January's been a great month away from poker, and an ok month on the virtual felt. I started the new year losing 9 BI's in less than 1k hands which is just absurd. I fought back and am up 1 BI, but have put in pathetic volume (8k hands). It's all good though since I was expecting a low volume month.

I'm finding it really difficult to play poker again. Normally when I don't play for a couple days or especially weeks, I'm ready to dive back in and have some epic grinding days. This time around I guess i'm having too much fun away from poker. I was out of Chiang Mai for almost 15 days of the month, so I guess I need to get back in a routine now. I played 10nl today to get back into the flow and shake off some rust. I will likely play another 500-1k hands there until I feel confident again. I'm nearly rolled for 50nl, and will probably take a shot sometime in the next week or two if all goes well.

I decided to rent a motorbike month to month. This should improve my lifestyle greatly. Taxi's are a big hassle sometimes, especially if you want to go far. Also, it will make me much healthier since now I can drive to late night thai food places, instead of having Mcd's deliver to me 3x+ a week. It only costs me about $100/month, but if you subtract all the taxis/tuk tuks and delivery charges, it will probably be closer to $65/month.

That's about all I got for now. Not too many plans for the near future (probably even less for the far off future ). Matt, Jordan, Billy and I are going to try and plan a Saturday ride every week, which should be fun. I think I'm going to relax and slowly get back into poker this week. I'd like to do an elephant camp, a trek/bike trip, and a couple other things seem interesting once I get bored.

x-posted from http://robbysworldtour.blogspot.com/...phirailay.html

I flew from Bangkok to Phuket Airport in the late evening. Since I was just passing through, I stayed at the airport hotel and left early morning (errrr 11am) for Phi Phi. It was about a 2hr boat ride to the island.


I arrived and was immediately surrounded by beautiful scenery. It’s a pretty small island, but also quite confusing and was easy to get lost. I found a little guest house which surprisingly had good internet. I then ventured out and found a sign that said “view point -à”. I decided to follow it and hiked up the mountain for about 20-30 minutes. I was rewarded with one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen, and decided to stick around for the sunset.

Walking back down to the village I figured I should book a tour for the next day. I had to check out of my room at 11am, but my next boat wasn’t until 3pm. I found a snorkeling/Island hop tour and it was the best 250 baht (~$8) I ever spent. Took us (me and people I never met before) to a few different spots for snorkeling, swimming, and pictures. The tour concluded at Maya Bay where the movie “The Beach” was filmed. This is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I always wanted to go.

We docked back at Phi Phi and I only had a short time to catch my boat to Railay Beach. Luckily no one stole my computer/luggage, which I left with the travel agent people. It was another 1.5 hour boat ride to Railay. There is no pier at the island so we were carried by longboat to about knee level water.

I could see why my friends recommended Railay, it was quite gorgeous. I quickly found a bungalow on Railay East beach (the poor person side), and rushed back to the Westside to snap some sunset photos.



I walked back in the dark thinking it would be fine, but there weren’t too many lights and I got a little lost. My iphone “flashlight” app wasn’t working for some reason, so I was just walking straight and hoping not to get eaten by a snake. I eventually found my place and slept for 12hrs uninterrupted. It was so nice and quiet, and I had been averaging ~5hrs/night, so I woke up feeling refreshed.

I decided to just have a relaxing beach day, and headed back to west beach. On the way I was surrounded by monkeys climbing on fences, power lines, and trees. It was amazing being that close to the wildlife.

video of monkey's wouldn't work on here, will have to click on blog link to see


I took a small excursion around the island and found some fascinating caves. There were a few other view points to go to, but I was in relax mode and didn’t feel like doing much.





