Strategy & Tactics for Winning a Poker Tournament: Play like Gus Hansen & Win Millions

I had an idea which could help your tournament poker results.

There are many great books on playing tournament poker. My favorites are from Harrington and Hansen, and of course, the only reference book of 101 winning moves--which is mine.

In marketing, we develop objectives, strategy and tactics for achieving business goals. When these work, we duplicate and adjust our plans accordingly.

Why not use the same approach for winning a poker tournament?

Play Like Gus
The only book that reveals how a poker champion plays the game is from Gus Hansen, Every Hand Revealed. I am going to analyze every hand in this book in order to develop a complete plan with the objective of winning a no limit poker tournament.

I don't know how well this will work, but it can't hurt. Don't be afraid that you don't play crazy like Gus Hansen, because after reading his book you'll realize he may be aggressive but he is not crazy...at least, not most of the time. Of course, if crazy means winning millions in poker tournaments, you should only wish to be that crazy!

It is true that Gus provides some analysis of his play at the end of the book. However, that does not offer enough insight to develop a Game Plan. In fact, at the end of the analysis of his play, I hope to provide a Winning Game Plan to Tournament Poker that is based on the Gus Hansen approach to tournament poker.

How will this work?

It is a major tournament, with an entry fee of $10,000. Unlike many events you enter, especially online, the blinds progress slowly so you have time to play poker. You get $20,000 in chips and there are 10 players at your table.

You haven't played the first round so your stack is down to 19.85K

Hand 1:
Blinds 50/100
Position: 4th
Hand: 7s-5s

Everybody folds, and Gus limps as do the blinds and one other player.

Flop: Qh-10s-3c.

Gus checks, a player bets and Gus folds.

This looks innocent enough, but we already learn the following:

Limp in with suited connectors in early rounds to risk few chips to win a big pot.

Developing Your Tournament Poker Game Plan

I will add new posts which will provide for a comprehensive approach to playing and winning a major poker tournament. The end result may be useful for the games you compete in or it may not. At the very least, you may discover a few strategies and tactics that you can add into your game.

Here goes...