I have just finished reading a copy of Gus Hansen’s new book, ‘Every Hand Revealed’ and can’t speak highly enough about it and its content. It makes such a change to read a poker book with new ideas and full of original content. Although the book isn’t due out until May 18th the British based bookshop High Stakes have managed to get it in stock early and I got a copy from them last week.

Here’s the link if anyone wants to buy it – Every Hand Revealed.

The book covers Hansen’s route to victory in the 2007 Aussie Millions and is written in a style very similar to that of a diary. The majority of entries are short extracts describing the main elements of each of the hands Gus takes part in with all the more complex and pivotal hands discussed in much greater detail.

It is fascinating learning about how carefully Hansen dissects each situation and the detailed thought processes he goes through before making any decisions. There are several hands throughout the tournament which to the untrained eye may be perceived as madness but after reading the book you can see there is actually a lot of logic and sense behind them.

The small-ball LAG style Hansen uses is obviously very effective in big tournaments and is particularly good against the weaker timid plays who don’t seem to play back at him and as a result he exploits at every possible opportunity. During the book you also get to see how often he adapts his style throughout the tournament depending on factors such as player styles, table dynamics and different blind levels.

On top of all the small lessons you learn throughout the book, Hansen also gives an interesting insight into how he approaches each different day and what are the main goals he is looking to achieve. But undoubtably the the two best things you take away from the book are:

1. How to play like Gus Hansen and other so called small ball players such as Negreanu and Hellmuth who are trying to see as many flops as possible in position and then looking to outplay opponents post-flop.

2. How to play against these players, basically play power poker, re-raise lightly at every opportunity in and out of position and then put your opponent in difficult positions for all his chips if you sense any weakness.

I will put up a few interesting hands from the book later in the week and the corresponding videos so you can see how the hands play out for real whilst knowing exactly what was going through His head. Here is the final hand in the meantime.