) that he takes advantage of it with huge numbers of bluffs and semi-bluffs. and i don't think most people who are trying to implement his style realize that. also, most of us play quick tourneys where you can't bluff much, therefore play more hands than dan advocates???

i don't think gus is that mathematically other than calling all-ins, like the A6 hand. i think more gus is analyzing opponents and likelihood of stealing the pot somewhere down the line. for those calling gus a fish, cards don't matter if you're able to just take pots from your opponent. some questionable moves for sure though....

gus also basically says that "tight waiting for cards" is completely useless in big tourneys. very interesting comment, i thought

Does anybody know when it will be available in the UK or France? (I'm a brit living in France atm.) Had a look online, amazon ebay etc but delivery from the sates will take weeks. Wondering if it'll be quicker to wait for a release over here and save the shipping fees.

Highstakes in London have been selling it, but they are filling back orders at the moment. I have my copy ordered and hope to get it from them on tuesday...they expect about 20 copies to arrive then....

And while you're at it, order through a link that obscures the fact that the person providing it gets a kickback if you buy it.

BAN

Just bought it. If I knew what I know now it would've been a very different experience playing with him. He is the loosest player I've ever seen out of position.

I will say this without having finished it (I read my part first obv), if he actually plays like this (and there's a decent chance he's lying about it to get further action) then he's ridiculously exploitable playing against good players. The most exploitable I have ever seen.

He calls being out of position being in first bluffing position. Also you cannot describe him as loose. He plays any two cards if he has the feeling that he can take the pot away from you on the flop. He simply plays the player and not the cards. Loose means low requirements, but he doesn't need any hand value at all to do that.

I just finished reading it and found it very interesting and easy read. I followed up the read by watching the Aussie Millions coverage on Pokertube, although you'll notice with the TV editting they mix up the order of some of the hands if you want to follow along with the book. All of Gus' hands that they show match up with the coverage, so I doubt he's lying.

-- Jimmy, can you say what you had when you reraised Gus preflop and he had AK. He called the preflop bet and folded to your continuation bet on the flop?

We have tag; we have lag; and, now we have gag (gus aggressive).

jimmy, thanks for coming into this thread.... but had you not seen him play on TV about a zillion times before you went heads-up with him in melbourne??

gobboboy, i might add that i agreed with you/gus on the telecast when it was said that either you went card-dead or he went card-hot at the end. i think it was you going card-dead..... not that much you could have done about it at the end.

I had something like 85o in the hand I reraised him when he folded AK. And when he had KQ 3 handed I also had KQ.

There's only one hand I feel like I misplayed terribly before HU and that's the AJ when he has 32ss. Heads up was just ridiculous and he tilted me with his gigantic overbets.

Also to say he plays the player, did you read the book? He barely plays the player at all, he plays the pot size. I've never seen someone focus so much on how much money there is in the pot.

I was wondering about that as well as I'm 2/3 through the book. Can't really say he is playing the player. Once in a while he would mention someone hesitated so he made a bet etc but for the most part Jimmy hit the nail on the head there.

It might be interesting to get a different view on some key (HU) hands. So Jimmy, enlight us!

Oh yeah!! Now THAT would be great. To get BOTH points of view as to why they made their decisions.

ahaha i was wondering about this...very odd! also i have a question relating to this book.

simplified situation: you get minraised by unknown MP opponent, you both have an M of 10. everyone else folds to you in the BB...

1. because you are getting 3:1, is gus right when he says you should you be calling with pretty much any 2 here unless your M is <7? and then lead out with a continuation bet on most flops?

No, of course not, the money in the pot matters but he seems to have no concept of reverse implied odds which is absolutely huge OOP with garbage hands but he donks a ton and no one ever raises him so he doesn't play huge pots with marginal hands.

I'd be glad to answer any and all questions you guys have.

You bought the book gobbo?

How did you feel when Gus called your semi-bluff with AK on that JTT board? Did you realize at that moment that he had completely owned you even though you did get lucky and suck out with the worst hand.

Do you always whine and cry about your opponents' cards, despite having yourself, gotten extremely lucky repeatedly throughout the tournament?

Do you honestly think you are better than Gus Hansen, even though you are blogging from your mom's basement while Gus is jet-setting all over the world with supermodels on his arm?

From Gobbo's 4 posts on this:

"most exploitable"
"loosest player I've ever played with"
"no concept of reverse implied odds"
"I've never seen someone focus so much on how much money there is in the pot"

Sounds like someone's just a little bitter that they lost and now wants to take their gobbobat and gobboball and go home...

Jimmy, can you comment please on Hand 290 (A2ss vs KQhh) ? I feel this was the key hand in the HU session that let Hansen back in the game and you must agree too. What was your rationale calling his all-in with second pair, specifically what did you put him on?

I think it's really rude that the guy who finished 2nd in the Aussie Millions & is written about extensively in the book is here to give his perspective & quite willing to do it & you have people treating him like this. Very disappointing.