Oskar Silow

Yesterday my wife and myself went to the beach.  The weather is AMAZING in Sweden at the moment and I’m taking a well needed break from poker.  Poker players are allowed to take a break from their job as well you know?! ;P  We decided to try a new place here in Göteborg called Smithska Udden.  When we arrived we were not sure where to go since we never been there before and there were two roads to go from the parking lot.  Coinflip!   We decided to follow the 4 guys who must be on their way to the beach rather than the old couple who could be taking a morning stroll.  After a looong walk we arrived at a couple of cliffs and found a place to park for the day.  Not quite happy with our spot beeing far away from toliets, food and water.  After a while I had enough and decided to go looknig for water before dying of thirst.  After another long walk I finally found the oasis the older couple most likely were on their way to.  Just a few steps away from the parking lot (the OTHER way) they had food, water, ice cream, toilets, and both beach, cliffs and a pier to choose from.  I went to get my wife and parked our butts at the oasis for the day

Moral of the story: EVERYTHING in life is a coinflip!  If we would have taken the right path from the beginning we would have saved ourselves a morning of frustation, dehydration and a very long walk

There are many things you should take into consideration before showing a bluff.  To be able to take advantage of showing your bluff you have to make sure that you can play more pots with that specific player, especially if you are showing him the bluff to put him a bit on tilt.  This strategy works a lot better against weaker opponents.  To make sure I can take advantage of my tilted opponent I only show bluffs in short handed games.  You will obviously get maximum advantage in a heads-up confrontation.

Showing a bluff might also give you less respect in coming pots so you have to make the right adjustments to your own game so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.  Showing a bluff is defenately one of the best ways to get more action from your opponents tho.

Don’t forget that showing a bluff gives out information to ALL the players at the table and some might know exactly how to use it against you.

Right now the real main event (among pros at least) is ongoing, the $50k HORSE event.  Many of pokers greatest are playing but unfortunately only one swede.  We are outnumbered by all our neighbours danes, finns and norweigans.  Fortunately for us we sent one of our best, Erik Sagström to defend our honour and so far he’s been doing it well!  Good luck!

Pic from here

Should I play poker (=work) or enjoy life and the beautiful Swedish summer?  Not such a tought choice is it?  Not for me anyways =)  Plenty of time to play when it starts raining again.  And let’s face it, I live in Sweden so it’s just a matter of time…

I was recently in an article in a Swedish newspaper.  Click here to read article.  Don’t speak Swedish?  Use google to find a translation tool online =)