Gus Hansen (4 victories and record winner at the World Poker Tour but no WSOP title yet) is one of the most popular TV poker faces. In 2007 he won the 'Aussie Millions' and collected well over one million US dollars. Anyone who has seen televised reports of these tournaments will have noticed that Gus is often shown muttering something in Danish into a dictaphone. During these tournaments he made notes of every hand in order to write a book.
’Every hand Revealed’ is a summary of the Aussie Millions tournament from Gus' point of view. Through his play at the tournament he explains the tactical situations to the reader. As Gus rarely explains the theory, but only his thoughts, you must have some poker experience to be able to follow him. The 329 documented hands have all been played by him at the tournament. In each hand he had to take a decision. There are, therefore, all the hands where he raised, called, had a special reason to fold or saw a free flop on the big blind. Not all hands have a lot to offer and Gus only goes into detail on 'Crucial Hands'. The book is a very easy read. Gus is a Dane and for him English is a foreign language. Therefore, the book is in fairly simple English. The advantage of the book: The reader learns on practical examples what exactly is meant when Gus talks about 'aggressive play' and 'stealing blinds' during the phases of the tournament with an ante structure. Those players who often come into the money but are rarely at the final table will see the light! The book is also highly recommended to tournament players who know the theory very well but have trouble putting it into practice. The disadvantage: Gus was pretty early in the tournament one of the 'Big stacks' at his table and met with little resistance. Hence, in this book you will learn nothing about small stack poker! All in all, the book is well worth the money! For all serious multi-table players ‘Every Hand Revealed’ is an absolute must! The price of around 12 $ is in our view too low: a very good price-performance ratio!
Anecdote from 3 May 2008: The reviewer of this book usually plays single-table Sit & Go tournaments with some success but has trouble with the MTTs often just making it to the prize money which results in a slightly negative ROI. After reading Hansen's book it was clear to him what the major problem with his game was and he overhauled his play accordingly. In the early evening after reading this book he played Full Tilt Poker at a $24 +2 multi-table tournament with nearly 400 participants and finished second! Prize money: $1,550. We will keep you informed if this was random chance or whether the book really has undone the knot!
