Inside the Mind of a Pro: getting back into the groove

Among the 10,000 players in the 2024 WSOP Main Event, Gus Hansen must get reacquainted with a tournament he hasn’t frequented for many years.

So, how about that Inside the Mind of a Pro comeback? For us spectators, getting back to our favourite series after a few weeks’ absence is obviously an absolute delight, the kind that makes us want to jump out of bed on a Monday morning. The unique atmosphere of the WSOP is palpable in every camera shot, magnified by the fact that this time – for the first time – we are exploring the most beautiful tournament in the world, the Main Event.

And what about our hero? That’s a more complicated story. As Gus Hansen keeps telling us: this 2024 edition of the WSOP is a return to business for him, after some lengthy years when he remained largely absent from the No-Limit Hold’em scene. At the start of the Main Event, the Dane opted for a humble approach. Like a swimmer cautiously dipping their big toe into the cold water, he needs to find his feet and take it easy, while he relearns how to move in the ocean of players filling the ballrooms of the Horseshoe casino to the brim.

After three hours of play on Day 1 – which is a brief moment, if we remember that the Main Event lasts ten days, our latest recruit is still in his warm-up phase. His first attempts to build up a stack were not successful. So it is with less than starting stack (60,000) that we find Gus. Don’t panic, though. We are at the world’s deepest-stack tournament: this capital of 52,000 represents over 170 big blinds. More than enough to gradually get used to the water temperature…

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