29 days to London – Meet Swedish player Andreas Löf Nilsson

Here at Cash Game Festival Blog we will interview a series of professional and amateur poker players over the years to come. Both video interviews or here in blog format. This time we interview a good friend of one of the organisers and a common face for quite a few players from Northern Europe.
Cash Game Festival: Hi Buddy what’s your name and do you play poker for a living?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: is my name and I work as a Teamleader at Santa Maria Tex Mex Factory in Sweden, so nope, I don’t play poker for a living but I play the game a lot regardless. You could say that I am a great hobby poker player. I play as much as I can except when I am not working at the full time job. “Work in progress” is a suitable title for me ’cause I am trying really hard to learn more and more all the time. In all possible ways I try to get better and think about how to improve my game. In all aspects, whether it is theoretically, mathematically or psychologically.
Cash Game Festival: Can you describe your playing strength or weaknesses?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: As of a player at the table I am sometimes very quiet and deceptively calculating (trying to pick up all the things going on with the people and their energy whilst at the table) but sometimes I talk a lot and try to make people laugh. I have so many bad jokes. People crack up after a while: “wtf dude, hahahahahaha, what you just said”. Still while trying to make people crack and open up I have 100% focus on the game even if it doesn’t seem like it ’cause of all the bad jokes.
I believe that I have a good eye for live tells and reads. I can really feel the energy from people when they wake up with a huge hand, flopped something nice or turned something big. All small things people are trying to hide make them show other tells.
Cash Game Festival: For how long have you played poker?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: I have played since 15 or 16 years of age, freerolls on the Micro Gaming card rooms. I remember my first day at a live casino. Folded until I got AA and doubled up – then started to play every hand. Really smart!
Cash Game Festival: Do you have any other strong sport interest as a hobby or professional? (Does that interest help your poker skill, if so why?)
Andreas Löf Nilsson: I play almost every ball sport or game there is. Strategic board games, racket sports, disc golf, golf. Generally I am a really restless soul longing for competitive scenes and sports. I played Ice hockey as a kid for 10 years in Skellefteå AIK. I was a goalkeeper and every day after school I stood with a rubber ball and the picking glove and threw the ball against the wall in front of me as hard as I could and then tried to catch it. Really grinding the reflexes. It have helped me with the learning and practice when playing poker – grind, grind, grind. Oh yeah, I also compete in badminton at division 1-2.
Cash Game Festival: Can you tell us an interesting hand you have experienced in a live casino?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: When in Tbilisi, Georgia, at day 2, I sat down at the wrong seat. I came 3-4 min late and they had started the first couple of hands. I showed my player card and my passport and both the dealer and a brush said that this was my seat – so I sat down. All the chips was splashed out (I had quite the chip stack from the ending of day 1). So I played the first couple of hands (five to be exact) and increased in chips a little. During the last hand, hand nr. 5, I felt like I had too many 1000 value chips in front of me (I had slowly started to get the splashed chip stack in order). It didn’t feel right. I didn’t have this many 1000 value chips yesterday. Odd. Then I hear the voice of a friend and one of the few other foreigners at this event in Tbilisi, Simon Stenbäck saying, “What are you doing here, why are you in my seat?” Some confusion arouse, dealer calls original brush that accepted me who then called the Tournament Director who came and saw that I truly sat in the wrong seat. We had to pause the tournament for nearly 30 minutes to “play back the played hands” at the table I sat down at. So everyone at that table had their start stack again because I can’t play with another mans chips… I started to feel kind of nervous now because they might throw me out of the tournament when this big of a mistake have been made. Good thing is that the tournament director recognized and understood that the full error was made by the dealer and the local brush that approved my name and registration card in error, and nicely enough the dealers agreed that there hadn’t been any time for me to properly stack the chips nor control the amount I actually had in front of me. Puh! Sorry Simon! 🙂 I don’t think Simon would have saved that many chips as I did with the pocket J’s I got last hand though! (didn’t matter as he didn’t arrive in time for them anyway).
Cash Game Festival: Would you say that you have any favourite poker destination?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: Best destination financially is with no doubt Georgia! OMG! Valuetown! Else I like to go wherever there is poker and you go with friends. Tallinn has so much great energy when I go there – pretty pink poker tables and a really mad and smooth strawberry milkshake, priceless!
Cash Game Festival: What do you think of the next stop of Cash Game Festival, Aspers Casino in London?
Andreas Löf Nilsson: When I am playing poker I most often wanna grind – live or online. There is such a nice mix when you can turn to your PC, Ipad at the hotel room and sit and play if the action is bad at the cardrooms. I have not yet at all visited London and it feels like a must see (poker and city both). Would be very preferable to go there now when the Cash Game Festival arrives, since then I know there is no need to wait for the action, I understood it will be 24/7 over 5 days. Other than that I think I want the experience of the atmosphere the Cash Game Festival brings. I think there will be a lot of people enjoying the “party spirit” as well of the poker grinding. The best mixture – laughter combined with competitive poker. It does really feel like it is a good time of the year. Spring is coming and winter is gone – time to spin the happy wheel and let loose the spirit and mind of your travelling body!