Oskar Silow

There is a new trend in poker and a lot of players no longer prefer to play texas no-limit.  Their new favourite game is Pot-limit Omaha (PLO).

PLO has a lot bigger swings than texas so if you are going to try it, do so at lower stakes than you would normally play texas.  The first thing you need to know about PLO is that PLO is played with four cards in your hand, but at all times you can and have to use only two cards to make your best hand.  If the board is 77774 and you got AKQJ you do not have the nuts with an A kicker.  You simply have AK777.  This also means that you can never make a four card flush with the ace in your hand.

Another thing you have to consider when flopping the nuts in omaha is redraws.  Redraws is the possibility to improve your nuthand.  Let’s say for example that you have 67A2 in your hand with no suits.  The flop is 345 with 2 hearts.  Having flopped the stone cold nuts with your 67 you get excited to see that two players have bet and raised into you.  However, let’s consider what your opponents might have here.  One player can easaly have a hand like 6789 also giving him the nuts but with the possibility to make a higher straight.  And how about the other player, he could have a set.  It is also not only possible, but very likely that one of these players also have a flushdraw.  In this case you are not only drawing to a split at best you are also a big favourite to lose the whole pot.  The right play is therefore to fold your hand on the flop.  Considering this you have to be a lot more selective when choosing your starting hands in omaha.

Stay tuned for part 2 next Monday!

Not at all surprised to see a bunch of other swedes at the plane to Nice this morning.  A total of 8 player took the very small flight.   San Remo is beautifully situated between the Alps and the Mediterranean.   The roads there are anything but straight and the taxi ride was a little bit bumpy.  Had a quick lunch with William Thorson and Pontus Almsenius before I headed up to the casino to get my ticket for tomorrows tournament.  They told me I had to return later to pick it up.  On my way out I ran into Bengt Sonnert who got two-outed and busted very early.   I went back to his hotel with him to grind and play some tennis.  Unfortunately a hail storm kept us from the tennis track, but at least we hit the gym.  Spent the evening grinding and eating in the hotell lobby with a bunch of other swedes.  Was really happy to have a very successful session and feel well prepared for tomorrow.  Wish me luck =)

1. View from hotel room (Casino to the right)
2. William Thorson interviewd
3. Lobby grind
4. NHL-playstation grind

My flight is just hours away and soon I’ll be in beautiful Italy :)  San Remo is my favourite of the tournaments I’ve played so far on the EPT and I’m really looking forward to going back there.  This time I hope I do better than last year when I busted on the first day when my aces got cracked by a runner runner flush.  I will also stay longer this time around and enjoy myself a few days inbetween the events.  The other event beeing the Monte Carlo  EPT Grand Finale!  Defenately looking forward to that :)  So check back the next couple of weeks cause I plan on keeping you up to date with everything that is going on on and off the felt

Wish me luck!!

There is a lot of talk about position in poker and for good reasons.  Position is one of the key factors that is going to determine your income at the tables. Let’s take an easy example.  You might limp with a hand in early position trying to see a cheap flop.  One big problem with this is that you risk facing a raise and a re-raise before the action is back to you making it too expensive for you to see the flop and costing you a big blind.  If you decide to play your weak hand anyway thinking you can win a big pot if you flop something, don’t forget that you’ll have to play the rest of the hand out of position.  Playing out of position means that you have to act before your opponent.  The disadvantage of this is that your opponent gets to make all his decisions based on what you have already done.

The best position at the poker table is the button since you get to act last on all streets.  The second best position is called the cut-off and is one step counter-clockwise from the button.  When mixing it up with weaker hands try to do it in later position with less of a chance that you’ll get raised out of the pot before the flop.  Obviously you have to play a weak hand from early position every know and then not to be too predictable, just don’t make it a bad habit.

Subject: Ask the Poker Pro

Question:
Hi Oskar!
First I’d like to say that I like your blog:)
Now my question: Do you have to pay taxes for your winnings online and how does it work?  Can the Swedish tax agency see in my account if I have cashed out from a poker site?  Do they care about smaller sums as well or just the big cashes?
-Mattias

(Translated from Swedish)

Answer:
Hi Mattias,
Very good and important question.  The best way to get information about this is actually to browse the Swedish tax agency website .  You can find the information about what to do with online winnings here.  As you can see in that link you have to pay taxes for all pots/winnings over 100 Swedish kronor (=$13) that are from outside the EU/EES.  I’m not 100% sure, but I belive that for example PokerStars that you asked about are located outside this area and winnings from there are therefore taxable.