Oskar Silow

I really wish everybody a Happy New Year and I hope all of you manage to keep your New Year’s resolutions.  I have none

Pic from here

I would like to wish all who read my blogs happy holidays:)  I will hopefully see all of you again in the new year.

Thanks for reading
Pic from here

After Isildur played Brian Hastings on noseblead PLO and lost $4M there has been rumors going around that Isildur was cheated.  Brian Hastings, Cole South and Brian Townsend has been accused of data mining and having discussed hands to find weaknesses in Isludurs game.  The trio has admitted to this and BT has been banned from playing on the site in question for a month.

The question is, what is cheating?
*  To collude against a player by sharing a table with a friend and share hands and/or play against a certain player, or even sharing profits in the same way is definately cheating.
*  To play under different nicknames or swapping accounts to mislead an opponent is cheating, but still very common. Most mid-stakes grinders probably see it as ”ok”, while the players playing on nosblead levels HU probably take it more seriously.
*  To discuss an opponents strenghts and weaknesses to become a better player and increase your winrate should probably not be considered cheating.  Instead it’s probably the best way to become a better player. 

On the level that Isildur has been playing I think that he should be more careful, especially since the trio mentioned above are all instructors on the same site and all three have played against Isildur, I would probably take it for granted that they’ve discussed the games.  BH has also admitted that he did not have 100% of his action and it’s not that hard to guess who else had % in him…

But Isildur has shown lack of judgement on a few occasions played some of the worlds best online players at the same time, played way too long sessions, and played too much omaha and at times very tilted.

Some types of “cheating” will never be possible to stop online such as a player playing several nicks, and players sharing hand histories with each other.  Instead of crying over what happend I think it’s better to try and turn the tables on the players who you know have more information about yourself than he should.

Xmas is one of my absolute favourite times of the year, in spite of it beeing cold, dark and raw.  All these negative things comes with mulled wine, lights & candles, saffron buns, xmas spririt and nice quiet times with loved ones.  Unfortunately not everyone can enjoy the good times, instead they are butchered for our “pleasure”.  So please think twice before you pick up a ham for Xmas, if it’s really necessary?

Photo from: WWW.ETTLIVSOMGRIS.SE

As you might have noticed I haven’t written in a few days.  I’m have started to prepare myself for the holidays and time without poker.  The other day we baked some “lucy cats”, a Swedish saffron bun.   Best batch ever!!

Guess where they are now?