I spent the rest of the day drinking fruit shakes and eating. Slept pretty good, and caught a boat back to Phuket.  That brings us to now.  I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to leave, which is supposed to be at 7:20pm.  I've been here since 2pm uploading pics to Facebook and writing up these blogs.  I can't wait to get back home.  So far all my flights have been delayed, I'm hoping to run good today and be back in Chiang Mai at the scheduled time.

x-posted from http://robbysworldtour.blogspot.com/

I'm trying to get back on the grind this week. I'd like to play at least 3 hrs/day. I'm also trying not to look at results, but I'm too curious. I'll probably still grind a bit in Bkk b/c I'll have internet, but the islands I won't grind at all I'm assuming.

Happy New Year everyone! Downtown Chiang Mai was nuts and packed with people. I'm shocked no one was injured/killed by fireworks, people were lighting em off right into the crowd. Me and Tim went out for a bit, and met up with Matt and Jordan around 11pm. We found a new restaurant that has some really good curry, so that was a bonus. We met some new friends and had some drinks for a while. Afterwards, I went to some clubs and got in around 4am. I didn't drink a ton, but had a good buzz the whole night so mission accomplished!

some of the crowds: lighting some lantern floaty things




I haven't played much poker and not sure when I will. I wouldn't say I've given up, but I just have a losing mentality and that's not a good time to play. There's been a lot of uproar over the changes on Stars, and I'm not really sure what I'll do. I will say the whole mass sit outs/cash outs is great for me, I end up HU or 3 handed vs some fish while no one else can get in b/c of the regtards sitting out. Thx guys!!! .

I've booked a few trips for January which should be exciting. Heading to Pai on Friday, which I hear is great. I almost went a couple months ago, but bailed so I could break even at poker . January 16th I'm heading down to Bangkok for the first time. Going to bus it and spend 3 days exploring the city a bit. 3 days is not that long for Bkk, but I'm sure I'll return there as it's the hub for most traveling in Thailand.

google image of Pai: i'll be staying just across the river i think


After Bangkok I still haven't worked out all the details. I'll be taking another bus to Phuket, but doubt I'll stay there. I'm likely taking a boat to Railay, but am also looking into other options. I definitely want to do a day trip to Phi Phi (where "The Beach" was filmed), and I've been doing a little reading on other islands. Going to spend about 3-4 days down there, and then I'll fly back to Chaing Mai from Phuket.

I expect a fairly low volume month for poker and I'm ok with that. I've had fun 4 tabling the last few days and I seem to be a lot more relaxed. I'm sure my 5-6hr 6-8 tabling days will come around again, but I don't want to force it. If there's one thing I've learned before and re-learned since coming here, it's that I shouldn't play for rake back. It just ends up consuming my life, and my winrate drops off the map.

So it looks like a fun month ahead, and I plan on being fairly active in February as well. I'll do my best to take lots of pics and provide good trip reports. cheers!

Another great year is coming to an end. I think this has been easily the best year of my life! This blog will likely be my longest ever to make sure I cover as much as possible.

The first week of 2011 didn't start out so great. I remember losing a shit ton of my roll degening Rush 25nl. After having a bad end of 2010 I was contemplating quitting. Once again I picked myself up and started grinding 10nl. I think I was down to my last $150 online, but ran good and quickly won a few hundred at 10nl.

I started playing 25nl again in February. Work had been slow and the weather was nasty, so I was able to put in some decent volume that month (anything over 12k hands when u work full time is decent imo). My results in March were good as well and I was even starting to cash out.

epic blizzard hit in February: had cleared some off the top of my car already, but was about 1.5 feet on ground, and much higher in some spots


February/March results: 50nl didn't want me, but crushed 25nl


I was spending lots of money at this time. I was going to Bulls games frequently, put in a new car stereo, and just loving life. April rolled around and I began contemplating buying my own place. At the time I was living with some of my best friends. It was a lot of fun, but anyone who's had roommates knows how aggravating it can be at times. I decided early on in April to move back in with my parents. This way I could afford my own place within a few months.

stereo


Bull's game: most of the time had better seats, this was only picture I had unfortunately


April 15th rolled around and I'm sure you all know what happened then. I came home from work ready to grind a bunch. I saw some FB message from a poker player saying "I guess it's time to move to Canada?". I was like "oh shit, something bad is going down!". As I researched more all I could do was sit and stare at my monitor in disbelief. I had no idea what I was going to do without poker, it had been my hobby/aspired career for ~6 years.

