Oskar Silow

There are certain crucial points in a tournament where you can see who is the big bad wolf and who is the little intimidated sheep at the poker table. The bubble is a very good example of this where the experienced players tend to pick on the not so experienced.

Unless you are very inexperienced yourself you should have picked up on who have more or less experience at the table by the time you get close to the bubble.  If you notice that a player is paying a lot of attention to the payout structure, or looking over at the screen to see how many players are left, he or she is probably very anxious about making the money.  Try to pick a little extra on this player and raise his blinds more often.  Bullying is allowed at the poker table.  Also if this player comes in for a raise you can be sure that he is willing to lay down some big hands.  Try re-raising this player more often than others.  By stealing blinds and/ or small pots you can add a lot of chips to your stack.  Sometimes players even notice what you are up to but just sit by and let you raise and steal the blinds for the 11^th hand in a row, just dying to make the money and hoping that somebody else will do the job of playing back at you.  By the time they do, you can just let go of the hand and still have plenty of chips left from the hands they didn’t.

It’s is obviously very important to know how other players at the table have categorized your style of play.  Do they see you as a fish or a pro?  Try to figure what signals you send out and adjust your play accordingly.  For example you can try playing back at the pros at the bubble if you know what they are up to.

The bubble is not only the bubble to make the money.  The same strategy can often be used at big jumps in prize money and especially the final table bubble.

Another year has passed and I guess you are supposed to be a little bit wiser.   I can’t say that I am, but I’m one year older for sure.   But as my dear father always says: “age is just a number, it’s how you feel that matters”.   Very true indeed and I don’t feel a day over 24

Todays tip is about how to survive in the upside down world of poker.  Many poker players live life fast like there is no tomorrow.  Newsflash; there is!  To make sure that your career is long and prosperous I suggest the following:

1.  Make sure that you always have enough bankroll to play – goes without saying really.

2.  Don’t overspend.  Just because you won X k last month doesn’t mean you are going to win the same this month.  Wait until you’ve actually made money before you spend it.

3.  Save money for a rainy day.  Or in pokerterms, a bad streak.  As sure as we are all going to die, we are all going to hit bad runs in poker and it defenately won’t feel as bad if you have some money saved for when it happens.  Also it’s good to look ahead and save money for that day you want to buy something else than designer clothing and a bling bling watch, for example an apartment or a house.

4.  Poker players like to gamble and the longer you’ve played the more you gamble.  There are a millions of prop bets or side bets you can get involved in, but should you?  If you have an obvious edge of course you should, but since that is most often not the case try to avoid these kind of bets and focus on what you are good at which is hopefully winning money at poker.  Also it saves you from being hustled.  Sportsbetting is also something that can cost you a lot of money if you don’t know what you are doing.

5.  Don’t borrow money for gambling.  Some forms of stake might be ok to try, but in most cases it’s a door you don’t want to open.

Finally back home after a few weeks on the road.  It’s always nice to come home to my wife and my own apartment after beeing away.  I’m going to focus on onlni grinding for most of May and my next live event will be the Swedish Championships in Stockholm in the beginning of June.