Whats Going On?!?

Since my last post, a lot of has happened.

Every single poker player in the world knows about Black Friday and it will be remembered for years to come. Many times there has been 'the sky is falling' moments for online poker, but this is definitely the worst. PS, FTP, and some other bullshit sites that don't deserve mentioning, were indicted on charges of, bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Online players in the USA are now out of jobs because they are no longer allowed to play on those sites. I really feel for my former colleagues who are now forced to make life changing decisions. GL guys.

 money laundering?

For me, it has been stressful to say the least. I can still play, but Pocarr has taken a bit of a punch to the nuts (about 50% of students are from the US) and the game aren't running as fast. At first the games are a softer, but as american players move abroad, and the fish don't spawn, the games are going to dry out. I hope as stress levels die down, I can enjoy playing again, but for right now, I am struggling. I am not running great, which doesn't help, but with all this added stress, it's tough.

The sudden end of US online poker made me think of what I would do if it all came crashing down tomorrow. As of now, I realize this is always going to be a possibility. It is a huge eye opener. Will Smith, once told me, 'theres no reason to have a plan B because it distracts you from plan A.'. Yes, its good to commit yourself to something, but I think I might go against the princes wisdom. I want to watch a few www.khanacademy.com vids/ read some stuff, find something that I am interested in and study it. Or maybe I can just bink something.

Another big piece of news is PS changed the structure and buyins to their sngs. They built it up as if it was going to be the best thing that has ever happened in online poker. HA. At least they are listening to players and making some more changes. Doubt they change buyins/rake though.

Since BF, I have been lazy and have had too many nights were I get wasted and do nothing but play games on my phone and eat greasy food the next day. As a result, we have had multiple complaints from our grouch of a neighbor and have had an official warning. One more and we are gone. Just another unnecessary piece of stress. I am now going to be a hard working, studious. Playing lots, studying hard, making vids, and reviewing hands. - 'Keep telling youself that, portly'

I feel like a bit of a prick whining about this stuff. Poker has given me so much and I know I am fortunate. I just need to go read a newspaper to put things into perspective.

House and Vegas/Canada Trip Booked

The house itself isn't the greatest, but it is comfortable and I am really happy with it. The only thing that sucks is that I am without reliable internet. Right now I am using an aircard, which is fine for searching the web, but for mass multi-tabling, it lags, I timeout, and start tilting. Hopefully the internet will be sorted in the next couple of days. 

                  

I'm not the greatest photographer and don't know why the city looks so far away in photos, it actually looks a lot closer in person. 

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In other news, I have booked my flights and hotel for Vegas. Biran and I will be staying at the Palms between the 4th and 14th of July. We got a sweet deal for a 'superior room'. It was $69 for weekdays and $129 for weekends. Could have gone with a 'deluxe room' for cheaper, but we will have Mr 4toedstatue staying with us for at least 5nights, so wanted a little more space and a nicer room. A lot of poker players took this deal including, Msusyr24, Game2eazy, and Look4Waldo, so it will be awesome meeting these degens in degencity. 


"Can't wait till we (get drunk,) lose steve, and have to look4waldo" - G2E


After Vegas, Biran and I are heading to BC, Cananda for my family reuinion, which is also very exciting. It's been around 4 years since I have been back, which is way too long.


Bring on July!!

Long time No Blog

Hey everyone,

It has been way too long since I updated my blog. I have failed to finish my China trip report and not sure if I will get around to it. sigh, I suck.

My poker volume has been okay, not bad, but not great. I really don't like talking about results because I try to not look at graphs/cashier and if I start posting my results everyday, it will surely affect my attitude and cause me to sweat every showdown. This is much harder said then done, but I try.

Damnit! I couln't resist. I knew I went on some crazy swings this month, but man, this game is crazy.

My biggest downswing, followed by one of my biggest heaters. Poker has become insane - 2012 must be real.

I have another prop bet with Look4waldo. It is very similar to the last one, but we have adjusted the point system:
- 1 pt per game
- 1 pt per $ profit
- 200 pts if 3 ships in a day
- 150 pts if 1.5k profit in a day
- 100 pts going from 9/9 to ship
- 100 pts for biggest HU comeback
- 25 pts for going into FT 1/9
- 25 pts for biggest laughable call while still being ahead vs xxxxxxx

The loser has to have an avatar similar to this:

My girlfriend and I, after looking for a house to rent for two months have finally landed a place. The rental market here in Auckland is absurd. Supply is not there and people are moving up from Christchurch as there houses are in ruins. Every house we went to would have 30 people looking at it and no one wanted a 21 year old equity analyst to stay in their house. However, Biran found a site that know one uses and there was a house advertised. Bingo.

I can't wait to get some photos on here to show you. The house itself isn't anything spectacular, but I dig it and the view.

until then,

Later

Update and Props

The month of February was meh. I am currently looking for a place to rent, so things are a little unsettled and my volume hasn't been great. Hopefully I find a place, move in, and get settled quickly. The highlight of my month has to be Poacrr booming and singing two new MTT coaches, Crazyhorse76 and Sircrafty, as well as this. 