I bummed around for a few days exploring what my options were. I could stay at my dead end job, go to college, and hope to get a slightly better job.... and at the time I thought that was it. Then, out of curiosity I looked into the possibility of relocating outside the U.S. Matt (Probability) quickly convinced me that Thailand was an amazing place to be, and that it was super cheap to live there. I then had some decisions to make. I started finding out more information, got my passport, and was semi-committed to living there, but wasn't 100%. In the mean time I was having fun spending more time with friends and family.

one of my best friends got married in June: had a pretty sick wedding party picture


spent a lot of time on the bike trails


small beach alongside bike path


Around June I decided I was for sure making the move to Thailand. I cancelled my Vegas trip coming up in early July, worked on getting my Visa, and started to save a bunch of money. Most my days were spent trying to squeeze out OT at work, planning for Thailand, and getting better at poker. I was making sure to visit friends and eat lots of good American food.

Italian Beef sandwich, I miss these a lot


calzone: best i've ever had, My friend Bryan and I would order these every Friday night and watch about 3 movies


I quit my job about three weeks before my September 21st flight to Thailand, and this was probably one of my favorite times ever. I had 0 responsibility, all my Thailand stuff was taken care of, and the road ahead was quite an exciting one. I spent all day playing golf, basketball, and watching TV. My friend Jordan had also quit his job, so we played tons of b-ball. At night and on weekends, I would hang out with friends/family and say my goodbye's. It was tough saying goodbye and I miss a lot of people from home.

one of my goodbye parties


scorecard from a lol game of golf: Beaver Creek in Poplar Grove, had a special going $15 to play all day!!! somehow I won this match


Banford Park: place where Jordan and I would do battle everyday


packing station


my last view of Chicago


I got off the plane and entered into a whole new world. I had never been outside the U.S before and was a huge noob. I remember being super confused the first couple days, and hardly slept. I played poker right away which was probably a mistake. I ended up taking some time off and let Thailand sink in a little bit.

first motorbike ride, lots of scenic views including this waterfall


elephant, right off the road


I also took a lil trip to Chiang Rai, but I blogged about that already, here's the link if you haven't read it and are interested. It's been a struggle finding a balance between having fun and playing enough poker. October-November I drank quite a bit and it would normally kill my productivity for a couple days.

Poker's been pretty rough, which I've documented already. I think I'm up a very small amount with rakeback. I've made numerous adjustments to my game, and I continue to improve on a daily basis. December was a sick grind, and then I gave up after about 40k break even hands. I haven't played much the last week because of the Holidays and drinking etc.

Christmas photo with the crew: me, matt, jordan, billy, and tim


So 2011 was a hell of a year and taught me quite a bit. I broke away from my normal life, and haven't regretted it since, even in the bad times. 2012 holds a lot of uncertainties, I'm not sure where I'll be in 3 months or what I'll be doing. All I know is life is interesting, and it will probably all work out

I just spent about an hour reading through some of my past blogs. It's always fun to look back and see how much I've changed. I was taking a close look at my blogs around the end and beginning of each year. It seems I always downswing at the end of the year, then reboot and start crushing around February. The same thing has happened this year from the looks of it. I made a little bit of money in December, but it wasn't from cash games.

I went to my school's Christmas party on Thursday. I got super drunk and barely remember getting home. I spent most of yesterday puking and sleeping. I didn't think I drank that much, but I guess I did. It was a pretty epic night i guess, but not one I want to repeat again . I wish I could tell you more details, but I don't remember much of it.

