Gus Explains the Madness

Gus Hansen managed to lose the majority of his stack with Q-7 off-suit and busted out of the 2008 WSOP Main Event in the next hand. PokerJunkie asked the Great Dane to explain how this could happen.

Gus Hansen: Well, I came with 1.3 something and basically I've never been in danger all week. I was all-in twice where I was like 95% and 95%. I thought I was going to be cruising, but unfortunately they had a lot of big hands at the table. I took a small stab, they re-raised so I lost small one, lost a small one...

Q-7 baby, what's not to like?!

Things weren't going my way, but not for the chipleader either, he started with 2.1 at my table and was down to 800,000. Then he raised a hand and he was a little bit on tilt, and I was feeling ok, I still had over a million, and he didn't look like he wanted to play this hand so I decided to re-raise him, but he called.

The flop came 8-6-5 and I had Q-7 with a backdoor flush draw, so I decided to fire 200,000 and now he went all-in for 500,000 more. I needed about 30% to call and I put him on anything, basically. He could have two overcards, he could have A-5 in which case I was fine, I can hit all my cards. He could have two tens in which case I have an up-and-down and can hit a queen. I thought I had 30% and you also need chips to win the tournament so I felt I had to make the call. He turned over A-J - just out of the blue he had A-J!

Gus in action during Day 3 of the 2008 WSOP Main Event

That's a 50-50 hand. It's not what I was looking for but with a lot of money in the pot I felt it was the right thing to call. It came two blanks so he won with ace-high. Basically crazy play by me and insane play by him, and he won it.

I had 200 left and lost it on the very next hand. I flopped top pair and the guy had a gut-shot and he hit it. So that was kind of wham bam - I'm still a little shocked.

We're all shocked Gus. Or maybe not?