  -  Waldo and I had a prop bet, 1pt per game, 2pts per $ profit, loser had to have edward as an avatar. High stakes, and high variance. Unfortunately for Steve, he hit a 3k downswing and ended up losing. 

He's already getting abused in chat and i am sure it will make for some golden chat. 

Pujinator said, "dang waldo ur sexy"

Pujinator said, "whats ur sign hunny"

Pujinator said, "screw that how big are ya"

Look4Waldo said, "this will be a fun month"

  -  Kebziwi stated in a skype chat that he was going to try and go the rest of the year without shaving and I suggested a bet. I know Zeb is a pretty boy at heart and this will be very difficult for him. $450, no shaving, no trimming, 1 year. 

Have fun having a beard like this in the Whangamata summer.

GL.

Bi and I in Shanghai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eimgRedLkkU

China - Shanghai and Hangzhou

Shanghai

Shanghai is badass. There is just a really good feel to it. Lots of culture and an amazing skyline. If I were to choose a place in China to live, it would be Shanghai. 

view from the Bund

 weird cold fruit thing

Biran: Chinas next top model

Artsy

 Financial District at night

The Bund

On our way out of our hotel, we asked what was the best way to get to Hangzhou. Not one person said bus, so we taxied to the train station. Some bro grabbed our bags, and told us there was no train for two hours. He lead us to a bus station, charged us 3x the normal price and then asked for a tip. Brooooo. Looking back we made some retarded decisions on the trip and its no wonder why they target the tourists. Oh well. So, we chucked our bags on the bus and then almost got into a fight. someone was sitting in our seat, and we were in someone elses. Biran almost threw down. About 20 minutes into the two hour bus ride, Biran was busting to pee. She was contemplating peeing in my bag. You know you're desperate when you consider peeing in a bag. Probably some bladder damage, but im glad she made it.
It was an interesting journey.

Hangzhou

On our hotel voucher, they described Hangzhou as 'Paradise on Earth'. Clearly there was a mistake in the translation. To me, it was dirtier than any other place I have visited and it wasn't some small lake-front community. It is a massive city on a tiny lake. We checked out the main attraction, West Lake. Living half my life in Canada and the other half in New Zealand, the scenery didn't do it for me. However, I suppose it didn't help that it was winter. It would be much more beautiful when the trees aren't bare and the lake not frozen. 

Escorts -After weeks of travelling, dragging my suitcase through massive crowds, my back was stuffed. I could hardly stand. We made our way back to the nicest hotel of our trip and headed to the spa. At the reception we asked about the different massages and the lady gave us a very vague description of each. Thai massage is harder than the Japanese massage, and the chinese massage was the most gentle. We decided on the Japanese massage and were put in different rooms. Biran asked if we could get the massage done in the same room but the request was rejected. Biran waited with me so she could explain what was wrong with my back. We were sitting on a chair, munching on some sugar cane, drinking green tea when this little, young girl popped her head through the door only to retreat straight away. weird. Seconds later another girl did the same thing. Somethings up. Biran asked again whether we could get the massage done in the same room. They looked tempted but a little unsure of the whole thing. They then asked repeatedly if I was Biran's boyfriend, to which Biran answered, yes. One of the girls then told Biran to tell me to take off my clothes and put on some plastic shorts, then told Biran to go wash her feet. This is when we knew our suspicions were true. The clues were there, we were just a little slow. After few moments of questions and answers back and forth, Biran told me this place is indeed what we joked about: a whore house. No thanks.

I felt dirty just being there. The girls were so young, the massages were as cheap as going to a movie, and they were actually considering doing sexual acts for both Biran and I, in the same room. In China, if you have any little suspicion whether or not it's a whore house, it is.

Onwards to Harbin

Valentines Day - music

Not a fan of of Valentines day but I am a fan of music

Biran arrives home this afternoon. Cutting the session short to go pick her up and we'll head out to dinner later tonight.

Getting smoked in the propbet but there is still 2 weeks to go. 

P^3 poker, prop bet, photos

Finally getting back into the swing of things.

The eight hour days seem to go by quicker, I'm panicking and miss-clicking a lot less while multi-tabling. Im extremely happy how things are going.  At the start of the year I said I wasn't going to play as much as last year. However, I am really loving it right now and I hope I can continue to get the volume in. I'm aiming for 800 games a week, ~90% 180 mans. With that amount of volume, the swings will go by quicker and it will be rare to see a losing month. Biran arrives back from China on Monday. Looking forward to seeing and spending time with her. We will be on the hunt of a place to rent, hopefully some baller pad, but more likely a run-down, moist cardboard-like structure.

So, with much of my time invested with Biran, and house hunting, the rest will be grinding the 180 mans. I have a propbet with one of  my buddies and Pocarr student, Look4Waldo. It is extremely high stakes because the loser of the prop bet will have to have this pic as an avatar for a whole month.

Definitely gives us motivation to play. Your going down Steve! i hope..