I'm feeling a lot better today, but still a bit groggy. I slept an insane amount of hours (probably like 24 out of the last 40). I'm ready to get back into society a bit. It is Christmas Eve so I'm probably going to watch some good Christmas movies and dwell on past Christmas'. This year the plan is to eat a huge meal with friends, and I think that's bout it.

I'm working on some goals for 2012 and will likely do an epic end of year blog with some pictures. I'm not going to share my goals, as I've learned it's not a good idea from this video shown to me by Robin. I think the first part of 2012 will be some epic grinding, and getting my life back on track. That should lead to some more epic adventures later in the year

I played the 10M guarantee on Stars last night. I normally don't play mtt's, but I was coaxed into playing this one. It was actually a lot of fun and I think I played really well. That said, i didn't have too many tough decisions, and got pretty fortunate in some key spots, so it wasn't too difficult to play well. I ended up making a pretty deep run coming in ~1700th out of over 60k runners. Toward the end I wasn't getting many hands, and ended up having to 3bet shove A5s with 8bb's, only to have BB reshove w/ AK and my run was over . Ended up netting me about 11bi's for my limit for 7hrs work, so not bad .

The tournament started at 2:30am for me, so I knew it would be a long haul. I went out before to stock up on sugar in case I needed a pick me up. (the nuts were in case I needed something besides pure sugar)



My family was having their Christmas (only time ppl could get together), and I ended up chatting with everyone throughout the morning/night. It was kind of fun, but they also don't understand poker so they thought I was nuts for staying up. They all thought I was such a slacker and that I should do some work (in a joking way).... kind of hits point 3 in BW's latest blog.

It was around 7-8am when we were approaching the money. At that point I knew I had to make it, or I would've spent 5hrs grinding for nothing... which is exactly why I quit playing mtt's long ago. I had a pretty good chipstack and didn't do anything stupid, so I was able to skip on in.

I busted out around 10am, climbing a few spots on the money ladder, and was finally able to get some sleep. Cleaners pounded on my door at 1:30pm, but I was too tired to let them in. Ended up sleeping til 7pm, so my sleep schedule is all kinds of F'd. I'm going to try and sleep around 4am tonight, but not sure if that will happen.

Wednesday I have my final Thai class before a two week holiday. They are also throwing a lil Christmas party on Thursday which should be good and awkward. It's hard for me to converse with them, I don't really want to tell them I play poker since it's "illegal" here. They've started asking me a lot more specific questions about work, what I do with free time etc. My replies are usually along the lines of "I don't work, just party".

I'm choosing not to play today because I need to get back on my ~4am-1pm sleep schedule (yes, i need 9hrs, Matt can vouch for that). I should be back to the normal grind tomorrow, and still be on pace for platinum star. I realize it's not a huge deal to get there, since it's the end of the year. However, I'm on pace, and it will be nice to have the extra .5 fpp multiplier going into next month. All the VIP freerolls are on New Years Eve, so I doubt I'll be sober enough or even at my computer to play those.

I will end this as it's getting fairly lengthy. I was feeling a bit down on poker, since I put in some decent volume, and have been pretty much breaking even. This MTT score has put a lil pep in my step though, so hopefully I can turn this around and finish 2011 strong!

I have to visit Immigration tomorrow/today to extend my ED Visa. Rather than waking up at the butt crack of dawn, I decided to stay up an extra hour later than normal and go then. I'm not really looking forward to it, but I guess it's better than having to leave the country and re-enter like most people do. Everything should go smoothly, my school prepared all the documents and helped me fill them out.

The last few days have been decent. I took Monday off because I needed a break, and got some real life things done. Yesterday I re-examined my game/approach, and decided to make a few more changes. Instead of setting skype to "do not disturb", I log out completely. It can be very distracting, and sometimes even tilting having conversations while playing. Also, no more web browsing. Only reason I should have it open is if I need to use PTR or some other poker tools. I'm also experimenting with no music, but I think I might bring that back. It's probably -EV to listen to rap, rock etc., but smooth jazz and related genres are fine imo. To sum up, I'm one-tasking to maximize EV.