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more photos from Macau

Eastern World (pt2)

Macau

Biran and I headed to Macau via Ferry. The weather was less than ideal but it was only a one hour trip from Hong Kong. We hopped off the ferry and picked up our bags, which we paid to get them checked in and loaded onto the ferry for us. It was dumb. We got ripped off because you can take your bags onto the ferry as a carry on. But what makes us really dumb, is that we did the same thing on our way back.

We searched for the free shuttle to our hotel for at least half an hour and eventually made our way to the hotel. When booking our hotels location was key. Somehow, we ended up no where near the casinos but in that's not very far since Macau is only ~25km^2. The hotel was nice and included a bed that could almost sleep Phil Helmuth and his ego.

At night we started drinking the cheap brews and headed to the Venetian. The casinos are very similar to the ones in Vegas, except a little smaller, and there is fewer over weight grandmas grinding the slots. There was a big bar in a tent-like thing in the middle of the casino, so we ordered a few drinks and were treated like loyalty. A live band kept us entertained, which had more members in it than people at the bar. They were really friendly and extremely talented. I felt the need to yell out 'YOU'RE FUCKING AWESOME!,' after the guitarist was done covering a Jimi Hendrix song because he was in fact, he was truly amazing. I didn't end up playing poker in Macau because I was on holiday and to me, playing live poker is not fun. Flame me all you want.

The next day we took a visit to the ruins of St Pauls, but not till I threw up a few times and lied in the fetal position for a couple of hours. Too many Mojitos! You get a pretty good view of the city from there and can really see Macau. It's not all big lights and fancy cars. Like a lot of China, there is a lot diversity in terms of wealth.

Overall, Macau is sweet. It really is the Vegas of the East. If I enjoyed playing live poker I could see it being one of my favorite city's in the world. Time to learn how to have fun at live tables.

Next stop Shanghai.

Trip to China (pt1)

- The Flight - I am fortunate to have a sister that works for Emirates, so I get discounted flights. The best value is to fly business class standby. However, after not getting on any of the three flights, I might have to look at the numbers and re-evaluate. Stress levels will definitely be apart of the calculation. The plan was to fly to Dubai and spend a day visiting my sister , and then head to Hong Kong. Since it’s such a long journey it would be painful to fly to UAE then HK without a break. I bought a ticket direct to HK. It saved me 14 hours of travelling, gained me a day in HK, and cost me $500 extra. With less stress added into the calculation, I think the confirmed ticket was worth it.


Hong Kong


I arrived in Hong Kong at 6.15am, and took the airport express into the city. The shuttle ride to the hotel was the first sign that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Nothing was open, no one was on the street, there were high rise buildings everywhere, and there was a hazy fog around. It was like a post apocalyptic movie. I check into the hotel and pass out for a couple of hours.  When I awaken I take a walk. Wow. From post apocalyptic to the busiest streets I have ever seen.  I make my way past some markets, numerous fake Nike stores, gazillions of people asking if I want a suit or a fake watch, and eventually make it to the waterfront.

- Fortune Teller - 'sure is pretty here isn't it?' asked a guy with a beard down to his tits. He shook my hand. If I was wearing a watch, I would bet on it being gone. After asking where I was from he stated that he was a fortune teller from India. Humour me Mr fortune teller. After paying me compliment after compliment he wrote down a type of flower scrunched up the piece of paper and put it in my hand. I chose one out of the three flowers, Lily, Rose, and Tulip. "pick one." - "Lily." - "Pick another one." - "Rose." - He looked at me with such a proud face, "open the paper". Holy Shit it said Rose! He then went on about how I would live a long happy life, and I would have a lot of luck on the 1/01/11. But only if I put money in his leather book. Gave him about tree fiddy for his efforts.

- New Years - I'm not sure what it's like in other countries, but in NZ there is a correlation between how drunk you are and how good your new years is. In HK its different. Beers are cheap and you can drink on the street, yet no one was drinking. We joined the majority and didnt drink because we didn't want to spend the whole night making our way through massive crowds on the way to the toilet. Biran and I watched a vid of a NY celebration and they estimated half a million people on both sides of the harbour. Yikes. So, for my first sober NY in years, Biran and I make our way through the seas of people to find a good spot to view the fireworks. After a two hour wait the firework show was less than spectacular, but overall it was a cool experience. The number of people, boats and everyones friendly attitude made for a cool atmosphere and a good time.

subway after new years

- Other Activities -  There is so much to see and do in HK. We had 5 days there and could have easily spent another 5 looking around the place. There were plenty of markets we didn't hit up, including the gold fish market, flower market, and Stanley market. We could have taken a trip to old HK, looked at some temples and taken a boat out for a tour. Next time.

Me at Lantau Island

Biran at HK Disney

At the Peak

Overall, HK was awesome. The mix of the modernness, and its culture from both Britain and China make it a unique city. There is plenty to do and friendly people all around. If I don't come back here, I will be surprised.

Next stop Macau.

HK thus far

Just a few pics from my first couple of days in Hong Kong. I will write up a trip report when I have more time, and when it's not New Years eve.

Happy New Years!