I'm also considering moving away from Stars. I can get solid flat rakeback on other sites, and I've heard the games are softer. The downside is not as many games running, almost 0 during my daytime, and worse software. It would take some pressure off from having to meet a hand quota everyday. It gets tiring playing 5+hrs/day, and sometimes I don't realize when I'm burnt out. However, I think the VIP system keeps me motivated to play more, knowing I have to reach a certain level. I know that's exactly what they want, but it's also what I want. It's like trying to beat a video game, and you have to keep leveling up to get more stuff. Idk, sounds retarded and fish like, but regardless I'm still playing on Stars for now because I'm happy with it, and there are soft games 24/7.

Non-poker wise I've finally started using my 1TB external hard drive I bought 3yrs ago along with my computer. I've used it once and always thought it was a marginal purchase. It's proven to be very useful now that I'm "traveling" (not sure if I'm allowed to say that, so far I've just moved). Instead of hauling around a bunch of movies/tv shows, I can just throw em all on there. I'm always looking for movies to watch, but I feel like I'm at the bottom of the barrel. Once in a while I'll come across a decent flick, but I've seen so many that it's hard to find something new.

I'm not having much luck finding new TV shows either. I'm a man who enjoys a good sitcom, and those just aren't around much anymore. I got into Modern Family and breezed though that in a week. I'm caught up on everything else, and most of the drama/action shows everyone loves I can never get into. Sopranos is good, but I can't sit through 1hr a lot of the time. It's the same with most the other 1hr shows, they're just too long. Sitcoms are quick, funny, and I can bang a couple out in between sessions... and also watch the show .

I will have a lot of TV to watch soon though. The mother fn NBA is back baby!!!!!! I'm buying a season pass on NBATV and can't wait. This will likely cut into my poker time, but I don't really care, NBA is my second love. I haven't followed the offseason b/c I was too sad, but I'm sure the Bull's will make another run this year.

That's about it for now. I'm going to eat some "breakfast" and head off to the Immigration office. I'm not even sure what time they open b/c their website is terrible, but I want to get there early so I can hopefully get out early. pz out!

Stars is down for me right now for some reason. It's pretty tilting b/c I had a plethora of fish at my tables, and was just starting an epic 2hr Saturday night grind. Games have been crazy good on Stars. I'm still putting in 5+ hrs/day, and my results are slowly getting better. I'm having about 1 session per day that I run terrible it seems. It's frustrating thinking I'm going to put up big numbers, and then my last session cuts my winnings in half. It hasn't been from lack of focus or burnout, I've been extremely motivated and have enjoyed playing a lot. I should hit gold star tomorrow (would've been tonight if it didn't crash), and I'm nearly 2 days ahead of pace to hit platinum now. I've put in 24.6k hands so far which I'm pleased with.

I hit 5k posts on Leggo the other day which is somewhat cool, but sad. I'm closing in on Vitas for #2 all time, but Probability will probably always remain ahead. He has .11 more posts/day than me, and has been around much longer. I've been replying to just about ever HH in the Micro forums, and also posting ~2/day myself. I've noticed a few new ppl contributing, along with some returning members, and coaches. If you're a micro player, you should def get involved. Who knows, Aejones might even comment on your hand (he's been posting a few times as well).

Aside from poker I haven't been doing much. I am planning a trip to the islands in late January. Matt and Jordan are going to meet Kesky down there, and it seemed like a good opportunity to see some stuff. Right now it sounds like Phuket, Railay, and Phi Phi are on the agenda. That's also about the time I need to make a career decision about poker. I'll be running low on cash, and I pretty much told myself if I don't make money over the next 80-100k hands I'm going to quit. That won't happen though.